The Secret to Keeping Up With It All

"It has been said that writers don't retire, they expire at their keyboard."

Don't know who said this, but I love it! (Make sure you visit Elana's Blog Today - she is featuring me! She is such a great friend! Thank you, Elana!)

There is a great discussion going on at Nathan Bransford's blog about getting it *all* done: Writing, revising, editorial production, blogging, Facebook, Tweeting, marketing, publicity, research, reading, family, life, outside jobs - and staying sane. Or not. 

Lots of great comments. 

No easy answers, of course. 

Like, I signed up for Pinterest a few weeks ago and haven't had a moment to even log in again! It looks like a really fun place to hang out and drool over Very Cool Pictures, but gee whiz, some days I feel like I can write/revise and respond to emails from my agent and editor and publicist - or I can work on marketing - get a tiny bit of reading done - and that is about it! Well, and a few minutes on Facebook and reading my friend's blog posts. :-)

If I have outside appts (car repairs, dentist, doctor, kiddo stuff,) or shopping, cleaning, laundry and cooking to do, I often don't get any writing done on those days at all because half the day is taken up with the life *stuff*. I'll get to the business end, but the writing or reading goes out the window. 

Add in church teaching, exercise, phone calls with my family, writing talks, prepping for travel, school visits, and you feel like you're a maniac.  


And we never feel like we're doing enough. Not writing enough. Not marketing ourselves enough. Not spending enough time with family and friends.

Emails multiply like rabbits.

I think we need to take time to celebrate our successes along the way, too, and that often gets dropped off the radar or To Do List. Like we're not Worthy. Or there is Too Much To Do! But what is the point of our goals and dreams and life and success if we're just crazy maniacs constantly and we don't even take time to enjoy it!? 


I speak for myself. I am so bad at this. So Very Bad.

This year of 2012 I set a goal to read, at least for a few minutes, every day. I have sorely missed the amount of reading I used to do.  For the most part, I have succeeded so I gotta feel good about that. And it does make me very, very happy. Kimberley is a grouchy girl if she doesn't get her hit of a novel every day.

I have no answers, except one:

Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

With Milk. 

That is all. 

Your Thoughts, Organization Skills, and Tips much appreciated! 

 ~Kimberley