“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”~Frederick Douglass, American author
I must be super-progressing because I am super-struggling.
I had no idea how much time it takes to pack up a 10-year-worth-of-stuff house. My scrapbook room: yowch! My writing materials: how do I organize them so I don’t lose them in the move? My books: let’s not even go there. And all this does not include the cleaning. Our house is going to look better for strangers than it ever did for us.
My editing goals for my memoir fell away into the nothingness. I haven’t touched the manuscript this week. I planned to edit so I’d have a critique piece for Wednesday’s Deadwood Writers meeting, but there’s already an overflowing queue of at least four pieces, so I don’t feel too bad about missing that goal.
I’m finding balance to be a struggle at the start, which leads me to a bit of discouragement. How will I catch up? Heck, how will I start? Here’s the progress, or lack thereof, for my Round 4 goals:
1–Complete a good, polished manuscript of my memoir.
Like I stated above, a big ol’ nope.
2–ePublish 1-2 shorter books
I will deal with this in November. Our house will be listed November 1st–yes, it will be listed–so much of the overhaul cleaning and boxing will be done by then.
3–Get my email Inbox below 500 emails.
They’ve jumped from 986 to currently 1,044, but there are a flurry of replies in an email thread that I can delete once I make time for my email.
4–Get my phone photos below 10,000.
I have this daily reminder “Delete old photos NOW,” which is meant to remind me to randomly pick a day and delete a few pics. I did that the first 2-3 days I started this ROW80. That was 14 days ago.
5–Pack/toss/donate a whole buncha stuff.
Working on that as I pack. I’m signing up for a scrapbook yard sale in November where I will dump all my stuff I am no longer using. The Dollar Table. That’s what I’m calling it. Everything $1 or less. Let’s face it: no matter what the initial cost, getting $1 and not moving it is worth it if I haven’t touched the paper/pen/Stickles/ephemera/mini album pack in several years. I will not miss it. I can buy a replacement on the other side if I need to.
It’s tough to let go, to let go of all of that. The writing time, the extra photos, the paper memories. Maybe that’s my real, overall goal this Round 4: letting go.
Struggling is part of being a writer, there’s the headache, the self doubt, sound of teeth grinding and steam tooting from the ears.
I think you’ll be fine. The goals will be within reach unless it taunts you, points it fingers at ya. Tossing away the old stuff that one no longer needs, Fall clean up, like sprucing up the yard before lady winter arrives and old man wind huffs and puffs blow stingy snow in our faces.
Thank you. It’s nice to know I’m not alone. Need a reminder now and again, more often again these days.
Welcome to ROW80! Your post is an amazing reminder (and indirectly an encouragement) for me to jump back in — for although I’m not packing and moving, every other goal sounds like one of mine! So, day by day, slowly we go. Try to focus on what’s most important. No need to defend any ‘lack of progress’ for keeping those goals up front will lead you to progress. Maybe subdivide? What’s most important and why? Then tackle that one? And thank you for reminding me to delete my photos from the new iPhone! Have a very good week.
Thank you! Awwwww…I love being an inspiration to others. Thanks for telling me that. It’s frustrating that days are not 36-hours long; I might complete all my tasks that way. Or else I’d sleep a lot more. Either one would be acceptable.
Photos are the joy and the bane of my existence. I need to accept the fact that printing them will cost $$–which is worth it to me–and then backup photos and then send to online services to print. Just do it.
And that’s where we all seem to falter, isn’t it?