I’m feeling pretty good about my progress this week. I skipped two days of writing this week and still managed to be ahead of my cumulative goal by 781. That’s because I had a really good word count on two of the days I wrote. I was kicking butt on word count yesterday, but then a friend called and needed me. That broke my concentration. But sometimes there are more important things than writing. I’m finding Wednesday to be the hardest day for goals because as soon as I get home from work, I’m already starting the process of getting ready for church. Then it’s 8:30 before I get home and I’m tired.
I didn’t keep my goal of 30 minutes per day on proofing one of my books for print, but I worked on it a lot yesterday, so I probably made up for most of it.
I was 2/3 successful on the exercise front. I exercised two out of the three days I was supposed to, so I need to do better next week.
I did okay on the housekeeping goal, although not great. On some of these things I have to take baby steps until I get back into a good routine.
How did the rest of you do? I’d love to hear!
lauralynnelliott.com 
Progress is success. You made great progress this week and 2/3rds of your exercise is smart anyway if you are just starting back at it.
On the Wednesday conundrum, perhaps you can pattern out that days goals across the rest of the week and just call Wednesday your “rest from writing/goals” day. The other activities (work and church) are obviously important to you, so why feel like you are missing something in order to enjoy them?
Keep up the progress and have an excellent week, Lauralynn 🙂
Thanks, Gene! I’ve been tossing around the idea of taking Wednesdays off like you mentioned. At this point, I’m thinking that I’ll allow myself to take off Wednesdays if I need to. But if the story is calling to me, I can still write if I want to. When I do word count goals, I make them cumulative so I don’t have to necessarily write every day, I just need to have the right numbers on my word count spreadsheet. 🙂
I appreciate the advice!
Isn’t that the best thing about ROW80 though? Being able to set goals, but if we can’t, it’s okay, because we just make-it up on other days!! I think it really makes us mindful of what we want to accomplish and set out to make it happen.
Claudia, I think ROW80 is great! It’s so flexible, but still makes us aware of our goals. It doesn’t stress us out like some challenges do, and we always know there’s a circle of support right here. 🙂
Good job this week despite hiccups, especially sticking with the exercise. Getting back into it is always tough. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Stacy. It takes time to build those good habits back up. But I’m going to keep working on it!
I think you had a great week. I hear you on the baby steps with the housekeeping! I’d be in complete chaos without the FlyLady 🙂 Best of luck with the upcoming week!
Thank you, Raelyn. Fly Lady is absolutely the best. I have her ostrich feather duster and the “Rubba” brush set. I just love that feather duster. It makes dusting really easy.
I’m with Gene. You’ve done great work this week. It all counts. Keep it up!
Thanks, Yolanda! 🙂
Lauralynn – way to go! 🙂 definitely makes sense to take a break from the writing element here and there. Recharged batteries are the best. Keep up the fantastic work…
Thanks, Darlene. I don’t ever let myself feel guilty about taking a break sometimes. We do what we can do. And we definitely need to recharge those batteries sometimes!
I think you are off to a good start and agree that baby steps are needed sometimes until routines gel.
Thanks, Barbara. I think if you try to change too many habits or routines at once, it’s too overwhelming. I’m pretty satisfied at this point. 🙂
Nice progress! I think it’s great you’re able to skip a couple of days and still meet your cumulative word count for the week. I know I need those days off — some days writing just doesn’t work into the schedule. Have a great week, Lauralynn!
Thanks, J.R.! I know writing is important to us, but there are other things in life. And sometimes we have to take breaks from writing. I no longer feel guilty about this. LOL
I think you had a great week! And don’t feel bad over your housekeeping goals. I’ve neglected my house for about a month and I paid for it last night, trying to sweep/mop 1 month’s worth of pug fur!!
I’m a terrible housekeeper! I’m just lucky my husband is much better. LOL. I recently got one of those steamers for the floors. Great tool and much better than mopping!
Your Wednesdays sound like my Fridays…I struggle to get much accomplished. Prep for the Sabbath consumes my day – and then I come home after CrossFit, light the candles, and voila! It’s rest time. I should just plan that as a day off instead of trying to cram in writing time – which usually is more frustrating than satisfying anyway…haha. I must love to torture myself!
So glad you had those two great writing days. I’ve not done any writing outside of adding to my WIP as I edit. That will change – I hope – this week as I begin plotting for my new WIP. It will be mostly ideas and thoughts, but it’s such a fun part of the writing process!
Have a great week, Lauralynn! Oh! I absolutely LOVED Haunted Lake. Such great tension and eerie-ness. John’s character was perfectly haunted by his past. I will rate it on Goodreads – and I recommended it to The Brazen Broads – who do ‘real’ book reviews!
I think we all have days on which it’s harder to write. I didn’t write Friday, either, but for a different reason. I just COULDN’T. Every once in awhile, I’ll have a day where nothing will come into my head. But not often.
Thank you so much for your thoughts on Haunted Lake. I think it’s still my favorite of all my books. John is an especially favorite character of mine.