Goal Post: Week 5

Well, despite being crazy-busy all week, I didn't finish anything, but that's mostly because of waiting for other people to get back to me before I can continue. I did come within only $40 of my weekly quota, which I don't believe will be too hard to make up. The main thing is that I'm getting more billable work done in the allotted time, and if I can get through a week without any major schedule interruptions, I should get all of my work in just fine.

Last week's class on state taxes was really helpful. After that class I took the rest of the afternoon to do everything I needed to do to make my business official, so say hello to the sole proprietor of J. M. Bauhaus Enterprises. I was scheduled to attend an IRS business workshop on Thursday, but as we were under a Weather Advisory of Doom, I didn't go. Still, the time I would have lost to the class was lost instead to preparing to become a shut-in for days. The big panic was that this storm would rival the ice-pocalypse of 2007 that blacked out half the state, and we'd end up without power for days, if not weeks. But thankfully, it didn't. We didn't lose power, and the roads don't even appear to be that bad, if the sound of traffic whizzing by outside my office window is any indication.

Enough about last week. On to this week's goals: Now that my biggest projects are winding down and I've gotten into a rhythm with my working hours, I'm ready to get back to the novel. So back to trying to revise or write a scene a day until it's done. I wrote a whole new chapter this morning, to replace one I threw out, so that's a good feeling to carry with me through the day.

My personal goal is pretty standard -- exercise more consistently. I always start out pretty good at the beginning of the week, but then by Wednesday I just can't be bothered and then it's Monday before I work out again. No wonder I'm usually stiff and grumpy by the time the weekend rolls around. So I'm going to do my best to get on the stationery bike every day -- and barring that, at least do some stretching exercises every evening to keep this torturous desk chair from crippling me.

Work goals are the same--wrap up these web design projects. I also have a couple of new clients waiting in the wings, so I need to hurry up and clear some space for them on my schedule. And if I can't get that Wordpress blog working properly this week, then I don't know what I'll do. Find somebody with more WP experience than me to subcontract it out to, I guess. But I've got a couple of ideas and suggested fixes to try first, so hopefully it won't come to that.

How about you guys? What dragons do you intend to slay this week?

Goal Post: Week 4

I didn't even have time for a goal update this week, and by the weekend I was too brain-fried to bother. The good news is that for the first time ever last week I earned too much to qualify for an unemployment check -- which is really excellent timing, since my unemployment year expires at the end of this month. I didn't make my "Need to make $X to make ends meet" quota, but I would have if I hadn't spent most of Monday on unpaid hours trying to fix that broken Wordpress blog.

Speaking of which, the bad news is, broken blog is still broken. I found some Wordpress smarties to help me find the problem (thanks to my awesome cousin-in-law -- thanks, Stevie!), but I haven't heard back from them yet. I don't know whether it's because they haven't had time to delve into it yet or because they're as stumped as I am.

Meanwhile, I've got enough on my plate to ensure another profitable week, with end-of-month deadlines keeping me in head-down, git 'er done mode, so you probably won't hear much else from me this week, either. I'm also attending two free Small Business Administration classes, one Tuesday morning and one on Thursday, on business taxes and accounting. Those are each three hours long, so I'm definitely going to have to scramble to make up for the time lost to those, but hopefully they'll teach me what I need to know. If they help me stop stressing out about my taxes, it'll be worth it.

So that's pretty much my only goal for this week - meet my deadlines and get these projects wrapped up by the end of the month, including the broken blog.

Are you also racing the clock this week? Or are your goals a little more leisurely? Tell us all about them in the comments.

Goal Post: Week 3

I'm running behind this week, thanks to an entire day lost to trying to figure out a problem in Wordpress and making no progress. I've actually been trying to figure out for several days now why the blog page I set up only shows the content of a single post, with no title, date, permalinks or comment links. I spent all day on it yesterday, which ended in tears of frustration, and I finally posted the problem on the Wordpress help forums, so hopefully some kind WP guru will come to my rescue. I really need to get this project done so I can wipe this site and get started on another client's Wordpress site that's currently waiting in the wings. And naturally, I didn't earn any money for my troubles, because I refuse to charge the client for time wasted by my own ineptitude. A total waste, that was my Monday. I hope yours was more productive.

Anyhoo, how's about we discuss some goals for this week? Really, my main goal is to fix this broken blog and get this project off of my plate so I can focus on new ones. If I can do that I will consider this week a win.

Otherwise, I need to work on organizing my time better and putting in six to eight hours a day on PAID activity. I don't really understand how this keeps failing to happen, but it does. By my math, eight hours of sleep leaves eight hours each for work and other stuff. It feels like I spend way more than eight hours a day on work, and way less on other stuff, and yet when I check my billable hours at the end of the day I usually haven't put in that many.

Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. I need to spend this week and next figuring out what that wrong thing is and correcting it, because come the end of the month my unemployment year will end I won't have that as a cushion anymore to make up for my slack-arsed ways. I'm going to need a bare minimum of six solid billable hours every weekday in order to make ends meet. I have the work. I just need the time management skills. So that's obviously the priority for the rest of the month, to the detriment of my writing and personal goals.

Except for exercise. I need to make myself make time to get up and move, because my brain needs it as much as my body does. And I haven't been doing so well in that area lately. Which shouldn't be a problem, if I can find those eight hours that should be left over after I'm done with my work.

What's your Goliath this week, my fellow goalies?