Being organized, for myself, is not one of my strong suits. I get easily distracted and off topic and sort of meander my way back to my task at my own pace. If organization is required for another person, I'm able to stick to it and get stuff done with relevance, because I have to. But for me, ha. That's mostly not possible.
So being in the middle of a massive chapter switch and revision is taxing me. Last week's project was outlining the chapters with enough certitude of their final place that i could complete the chapter outline part for the book proposal.
As I sat down with index cards and a green highlighter, I began to feel like there wasn't enough flow between some of the chapters, so I just redid the whole thing, the whole outline. I even threw out some chapters, finding once again, that they didn't belong in this book. Another one, at another time.
After a week of reading and researching, it was nice to take a day off, and in that day, I promised myself that I would work in three hour chunks, to avoid further burnout. This whole plan working. I'm now 60 pages into the new layout, loving the flow, feeling like things are moving forward. It's amazing how much a simple bit of reorganization is all that it took.
This got me thinking. "Organization," to me, has always been a bit of regulated, uptight planning. I'm finding that it is really a re-ordering of my life, or if not life, at least right now, the chapters of my book. I can't seem to get organized anywhere else, try as I might. What does that mean for me? What is organization, by definition?
"The act or process of organizing." Thank you dictionary.com. I need more though. What's organizing?
So being in the middle of a massive chapter switch and revision is taxing me. Last week's project was outlining the chapters with enough certitude of their final place that i could complete the chapter outline part for the book proposal.
As I sat down with index cards and a green highlighter, I began to feel like there wasn't enough flow between some of the chapters, so I just redid the whole thing, the whole outline. I even threw out some chapters, finding once again, that they didn't belong in this book. Another one, at another time.
After a week of reading and researching, it was nice to take a day off, and in that day, I promised myself that I would work in three hour chunks, to avoid further burnout. This whole plan working. I'm now 60 pages into the new layout, loving the flow, feeling like things are moving forward. It's amazing how much a simple bit of reorganization is all that it took.
This got me thinking. "Organization," to me, has always been a bit of regulated, uptight planning. I'm finding that it is really a re-ordering of my life, or if not life, at least right now, the chapters of my book. I can't seem to get organized anywhere else, try as I might. What does that mean for me? What is organization, by definition?
"The act or process of organizing." Thank you dictionary.com. I need more though. What's organizing?
"To form as or into a whole consisting of interdependent or coordinated parts, esp. for united action" OK, that makes sense. Key here is the "coordinated parts."
My favorite description here, deals, of course, with the brain: "Informal. to put (oneself) in a state of mental competence to perform a task." And no wonder it's my fave! It's the "informal" definition. But that's the best, isn't it? That's how it all comes full circle.
My favorite description here, deals, of course, with the brain: "Informal. to put (oneself) in a state of mental competence to perform a task." And no wonder it's my fave! It's the "informal" definition. But that's the best, isn't it? That's how it all comes full circle.
Informal. That's how I usually think of my planning. I'm such a take-it-as-it-comes person, and with the book, my refusal to do any formal outline at first is what has bitten me in the ass over the last few weeks. Well, no more biting. I'm still going to be the mess of thoughts I always am, but this whole plan of action thing has proven itself to me. Now where else can it be applied?
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