In my last post I mentioned how having a plan for my novel helped me when I came to a point where I wasn’t sure what to do next. I made a plan and then began following that plan.

That doesn’t mean the plan was perfect. Already I’ve made two adjustments as I went. I consolidated two chapters and shifted the order of two others. But the plan has kept me going, and I continue to make almost daily progress on the book.

But, what I don’t have, or I should say what I haven’t done a very good job on, is developing a to-do list system for my writing. At work I print out a daily log sheet, where I record major activities, people I interact with, log my calls, and sometimes log my e-mails. Instructions from clients, instructions to contractors–all goes on the sheet.

One part of the sheet has a list of my current projects, which I change as I need to, and a space for me to write my to-do list. I’ve never done the best job with the to-do list, but I generally use it. On the left side I write things for the office, and on the right side I write personal items (pay this bill, call the plumber, etc.). As I say, I’ve never done the best job at keeping and following a to-do list.

However, about two years ago, maybe not that long, I heard about a system where you put only four things on your to-do list. I suppose the idea is you can concentrate better on those things. If you get them all done, add four more. I’ve been following that, and I think it’s helped. Although, sometimes I see that list with only four items on it and think that’s all I have to do, and tend to slack off a bit. So I’ve taken to drawing a line after the four and adding two or three more things, just to remind myself that there’s more that I must do.

Well, for writing I have never been able to develop that kind of system. I tried listing all my works-in-progress, and drawing a to-do list from them. That hasn’t worked real well, partly because my works-in-progress keep changing. I’m working on a new system now, and I hope within a week or two to be able to report back that I’ve found something that works.

Without a to-do list, I forget things. I forgot to check back with my Smashwords dashboard after I uploaded Documenting America to see whether it was accepted to the premium catalogue. It wasn’t, and it sat there for a couple of days without my checking it. Then, after I learned that, I took a couple more days to get to it. Finally I made the corrections, only they weren’t the right corrections, and it still wasn’t accepted. Even this time I failed to check the dashboard daily, and consequently was a few days late getting it corrected and accepted.

Same thing with doing the work needed to get the paper edition of Documenting America out. I need to do some study at CreateSpace, and see how to turn my manuscript into print. I actually think it’s fairly easy, but I never seem to get to it. Perhaps having a to-do list will help.

Anyway, I’m working on it. As I say, hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll have something that works.