The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find
them).

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

I’m breaking in the new Median Survival Time notebook this week, barrelling into the second half of the second act. I’m a bit behind on where I wanted to be, but a week of working slower has given me a better idea of what I’d like this act to be (and how to get there). I’m particularly looking forward to writing a scene that’s basically two characters locked in a shipping container, waiting, and seeing how I can add the necessary conflict and interest in.

What’s inspiring me this week?

There’s a surfeit of riches in terms of inspiration this week, but the book that’s most captured my attention has been Georgette Heyer’s The Unknown Ajax, which I’m reading for book club next Sunday. It’s one of those books where you can see Heyer’s research peeking through the narrative, but it’s also got some of the most charming characters I’ve come across, with minor characters I expected to be foils actually emerging as sympathetic and rather brilliant.

What action do I need to take?

I need to re-think the layout of my desk a little. I logged all my outstanding projects in omnifocus earlier this week, although the day-to-day management of tasks is staying in my bullet journal. It’s sets me up with a fairly decent tracking method, especially since I’ve eliminated the traditional context-based approach used by Getting Things Done (which Omnifocus is designed for) and replaced it with the four-part system of prioritizing things in Dan Charnas work Clean (essentially: is this important and easy, important and complex, not important and not ease, not important and complex).

The result is a breakdown of things that need doing organised in a way where I can make quick decisions based on energy levels, and eliminates a lot of the drag I felt with Getting Things Done as a time-management system, but it makes things a bit tricky when I’m not working on the computer that can run Omnifocus, as it’s Mac only. Clearing off some of the stuff on my desk makes it easy to keep the Macbook nearby when I’m working in notebooks or on the PC.