The new year has awakened. Most of us are back at work in some capacity and the holidays are loosening their grip. But while thinking about everything that went right (or wrong) in 2014, now is the time to plan 2015; year of the AWESOME!
I’ve been setting goals, making lists of competitions I want to enter, and defining where I want my manuscript to get to this year. It’s a big list and I am worried that perhaps I will lose my reading time in the process of achieving all of it.
With all of this swirling in my head and on my desk, I am able to start planning this year’s writing days. From there, I just need to figure out how to guard them better. This is because my biggest downfall in 2014 was my inability to say no to people when I have writing days planned. I’m not working, it doesn’t have to happen today, it doesn’t earn money so shouldn’t be prioritised, I can always get back to it later. These are some of the most common excuses which came up last year. So here I am, acknowledging them, in the hope they will not be so strong this year.
We have to learn from our mistakes if we want to move on and be better people/writers/whatever. But I wonder if other people suffer the same fate? It is so hard to put writing first. Because I’m not at ‘work’ on those days, people often expect that I can catch up in the morning, hang out in the arvo, cover for them for a few hours here and there. And I let them.
So people please, if you have worked out how to stop this from happening, tell me! I’m weak and need your ideas.
jennicurry 
I understand what you’re saying and I have a similar problem. I’m now calling my writing time ‘work’. So whenever I’m writing or reading, I’m also working. If I don’t prioritise it and consider it work, no-one else will. Even if I’m not being paid for it and I love doing it, it’s still my work and my career.
That’s a good idea. I’m also setting myself higher targets for my daily word counts. So far, it seems that I achieve what I expect myself to achieve. I’m working on it, and hopefully one day soon, I’ll be back to the lofty levels I was on during the last manuscript.