Priorities: Easier Set Than Done

I believe in disciplined practice of one's art: writing, in my case. My behavior does not always match my ideals. I think that a writer should spend time writing every day at the same time. The hard part about making priorities and keeping them straight is that things are always calling you away from them, tempting you. It's tempting to get up from writing and make another cup of coffee. It's tempting to deal with daily problems as they arise, even if they really don't need immediate attention, putting little problems over long-term goals. I think the long-term goals are more important than short-term wants and even needs.

I sometimes feel like I'm doing an okay job at many endeavors. I want to do a fabulous job at at least on thing: writing. Whatever it takes to excel, that's what I should do. Take the time to look up spelling and grammar questions in my Chicago Manual of Style. Know thy craft.

The hard part about excelling at one endeavor is that it means cosciously downplaying other things. The easiest way to keep priorities straight is to organize one's day in order of one's priorities. That way, one doesn't have to resist temptation, in theory; one simply runs out of time for the less-important things. In reality, though, resisting temptation is harder than that. It takes active work not to check e-mail or have a snack instead of following the plan.

I sometimes feel like I don't have time to do a better job at the things that are most important. That's why I'm looking to cut out the unnecessary time consumers in my day. Checking e-mail seems innocuous enough, but it adds up. How many minutes of your life do you want to spend checking e-mail so frequently that most of the time, there are no new messages? And do you have to fix yourself something in the kitchen before you do everything? No. You can save the ten minutes it takes to make your French-press coffee and just go! These things are low priorities.

Then there are things that are great to do, but only if time allows, such as logging my spending, cleaning my room, and cooking things that take a long time. The key is not to just latch onto any little thing on the to-do list to avoid doing the most important chore.

Speaking of that high priority, I have three goals as a writer. The first one is to practice writing and improve my ability to express my ideas in words along with the ideas themselves. My blogs are mostly where I practice my writing. The second goal is to find ways of publishing and making money from my writing. I do that by writing for a local newspaper and doing some scientific writing for an on-line journal. The third goal is to write things that are meant to last. Blog posts and newspaper stories get old quickly, and people only happen on them right after they are published. Once an article or post goes into the archives, few will read it. That's why I think it's important to work on a long-term writing project that could eventually become a book.

There's a lot to do. I think I'll take a wee nap. But I'm not abandoning the plan, just showing how it's natural to deviate a little bit! Priorities are easier set than done!