I hit the ground running yesterday and went straight into faffing…
Pomodoros
Don’t forget, these pomodoros are 50 minutes each rather than 25 minutes each, short breaks are 10 minutes, and long breaks are 60 minutes.
Pomodoro 1
On Wednesday I discovered another alternative social medium platform that seems to be more geared towards publishers and journalists: Post. There was a massive waiting list, but I thought I’d give it a pop, expecting to either be accepted or rejected in a few weeks. Well, I was accepted within a few hours and I wanted to have a look around before deciding whether or not to stay. So much of the first pomodoro was spent doing this.
I’ve decided to stay for the time being at least, and my next job was adding links to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, website, etc. Then I shared yesterday’s blog post just so there was some content on my page and to test that everything was working. In future, I can choose to put posts behind a paywall and I can buy ‘Post. points’ in order to pay for other users’ posts that are behind a paywall or to tip any I like. For now, while I see how it goes, all of my posts will be free.
If you’re interested in joining Post., my profile is here. Or, go straight to Post. here.
Pomodoro 2
The next thing I did was manually share yesterday’s blog post to social media, and then try and sort out the auto-sharing debacle. The ‘free’ auto-shares from JetPack ran out with Wednesday’s post. So I went in to my settings and removed the auto-share feature completely. Then I installed a different plugin: WP to Buffer.
To activate this, I needed to first set up a free account with Buffer, where you’re allowed to link to three social media profiles for free. More than that and you have to upgrade to pro, but even then you only get eight social media profiles to link to, including the initial three. There’s a lot of other stuff you get for upgrading, but as this is the only thing I’m currently interested in, I’m happy to go with the free account for now and see how it goes. I only hope it doesn’t run out after 14 days or something.
Once that was set up, I then had to test it a few times to work out how it works. It looks like it puts the posts into some sort of calendar, and you can choose to accept the ‘drip-feed’ it defaults to or you can change when the posts appear all over social media. I’ll still have to manually share to CounterSocial and to Post., but I had to do that anyway with the JetPack ‘free’ auto-shares.
And that was it, BAM! My first two pomodoros were swallowed up by ADMIN and COMPENSATING FOR THINGS THAT HAVE WORKED FOR YEARS SUDDENLY NOT WORKING.
Pomodoro 3
I finally got around to my actual to-do list, rattled through the competitions, and then went to watch the next few videos of my locked room mysteries online writers’ workshop. I watched another four videos, which took twenty-five minutes. Then I went onto Post. and shared another couple of blog posts, both book reviews. And then it was the end of my pomodoro.
But… but… but… it was also the end of my morning session, which is my ‘my work’ time. What about Catch the Rainbow and Diary of a Pussycat? I’m afraid, with my new and disciplined routine, it was tough. I’d run out of my time and, after dinner, it would be client time, and for as long as I have client work to fill the client time, then that’s what I have to discipline myself to do. Otherwise, I end up, for example, ghostwriting 20,000 words over two days and not sleeping. Or letting the client down. Saying that, I am still keeping a cap on two client jobs at a time
Catch the Rainbow and Diary of a Pussycat were struck off for the day and would have to wait until today’s ‘my work’ time slot.
Pomodoro 4 & 5
I used pomodoros 4 and 5 to edit the next two chapters of the non-fiction book (CLIENT WORK). I’d been editing one chapter at a time mainly until I got into the swing of the book. But now I’d warmed up with it and understood where it was going, I upped the pace to two chapters so that the editing is finished sooner rather than later.
The poet went out for band practice and was collecting a takeaway on his way home, so that gave me an extra hour or two during which to work.
Pomodoro 6
For my sixth and final pomodoro of the day, I started by applying for a writing position with one of the writing software platforms I use. This included updating my CV, which took a little time. I had to find it first…
Then I disappeared down a rabbit hole when I saw a new publisher was actively looking for submissions and didn’t mind reprints.
So I reformatted Night Crawler, which also took a bit of time, and sent it off to them, mostly because it’s useful having something doing the rounds at least, but also to see if they’d be interested in The Beast Within and Catch the Rainbow too.
I was a bit peckish, so went to get some biscuits, and while I was in the kitchen, I decided to change the cat litter.
Oh yes, and – much excitement – I received my first tip on Post., which is worth 1c (one whole cent!), so of course I had to keep checking then to see if there were any more…
…procrastination much?
In the time that was left, I cracked on with the ghostwriting (CLIENT WORK)… but after typing only 40 words, the poet called to say he was on his way home! How could that be possible? I gave myself a target of 500 words, and called it a day. (I wrote 683!)
Now to see how that new auto-share thingy works…
…oh, and have a fab weekend!
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