Thinking About Goals, Efficiency, Tracking Time and Other Stuff

Kristen King, over at Inkthinker has set a goal of earning $100,000 in 2008 with her writing. Part of her method is aiming at getting more efficient and she refers to my Time Tracking post a couple of years ago.

Her desire to become “more efficient” kind of made me uncomfortable. Now, I know Kristen and she’s a consummate professional, good at writing, and at running her business. She’s creative, honest, and heck, does a great job. She also makes it clear in her post that what she’s exploring is how she actually spends her time.

Maybe it’s just my own stuff, but trying to be “more efficient” smacks of trying to get more done, and I don’t think getting more done is the answer to more income… at least for most of us.

My own experience, and the experience shared with me by many is that we already are trying to do to much! Never-ending to-do lists seem to result not getting more done, but more feelings of guilt because of what’s still undone at the end of the day. And guilt does nothing for income or creativity.

What I think may be more effective can be summed up this way:

• Are you sure you want more income or is their some other need you’re trying to fill? (Wanting more income is fine; I find, however, I need to be clear what I’m working for.)
• What do you really want write to earn it? (If you’re writing magazine articles and really want to write mystery novels, you’ll be better off if you figure out how to make the move, even if it means less income in the beginning.)
• How are you creating spaciousness for creativity? (Yes, successful writers write in a disciplined fashion, but creativity requires spaciousness – it’s a balancing act.)
• What are you doing to be good to yourself?

Getting these pieces of life in order doesn’t guarantee more income, but I’ve found when I’m balanced, my income tends to increase.

What do you think?

Write well and often,

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