If everything was perfect then everyone would be able to do everything that they said they were going to when they said it would get done. The world isn't perfect so there's always an be and flow from the different parts of our lives and how much time they take up. 

This is the key, noticing when one part of one's life is taking up too many resources and scaling back in other areas. 

What is the best way to do that?

Listening to yourself. Meditate for a couple minutes at the end of the day and ask yourself what's been taking most of your time and energy. Is there a way that you can have it take less energy or a way to make sure you have more energy to put towards it if it comes up again the day after?
 
As someone who really thinks best through writing I also highly recommend journaling. Perhaps something more structured such as an after-action review, which I do every ROW80 checkin on my blog. I do it because it works. If there's been no progress on a goal for one or two checkins then something needs to change, I need to try something new. Perhaps I need to lessen the goal. Perhaps I need to focus on a different goal that's easier for me to do when under the circumstances that are in front of me. 

When you set your goals you can't predict what's going to be in the way, but you can predict that something else will be coming up. pace yourself to finish early, so that you have the space if you can't do much of any writing for a week or such. 

The key is to budget in a 20% buffer into your goal/plan to finish said goal. 

For example, your original goal is to read 52 books, or one book a week for a year. You can adjust the goal by 20%, or 10 books. Therefore your new goal is 42 books, which allows for a couple weeks where the goal doesn't get accomplished. Alternatively you could adjust the due date by 20%. In the first case the end date was the end of the year. 20% of that would be 72 days, which I would personally round to two months. Therefore the goal would be to finish 52 books by November 1st, and if you end up needing some extra time then you have it. 

Having this extra time built into goals can really help you stay on track, even when a major world changing event such as COVID-19 changes everything. Also remember it's ok to stop and reassess your goals at any time. Life is for living, not being stressed about not succeeding in self-imposed goals! (That's just as much for future me as for you!)

Welcome to round 2 of round of words 2020! This time staring these goals:

The weekly goals are almost completely the same.

The monthly goals are reordered to be in the order I expect to complete them. The hope is that more green will encourage more green on the chart! I did change the upcycling projects to general basement projects. I found the previous title to be quite limiting. Yet, there are a lot of crafting materials in the basement that need to get used, so a project that uses any of them and doesn't involve buying something new is a win. This will also help make this goal more reasonable in this time of quarantining, when I really shouldn't be asking people for spare materials.

For the out of 13 section I took off Google Map Reviews. For one I've already doubled the amount I intended for the year. For two I'm not going anywhere new with the quarantine in place. I might add it back in for round 3, we'll see. I also took out the Wiki updates. I did a few but found them to be unfulfilling. I think I was hoping to find pages that needed work throughout my natural use of the internet, but that didn't happen. Instead it felt like an unrewarding chore that wasn't helping anyone. So I took it off and it won't be coming back.

To the right of that is a little counter for which kinds of books I read this round. I read a lot of books last round, more than I've done in many years actually, but few were in the categories that I intended. (I mean, I was having fun with it which is totally fine. But now some more visibility/accountability!) I've gotten much better about not finishing books I don't like, so I think it shouldn't be too hard to at least try reading three from each of those categories. 

Lastly the new monthly goals. Because of how the world is right now I've left May and June open to allow for change. April is about home tending, since I know most of it will be at home, and prepping for writing in November. A number of the previous month goals have been postponed for the foreseeable future. We'll see how everything works out, they might end up back on this list later.

​For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

END OF THE ROUND REVIEW
I like a lot of my new daily goals, but by the end of the three months I was really missing having more intense short term comparable goals. Still, the theme was to align with myself and how I feel about these new habits and that has been accomplished.

The other part of this was to take a cooling off period of up to a year to unfocus, and look at the bigger picture, to see what opportunities I would like to pursue next. This has also been up to a good start. There are absolutely items that I thought I would be more interested in, that didn't work out that way once I was able to focus on them. And some others that I enjoyed but either wasn't able to focus on, or didn't have the correct resources to do yet. 

As such, I'll be taking some of these goals off for the next quarter, and I'll be limiting the monthly goals to three per month, since that's what seems to be reasonably achievable. 

MINIGOALS
Mostly I need the time off! Probably it'll end up with me playing a lot of Animal Crossing and maybe crafting, or reading those books I've had out of the library for weeks now. I'm playing it by ear, and listening to what feels right!

I've done NaNo for nine years now and have that many finished novel first drafts. That being said it's been extremely hard to take these drafts and turn them into final drafts.

For a long time I thought that it was because I had no idea how to edit, or because I was simply inexperienced with editing and therefore couldn't do it quickly or for a piece this big. But after doing NaNo 2018 where I had a completely outline and character studies for my two main characters and sketches of the main rooms that the story took place in, well it flew. The whole writing process was smoother and overall more enjoyable. Furthermore the editing felt like a breeze and was actually enjoyable, because I could see how to take what I had and make it into what I wanted. 

I didn't do a proper after action plan analysis of that though. I didn't think, "Oh I should make sure to have a fully fleshed out story before NaNo." I often fluctuate between pantser and plotter and that year just happened to be a plotting year, no worries. 

But then 2019 rolled around with my mild outline, no character studies, and no location sketches. I wrote hard for the first week, getting at least 2k every day knowing to keep the momentum up. Then I hit the wall, hard. While that wall is often a part of week two blues it was also majorly influence by the fact that my outline said, "write 10k about a journey through a fantasy setting until she finds the magic eaters."

What was I supposed to do with that, past self!?

Eventually I talked it out with many writer friends and my SO, and I realized what I wanted to do with that section. But it's going to take a lot of work to thread that into the sections I already wrote.
​
That all being said, my new approach is my 2018 approach. I'm going to have a full outline for NaNo 2020 with an index card for each scene. I'll be writing it for Camp April this year, in less than a week! It's exciting to have a new creative project to work on and that this outline will help make my future writing and editing endeavors that much more fun! 

​For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
The rest of the week was focused on a report out for a major project for work. The report out went well, but it was definitely stressful. As such, when I got home on Friday I started to play Animal Crossing and didn't stop playing until a couple hours ago! It was exactly the low brain power no stress game I needed this weekend. 

Today I was feeling more up to other tasks. So I did laundry, loaded/started the dishwasher, then vacuumed the whole house twice before cleaning the vacuum itself. I also cleaned the air filter fan for good measure. The air quality in this house will be so good after this! Once I got around to starting my computer for the first time this weekend I ended up finishing up a lot of the rest of my online tasks. 

Last notes; I've been enjoying the Masterclass I'm currently listening to by R L Stine, though I'm not sure if I'll finish it in time or not. (This one I'm sure I'll finish eventually!) No new books got finished this week, but I'm well ahead of the goal on this one so I'm not at all worried about it. I also just started the third book in a series I quite like, so I'm sure that'll get done in the next few days too.

MINIGOALS:
Finish out what I can, and mentally prepare to forgive myself for not finishing the rest. My job is essential so I'm still working a full 40 hours, though some is from home. Thus I'm not sure what time I'll have to dedicate to finishing these goals. My main focus is not burning myself out, and after that to do what I can when I can. 

​For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

AFTER ACTION REVIEW
This week was a bit rough so far. I tried working form home for the first time and it didn't go well. By that I mean I didn't get as much done as I as hoping. I should have tapered my expectations ahead of time. A lesson the universe has tried to teach me before, but I didn't. Instead I overworked myself a bit and got a massive migraine on Wednesday. That did give me time to recover and reset with lots of resting, so now I'm doing alright and generally on the up and up. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with what I did get done, and take the big action to forgive myself for what I didn't get done. No catching up, just a fresh slate to work from!

MINIGOALS
Recover. Listen to the next Masterclass. Edit and submit flashfiction. Do a simple upcycling project. 

How have all of the changes been affecting  you?

, uThis is, perhaps, not the most flattering photo. But I promise you this was delicious and 4/4 people who know Buffalo cuisine enjoyed it so much they wanted seconds. With the quarantine of 2020 well underway I wanted a soul warming soup, while also getting a taste of home. This was the result!

Makes four bowls worth, or eight tea cups worth.

Ingredients: 
Chicken (I used chicken breasts, but you could use a whole chicken easily enough. Any amount of chicken over one cup is fine and can be changed to accommodate your meal plan for the week) 
2 cups water
1/2 cup Franks hot sauce 
1/4 cup barley
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp marmite (other umami related foods would be an ok substitute, such as miso) 
1/2 tsp ground celery seed
Pepper to taste

Optional - carrots, peas, and/or onion. About 1/4 cup of each, I keep bags of frozen in the house.
Optional decor - 1 celery stick per serving.

Materials:
Insta pot or crock pot

Cooking:
1) Put chicken, water, and Franks hot sauce into the insta pot for 10 minutes with natural release. (For a crock pot I would do the same ingredients, 4 hours on high or 6 on low.) 

2) Take out chicken. Put at 1-2 cups of chicken meat, cut into small pieces, back into the soup broth. The rest can be used in other dishes. (I was originally making this chicken for chicken wing dip, and wanted to find a way to use the broth.) 

3) Put barley, bay leaf, caraway seeds, marmite, ground celery, and any optionals into the broth. Set insta pot for 22 minutes with natural release. (For crock pot at least 4.5hours.) 

4) Plate it up! It looks a little weird since the hot sauce combines with the natural fat from the chicken at the top of the soup, but it tastes really good! If you wanted to be fancy you could put a celery stick into the soup, which would look super cute sticking out of a tea cup! 

​For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

Well, it's been quite a week both in the outside world and in my work life. (Ok the work life things have been more big, exciting, and scary while the outside world things have been just scary.) 

AFTER ACTION REVIEW
I finally finished the audiobook which allowed me to focus on the rest of the page. I was able to finish the Masterclass. It wasn't as relevant to writing as I was hoping. (It was about comedy.) The exercise was going reasonably well, with yellow days being 75% of my goal complete. I'm concerned that I won't be getting even that with the work from home happening this week. We'll see. 

The community connections, I've completely forgotten what that was supposed to be. I could take a guess, but even then I'm not loving the idea, so I'm cutting it. Same for the workshops, which have all gotten cancelled/postponed etc. The list next week will be a little more trimmed! Finally I did a good push on blog posts. They were all ones I had already written, but I finally took the time to read them over and post them. It really shouldn't be as big of a deal as it is in my mind. 

MINIGOALS
1) Stay sane while working from home. (I love my home and I'm an introvert, so it's not missing people. It's the fact that it just takes so much longer to things! I have to wait for people to do the things for me at work! Maybe it's the control freak in me, but I just, ugh!) 

2) Finish scheduling blog posts.

3) Look into the CSA, particularly seeing if a local place is willing to deliver due to the current world situation. 

​For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

MAJOR progress this week! What was the change? I told myself I was writing a to do list and posting it to my accountability group every day. That was it. I didn't even say that I was going to do the list, but you know, if I write the list I usually do it. One simple change and suddenly it feels like the fog has lifted, the audiobook is done and most of the board is looking pretty green!

In other major news; one of my stories got accepted into an anthology! This was the one I sent out in Jan for my goals list, and I'm ecstatic! 

AFTER ACTION REVIEW
1) Audiobook - Done, done, done! I've learned A LOT while doing this project, and I didn't budget the learning curve time. You'd think by now I'd know that I'll probably do five hours of a new project and then want to go back and redo them once I know the best practices. Alas, the universe taught me the lesson again. Perhaps this time it'll stick. Either way I did enjoy doing this, and would be happy to do it again. Furthermore I do intend to have a blog post about it sometime this upcoming weekend, so keep an eye out for it!

2) Town Hall - Skipped it. I knew that I was within finishing distance of the audiobook so I went home instead. It's also been a big stressful but kinda in a good way (big project kickoff) at work so I knew that an extra couple hours at home would be good for me personally. One of the goals for this year is to listen to what my brain and body need more, and I did listen, and I took an action on it. That's a big win for me!

3) Finances - My finances weren't quite as aligned as is ideal. I spent a bit more while traveling than I expected at the start of the year. That's ok, I decided to spend the money to take a train. For one I don't like driving and for two it's better for the environment. Other than cost it's worth it to me, I just wasn't thinking about it in that way when I made my budget at the start of the year. Other than that I should cut back a little bit on impulse games/Amazon purchases.

MINIGOALS
Masterclass, upcycling project, and community connections. (If the last one is possible with the corona virus scare. If not I'm going to put it as a yellow for effort, and otherwise not worry about it.) 

Also one blog post about working on the audiobook.

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here.

Where did the time go?! I've been trying to finish out the audiobook project and there's always one more thing to do or apply etc. It's a lot of work and been taking up a lot of time! Because of that everything else feels like it's at a standstill. Hopefully the dam will break this week and I can start to work on the other smaller projects/otherwise feel like I'm making progress all over the place. 

AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
1) Audiobook - Half way done with the master edits, after doing a few rerecords. The amount of learning one can have after applying a new skill for ten hours is outstanding! I can already hear it in the quality of the recordings. It's nice to have that improvement, though it'll also be nice to have this project buttoned up! (Remind me to always double the amount of time I think a new project is going to take!) 

2) Prep for Board Games at my place - It went really well! After cleaning every surface I was able to get into the stuff that doesn't get cleaned as often. The corners of the room, the front door/windows got a wash. (So much less dog slobber!) Went through the board games shelves and got rid of eight or so games while completely reorganizing what's there. It's crazy how many more games one plays when they're simply easier to get to! (I turned a lot of the games on their side, instead of having them stacked. Such a small change, such a big effect!) The event itself was a lot of fun too, no surprise. I'd like to host these a little more often, if I have the energy!

3) Small goals - I did start to refocus on the Masterclass and I'm almost done listening to the next one before putting together the notes and calling it good. I think it'll be pretty swift after the audiobook is done. Financials and the upcycling project didn't get looked at at all for the same reasons.

MINIGOALS
Big Goals:
1) Audiobook - Finish it! Submit it! Click the button!

2) Go to the town hall this week! Do the thing!

Small Goals: (In case I need to productively distract myself)
Read the way too many books I got from the library. Masterclass. Financial Review.