When you have as many novel projects as I do, sometimes sitting down to write can feel overwhelming because you just can’t pick a project to sit down with for the day. There’s guilt for wanting to work on a newer project while older ones gather dust. And with so many projects screaming for my attention, lately I’ve been opting to work on short stories or just not even write at all because all those options give me decision paralysis.

But you know, the older I get, the more I learn about myself and what works best for me. I love scheduling all my fitness classes several weeks out, setting down my routine and following it rigidly.

So I thought, why not do the same thing with my writing? If I’m intimidated by too many options for writing tasks- working on blog posts, getting some word count in my novels, querying agents- why not just create a schedule and follow it like I do with my fitness classes?

Here’s what I came up with.

I opened up everyone’s favorite organizational tool: Excel. I found a basic calendar template and booted it up. Here’s the one I used:

This template is great because it has dropdowns to let you choose the year and month, and you can also pick which day you want as the first day of the week. It’s also great because you can type stuff in on each day, like below:

So, I took this calendar and scheduled out my various writing tasks using color coding:

This way I can compartmentalize the “big” tasks with the “small” tasks, big tasks being ones that take the most creative energy (i.e. word count tasks).

I also knew I needed a way to maximize the serotonin gain from completing tasks. For me, this was most easily accomplished with yet more color coding:

So, after planning out about two weeks’ worth of writing tasks, trying to spread out the more tedious tasks so they didn’t feel so overwhelming, I got to work and set to trying to complete everything I had scheduled for each day. Here’s how the first two weeks of using this method looked for me:

As you can see, I was very successful in following the schedule and getting things done that I had planned out. I only got one “did not complete” day, as that day was a Saturday and I just completely forgot to stop by the post office to inquire about PO boxes.

What’s really great about this writing scheduling method is that not only do I get happy when I can turn a day green, but I can plan my “rest” days (where I just read), and I have a visual way of tracking exactly what I’m getting done in the arena of my writing career.

Often, I feel like I’m never really making any progress, that I’m stalling and have been in the same place for weeks. But now, when I follow this schedule and look back at what I completed, I realize that I’ve got myself writing at least 5,000 words a week in my novel projects. That’s a lot!

If you’re a planner type like me, you find comfort in structure and consistency. This simple but effective scheduling method could be the key to unlocking your productivity and motivating yourself to meet mini goals every day.

I always view myself as my own competition- I find that holding myself accountable to actually complete each day’s tasks makes me feel like I’m winning, even if it’s against myself. You gotta find ways to trick the lizard brain sometimes, ya know?

If you’re a writer or other type of creative, I highly recommend trying out this method, especially if you’re always feeling like you’re never actually getting anything done, or if you have so many open projects that you never know what to work on and get stumped before you even begin.

I’m very excited to see the effect of this over a longer period of time.

Boy, Excel is just the best.

---

Monthly Writing Goals Update

JULY TOTAL: 25,906 / 20,000 words
August: 3,120 / 20,000 words

I’ve decided on a specific goal for the next few months.

Given that I like to take a writing break during the month of October so I can soak up all the horror media I possibly can without interruption, AND given that I’m past the 75% mark now with BOTH my Malthea projects, I’ve got a new goal: Finish both Malthea projects before October.

I really think I can do it, probably much earlier than October too, with this awesome new Excel sheet I just got done telling you about. I’m in that downhill roll like when I got to the end of Kaja– writing at least 1000 words in it every day, flying toward the finish line.

You know what’s crazy? If I can meet this goal, by October, I’ll have FIVE FINISHED PROJECTS. Five. That’s absolutely nuts.

If only potential agents knew… 😉

Also, since I keep saying “I started a new project this week”, I figured I should probably give a quick rundown of everything that I’m currently considering an “active project”, and where I’m at with all of those.

As you can see, both Malthea projects are my closest to completion at the moment. Time to get my ass in gear.

---

This content was written and created by a human, without the use of any artificial intelligence tools. The authors do not authorize this article’s usage in training AI tools. We proudly support the original works of creators and individuals over technology that steals and manipulates original content without consent of creators.