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WEEK ONE - Let's
Get Organized! |
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Welcome to Week One of the 2003
WOW Challenge!
You're on your way to becoming a Wildly Organized
Writer...
Your Get Organized Plan...
Here is the free version of the 30-day 2003 Get Organized Plan. Each day has suggested
tasks to lead you on your way to a more organized writing
business so you can write and publish more.
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Whenever you
see
BOOK listed below, you can see a few tasks
from my ebook, The
Organized Writer: 30 Days to More Time, More Money
and Less Frustration. You'll need to purchase the
book to complete these exercises.
Find out more about the Booklocker.com
bestseller and buy
the
ebook for only
$14.95.
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All the best in the year ahead,
Julie Hood
julie@organizedwriter.com
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Wed, Jan 1, 2003
New Year's Day
Day One - The New Year
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It's here! The new year -- I'm writing this on 26th, but I'm already getting excited about it! I *love* starting over - anytime I can get a clean slate and feel like I'm starting over, I jump on it.
For January, we'll have special topics related to two things: first, your resolutions and goals and second, getting organized. Some days will have assignments, and I'll work along with you and give you my perspective at the end.
So our first topic of the new year is "Your Personality." Your assignment for today is to think about what in your personality has helped your goal-setting in the past. We want to capitalize on those traits.
1) What personality traits helped you achieve a goal?
2) What personality traits helped you be more organized?
Here are my answers:
1a) Stubbornness/persistence - when I really, really, really want something, I stick with it to the point of driving everyone around me crazy!
1b) Being able to define a project with the individual steps involved. One of the best skills I learned in college was how to define the steps of a project.
2a) The ability to think in categories. My mind is always categorizing things and assigning things that belong together.
2b) Being able to remember where things are located (most of the time). My husband will say, "Where's the hammer?" and as long as I was the one who put away, I'm more likely to know where it is than he will.
2c) I'm always looking for a better way. This is good and bad. I know some people set something up and just use it forever. But I get bored and want a new or different way to organize. This is perfect for you (I can tell you six different ways to organize your recipes and the pros and cons of each!) but I lose efficiency because I'm constantly trying out something different.
BOOK
In Acrobat, press Ctrl-N and go to page 10. Take the personality
quiz, and pick the solutions that work for you.
Tax Note
First, make sure you have a Taxes 2002 folder set up for all the tax papers you'll be getting in the next month. Then, run out to your car, and jot down your mileage on two slips of paper. Stick one copy in Taxes 2002 (your ending mileage) and one copy in Taxes 2003 folder (your beginning mileage for next year).
Copyright Update
Then, hop out to your website, and update all the copyright notices to include 2003. Updated copyrights give the impression you are really on top of things! Now, to fix all mine....
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Thu, Jan 2, 2003
Day Two - Your Master List
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What is a Master List? The Master List, your organizing bible, drives nearly everything you do.
The Master List is based on a pyramid scheme. The top of the pyramid contains only a few Main Categories. They are subdivided into Subcategories. At the lowest level are your Ideas and Topics. You should have lots of these.
Did you catch the excerpt about a Master List on Writer's Weekly on the 18th? If not, you can read it here:
http://www.writersweekly.com/articles/121802-01.html
1) Make your own Master List, or update it if you already have one.
BOOK
In Acrobat, press Ctrl-N and go to page 14 to read about the master list. Page 18 has the blank form, and page 19 has a sample master list.
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Fri, Jan 3, 2003
Day 3 - Create Your Planner
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1) If you haven't done it yet, buy your planner supplies.
You need:
-- binder
-- dividers (15-20)
-- page/tape flags as subdividers
-- three-hold punch
-- clicker pens
2) Print planner pages from the file you received when you subscribed. Not sure where it is? The file is called
writersplanner.pdf, and use Start > Search > For Files or Folders... to locate it.
Or, as a subscriber, you can access the file at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Writer-Reminders/files/
Clean out last year's used pages, and start fresh for 2003.
Download and print the 2003
Writer's E-calendar (feel free to forward
the calendar to your writer friends).
3) No ink in your printer? Send your documents online to Kinko's or Office Max, and ask them to mail them to you.
http://www.kinkos.com
http://www.officemax.com and click on the
Print@CopyMax tab at the top.
I've used both places, and I had the best experience with Kinko's, but OfficeMax is closer to my house so we'll see who gets my business!
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Sat, Jan 4,
2003
Day 4 - What Works for You
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Ask yourself the following questions:
1) What's the most unorganized, most frustrating "thing" for you?
2) What's the most organized part of your life? Why?
Compare the two, and determine what works for you.
BOOK
In Acrobat, press Ctrl-N and go to p. 41 - What works for you? Fill out the assessment form with ratings from 1 to 10 to see which days over the next month will be the most helpful for you.
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Sun, Jan 5,
2003
Your Time Map
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Do you know how you spend your time? Or do you just think you know?
Start your time map today. Make a grid with the times down the side and the days of the week across the top. Fill in how you spend the different hours of your day.
BOOK
The Time Map Form is on page 54. Color code your map as described. Which color is the most dominant?
Thought for the Week- - You Cannot Fail...
Do you know who....
-- Failed in business
-- Filed for bankruptcy
-- Sweetheart/fiancee died
-- Had a nervous breakdown
-- And was defeated in elections, *eight* different times?
But still he persevered?
Thankfully, this man was Abraham Lincoln, who was elected president of the United States in 1860.
You cannot fail... unless you
give up!
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Continue
with Week 2 .... |
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Buy
the ebook now - instant download - for only $14.95!
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A key to effective
writing is eliminating time-wasters -- but
reading Julie Hood's The Organized Writer
is definitely not a waste of time! Hood's quick
quizzes will help you identify your own
"organization personality" (are you a
flinger or a packrat?) and thus the strategies
that will help you organize your writing (and
your life). Each chapter gives you a day of
easy-to-
accomplish tasks that are designed to turn you
into a more productive, organized writer in a
single month. Especially impressive are the
well-thought-out forms that accompany every
chapter (and every task); just print them out and
you're on your way!
-- Moira Allen, Writing-World.com
and author of The Writer's Guide to Queries,
Pitches and Proposals and Writing.com: Creative
Internet Strategies to Advance Your Writing
Career
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