Today's to do list

Friday 23rd August, as an author.

Today’s to do list:

Wait, before I write out my today’s to do list, you must know that it is impossible to do all of this today, and tomorrow’s to do list will look relatively similar. I’m sure you know the drill.

23rd August 2024

• Have a meeting with James about substack post ideas.

• Youtube: rewrite the about section.

• Take photos of the receipts from London and send to hubdoc

• Put podcast recordings in calendar

• Respond to Zoe about Regrettably trailer edit.

• Pay Ollie’s hens

• Do book reviews for instagram

• Email Claire, to follow up on writers room

• Start using substack notes because they seem cool

• Reply to Penguin Australia, about link issues

• Fix link issues

• Take photo of lisence and medicare card for real estate agent.

• Respond to copy editor for We Need your Art.

Then there are the things that I do each day, that never get put on the official list

• Write my novel

• Journal

• Walk 10,000 steps (This is my goal the past month, and as a writer who works from home, this takes such effort but is also, I confess, magical.)

• Instagram content.

I was listening to Glennon Doyles podcast the other day, and she was speaking about the magic of “EATING THE FROG” - aka, doing the thing you dread the most first. I can be an extremely avoidant person, so this method appeals to me.

Looking at that list, the things I dread the most are the small tasks.

• Pay ollie’s hens

• All the emails

• Pictures of receipts

• take photos of license etc (where is my license? Find licence??)

Imagine how free I would feel if I did all of this first!

BUT, for creatives with long form projects, I don’t know that eat the frog always works …

I know too many creatives who will do all the shitty little small tasks before the creative projects and then the long form stuff never gets done.

I myself was obsessed with having a “Clean Slate” when I started writing. Ie. NOTHING could be weighing over me as I wrote. I couldn’t have a single task needing to be done, house needed to be clean, I had to have taken dog for walk, and I had to have exercised. THEN I would feel really good about writing. This looks like a procrastination technique. But I wasn’t actively intending to avoid writing, I was being overly protective of my writing practice. Writing was so delicious and sacred to me, I didn’t want it to be tarnished by the burden of needing to go to the gym afterwards, or the knowledge that I still needed to pay that bill. I wanted it to feel holy, untarnished and untouched. It was, in fact, perfectionism.

And … you guessed it: I never wrote. Art time cannot be postponed to when you are unburdened. In fact, I will argue, art time should happen when you are MOST BURDENED. I write first thing. My novels are the most important thing I do each day, so I do them first.

Instead of eating the frog, I like to organise my day with the understanding that: I am my best self, first thing in the morning.

Amie’s brain when she wakes up and has had a coffee, is the best brain I’ll get. So I need to prioritise the seriously important things first. Not URGENT. Important.

I cannot waste my good awake brain on paying a bill or turning the house upside down looking for my fucking licence.

So today, this will be my order of doing things:

1. Journal

2. Novel

3. Write this substack apparently

4. Walk.

5. This is about the time brain gets useless (12pm) . So I’m going to shove in the small tasks, because whilst I hate them, I don’t need to be a genius for them:

   1. Payments

   2. Receipts

   3. Photos of licence, find my licence.

6. Correspondance with publishers, and my assistant. This stuff is urgent, so, ironically, I can postpone it to later in the day, because I know I have to get it done.

   1. fix link issues, email ash

   2. Proof editor stuff

   3. Respond to Zoe about Regrettably trailer edit.

7. All content related shit. This requires creativity, but it also gives me dopamine, so I often do content in the back end of the day. I’m not entirely sure about this choice, but my morning brain has to be saved for novels, so this is where content ends up. I also do perk up a little bit between 5-7pm for some reason.

I will update you if any of this gets done… Everything gets dicey after 12pm. It is VERY possible I come home from this walk, sit on the couch, and cancel the day. Happens a good 25% of the time.

I love you.

Pre-order my book.

Amie