After two+ weeks at my new job, June has flown by. Finding time to write, work out, spend time with the baby, and do all the other things I want to do is harder than ever, but I think I’m doing alright.

Last Month’s Goals

1. Write 10,000 words for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy.
2. Balance the new job with writing and going to the gym.
3. Landscaping.

Write 10,000 Words?

I wrote 7,242 words for WoEL in June, so I came up short, but did way better than in May. I also did a little digging into my writing progress this year and came to a realization.

My two best months for writing so far have come while writing on only about half of the available days in those months.

• In March, I wrote 8,153 words in 16 days, or 510 words per day.
• In June, I wrote 7,242 words in 15 days, or 483 words per day.
• That totals 15,395 words in 31 days, or a typical month, for 497 words per day!

Now, I’m not going to take credit for writing 15k in a month, but those numbers are indicative of how productive I can be, if I just dedicate the time. On only eight of those 31 writing days did I exceed 600 words. That means a lot of my word count came in smaller snippets, and probably only in 30-60-minute writing sessions.

If I can do better in July by writing on more than half of the days this month, I can easily achieve my 10,000 word-per-month goal. So this month, I still want to track my word count per session and hit at least 350 words per day, but I will also keep track of how many days I’m actually writing.

I’m already doing well for July, writing three out of the first four days. So I’ll aim to write at least 20 days this month. That means not going more than a day or so at a time without writing. We have a pretty light month in terms of travel/other obligations, so I think I can do it.

Balance the New Job, Writing, and Gym?

Writing with the new job has been up and down. Despite my relative productivity in June, I actually only wrote on three weeknights in June. But between this week and last, I’ve started getting better at fitting in 30-45 minutes of writing time before bed.

Gym time has also been difficult to fit in. After work, I have about an hour to spend with the baby before he goes to bed. Then, if I’m motivated and awake enough, I can rush to my neighborhood gym, workout for 30-40 minutes, and get home in time for a later dinner with the wife.

It’s hard to achieve both writing and working out in the same evening, so I’ve had to choose between them most nights. Now that I’ve nailed down an appropriate bed time–so I’m not exhausted the next day–I can ration my hours in the evening a bit better.

This is a perpetual work-in-progress, but I’m starting to get it down.

Landscaping?

Yes! I wrote last week about our awesome new patio. Ironically, we haven’t really had time to use it yet, but the yard looks so much better.

Yardwork is now much less stressful for me. We still have some stuff to do, like fill in around the patio and trim our trees, but those are far less daunting.

Goals for June

1. Write 10,000 words for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. This goal isn’t changing until I actually reach it.
2. Write at least 20 out of 31 days this month, with a healthy average. Healthy meaning 350-500 words per writing session, plus a handful of larger ones.
3. Keep going. I’m not really interested in setting any other big goals for July. I feel like I’m in a rhythm with the new job, my writing, and my workout schedule. I just want to make sure things keep trending upward.

Steve D