How Do I Meet My Deadlines In All The Craziness?

As I connect and work with more authors - and work hard to produce more books each year - I am often met with questions like, "How do you do it all?" and "How do you meet your deadlines?"

This last year, I've been able to do so much more than I ever dreamed possible for an independently published author. I've been writing and editing and publishing so much more consistently, and I've also started hosting regular author events. These have all been wonderful additions to my life and my writing career, but they also take quite a lot of time, so this year, I've had to do some adjusting with my process to keep up with all the momentum.

I know I've already written about how I manage it all, but with all the changes that have come up in the last several months, I wanted to share with you my updated answer to these kinds of questions. Here we go.

1. I plan ahead.
I'm a planner. To anybody who knows me personally, it comes as no surprise that I have a list for just about everything, and it's been this way for as long as I can remember. I'm great with time management, because I'm really good with lists. I've always planned ahead, and that includes when I'm getting a book ready for publication. In the last year, however, I've become a lot more meticulous and intentional with my planning when it comes to my writing and publishing. 

Now, once a month (sometimes more often if I have a particularly hectic schedule), I take 30 minutes to an hour and put everything I want to remember on paper. This includes...

• Goals I want to achieve
• My schedule (which includes my work, my writing, my events, my marketing, and most importantly, my time with my family)
• Events that I have coming up, where it's located, and what I need to bring or restock on beforehand
• Marketing ideas for the entire month (including my blog post ideas and social media posts)

2. I pay close attention to where my time goes. 
I don't scroll social media, and while I do really enjoy watching TV, I almost always have a project in hand if I'm watching TV in my free time. Those are the two biggest time eaters in my world, and while I don't spend hours scrolling online, I do like to spend some time online at least a couple of days a week so I can support other authors and artists chasing their dreams just like me. I pay really close attention to how much time I spend doing these things if I haven't taken care of my daily responsibilities (work, childcare, writing, quality family time, etc.).

My love of lists ensures that I'm always highly aware of my schedule - which, yes, can be exhausting - and the things I want to get done. For my writing, I try to spend a MINIMUM of 15 minutes a day writing or editing or illustrating per day, depending on what project I'm trying to focus on the most. That time frame used to be 45 minutes, and that 45 minutes is still my most productive time slot for writing. But! After pushing so hard to get Severed released just six months after Bound came out, I realized just how important that time is to spend with my husband. So, I'm down to a minimum of 15 minutes on most days, but I'm still getting words on the page! 

That brings me to my next point...

​3. I'm awesome at chipping away at things. 
I try to fit things in where I can. Sometimes, that looks like 15 - 20 minutes per day on writing tasks after the kiddo goes to bed. Sometimes it looks like squeezing in an extra 30 minutes on days during the weekend, especially if my son decides to bless us with an afternoon nap time. It can also look like spending 5-10 minutes every day on my poetry, 5 extra minutes writing before I start work for the day, or 10 minutes of reading in the car or before bed. All of these little bursts of time are still getting me that much closer to my goals every day, and I'm grateful for all of these extra blocks.

4. I know what I want, and I have a lot of practice setting goals to get me there. 
I set a lot of goals. I set big project goals like finishing a manuscript or launching a new title. These goals are often tentative at first. I set the goal so I can see it and I can be working toward it, but I allow myself room for the specifics to change as needed. Little goals, however, I set and adjust frequently. Like, nearly every day kind of frequently. The smaller goals I can set, the more achievable they become, and every goal I achieve gets me that much closer to achieving the desired end result.

​So I set a goal to choose or design a font. I set a goal to write for so many minutes or write so many words every week. I set a goal for when I'll finish each editing phase or my cover design, and so on. And I allow myself just a little bit of grace. Number 1, I've already set small goals, so these baby steps are a nice reminder that I can be working on things every day. Number 2, I allow myself a little bit of breathing room. If I don't meet a goal for a particular part of the project, I look at the why, and I either add it into my next goal, or I adjust it moving forward so I don't get so discouraged that I give up. 


I know I've written a lot about working full time, my son, my husband, and my various aspects of my writing career which is now more productive and demanding on my time than ever before, and I appreciate all of you for reading despite the redundancies! These are the largest pieces that make up my life (and take up my time), and I'm happy to be able to share them with you. Have a wonderful week, and I'll write again soon. <3