This year’s collapsed 1,000 Big Year has left me stranded and I can’t take any more days without an overarching structure. So I’m starting early, a month early. My major focus for 2019 will kick off not on January 1 but on December 1, 2018.
I contemplated not including a “writerly” Big Year in 2019. They’re hard to make work, these multi-hour push-type big years. As I said, my 2018 1,000 Big Year collapsed, while my 2017 Writing Big Year motivated me but was hard to handle. But no, next year is so, so important in terms of getting words out, that I’m calling it the Author Big Year.
No more complexity. Whilst I’ll use the lessons of the last two years to wake early, kybosh email until the afternoon, and channel morning energy, a big year really needs simplicity, the utmost simplicity. So I’ve decided to focus on hours worked on my words. I’ve set a target for each and every day. But on holidays and grandparenting days, clearly I’ll do zero hours, so I’m setting a higher, compensating target for interruption-free days. Here is my extended 13-month 2019:
- 6.5 hours per day (8 hours on a “clear” day)
- Weekly 45 hours (60 over a blemish-free week)
- Over the entire Author Big Year: 2,600 hours.