I’m constantly honing my system to stay on task, and to order my tasks to ensure things get done when they need to. The freelance life can be challenging, with no boss looking over my shoulder to keep me productive.
August hits and with it my busy season. At present moment, I have roughly sixteen writing projects on the docket, plus three weeks when I’ll be doing nothing but writing band charts for Rockford High School’s Cabaret.
That’s in addition to daily writing of words here, a book I am working on, and all the other projects I’ve got in the fire. Not to mention: a group to audition, rehearse, and conduct, with repertoire to select, gigs to plan, etc.
And underlying all of this is my primary job: father/husband.
Keeping all of this in my head is a recipe for anxiety; so I try to maintain this practice to keep my head on straight:
- a little notebook always with me to take thoughts out of my head.
- Trello where I have lists of to-dos for everything I’m working on. One “Board”, for example, is called Current Writing Projects and inside lists each one, with all the details I have about it, from text to due-date.
- Evernote is where I store all the store all the materials I might need: scanned documents, written materials, etc.
Together, they help me stay focused and on top of my work. Of course, as with all of my life, this is a daily practice: one I’m improving as I shape it into a habit.
I’m curious: what tools do you use to stay on task?