Oh March, you evil diva you.

I know that sounds dramatic but March was hard and I don’t know why.

So there I was diving into 50k words in a month. I had made some tweaks to my story and was really enjoying writing it. I was training for a mini triathlon. I felt organised with juggling all my other bits and pieces of life and then… it all fell over.

Nothing literally fell over but I felt like my whole life fell over. My words dried up and with that the fear set in that I wasn’t going to make the 50k. Then came the thoughts of ‘Why am I even doing this?’ ‘Am I wasting my time?’ ‘I think I’m wasting my time.’

And the further I sink the more the dominoes start to fall. Before I know it there are chocolate bars in desk drawers and bread! So much bread being eaten! All of this bad eating makes me feel even worse and the next thing to go is exercise.

When I’m in this slump the thought of exercising seems laughable whereas the week before I had gone for a bike ride, a swim and and a run feeling pretty confident I was going to nail a triathlon.

My early mornings stuck but they were sloppy. Instead of getting up bright eyed and excited to get writing. I’d slope out to the couch and start by opening my emails. My 1000 words got down to 800.

The good news is, it did pass, this feeling of overwhelm. It took a little longer than usual and I was off-tools for a couple of weeks. But once I was ready to get working again, all of my processes like my exercise routine, creating a daily list and getting up early were all there ready to greet me.

For further info on how I rolled with my break, check out my blog post Putting the Pause on Productivity. I hope if you are feeling overwhelmed you can find something in there for you and also know that even people who seem like they are super efficient and working all the time, need a break.

Check out below for a more detailed review of my goals for this year and month.

Annual Goal: Read 6 x non-fiction books.
March Goal: Read Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning.
I dove into Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning early in March, ticked the goal and moved on, giving myself a break from non-fiction reading. The Miracle Morning book itself is one I would read again as I got a few lightbulb moments from it that I will definitely incorporate into my morning.

Annual Goal: Write two books using my new schedule.
March Goal: Complete first draft of Saving Sally Jenkins
March looked completely different from the first half to the second half. The first half I dove into my challenge to write 50k in a month and was thoroughly enjoying myself. I was waking up at 6am and loving getting a thousand words down before my day had even really started.
The second half of March I was no longer getting up early and I was doing no writing at all. I did not achieve my 50k in a month goal, or a completed first draft, which for a while I was gutted about. But then I realised I had written just over 30k in three weeks and it wasn’t to be sniffed at. I could also feel that I had reached my limit for ‘free writing’ on this draft and I really needed to stop and check my plotting.
After some soul searching, I took the break for what it was, a break, and am looking forward to diving back in in April.

Annual Goal: Develop my understanding further of beat writing.
March Goal: Use Save the Cat as a reference as I write
I am enjoying my new process which involves more plotting before running away with some free writing. I was determined to use all I had learned in the Save the Cat book however I started to lose my way about halfway through. A workshop with Joe Brumm, writer and creator of Bluey, led me to the Dan Harmon Story Circle and bingo! This writing tool spoke to me more than the Save the Cat beats. Knowing the beats in detail, did however, let me trust in the more simple Story Circle. Moving forward I think I will use the Story Circle while also making sure the STC beats are vaguely in check as well. All of these tools are giving the same information but just presenting it in a different way, it’s just what works best for each writer.

Annual Goal: Nail social media.
March Goal: Set up my next three months of social media with a check up late March so it’s not a huge task end of June.
Another task that took the March hit. The start of March I really invested in writing and writing only which is the best way I work. If I do little bits of everything it tends to lead to procrastination. It was a good feeling knowing that all of my social media posts were all set for the month but not preparing more and loading them has meant at the end of March I face a mad scramble to get more up and running. I think a day really needs to be booked where I just get this done. Finding that day will be tricky though.

Annual Goal: Give more in my newsletter
March Goal: Jot notes down weekly to help with reporting back on my accountability.
I do have several ways of tracking my work through a diary where I write how I ‘feel’ about the writing as I find it is an emotional journey as much as it is a task based journey and I also jot down in another document what’s going on in daily general life ie Kids dentist, dog walk, got up early. This is probably the best I can do for this and I will continue on.

As March was a bit of a hard one I did start to question was this new idea of doing more a good one. However, I think I need to give it a year and see how I feel after that and I think these goal reviews will be worth it in the end.

Annual Goal: Take small steps on a new project.
March Goal: Make a phone call.
As above, my energy took a hit this month and with that so did my confidence so no phone call made this month.

How was your month? I hope March has been good to you!