Editing party!

This weekend, there's going to be a big party. Two guests.

Me and the first book. It's an editing party. It may go for days.

"Because I Said So: Life in The Mom Zone" is going to be read through again. My publisher, Jim Dickerson of Sartoris Literary Group, has gone through and worked his magic. I've had that version a few days, but things have been busy at the newspaper, so I pushed the editing party to the weekend, when I am not taking away from other projects and not letting other projects take away from this.

I'm getting up early, making coffee and plan to be all over it.

Sometimes you have to plan the work out like that. Block off the time. Check.

Now to just make it happen.

Editing away!

My publisher, Jim Dickerson of Sartoris Literary Group, just got me a copy of my first book to look over. He's edited it once and gave it a big thumbs up, so I am, in Southern-speak, tickled! Woohoo!

"Because I Said So: Life in The Mom Zone" will be released in April.

I am going to have a hard time not jumping up and down in the newsroom today. Happiness!

And a big thank you to Jim and all those who have been an encouragement to me since I started on this journey back in the summer. Keep on encouraging, because I'm gonna need it, and know that I thank God for you every morning.

And I'm going to have to get to work on the editing of this one and the writing of the second book. It's a lot to do, but it feels more like playing than working!

How to do it all

I had a friend ask me how I do the stuff I do.

My answer is, "Heck if I know."

Number one is that I don't get everything done that I want to get done. If I did, that second book would be finished by now. I'm a good 6,000 words behind where I would like to be.

Number two is that I think the important stuff always gets done. Because it is important.

The rest of the stuff we fit in. It's like the oft-told management story of the glass jar, the rocks, the pebbles and the sand. The way to fit everything in is to take care of the big rocks, the important stuff, first. Those can be your family, job, health. Whatever you want them to be. Then you put in the pebbles. Those can be a committee meeting at church or a PTA meeting. Whatever is kind of important but not important enough to be a big rock.Then there's the sand. It just sort of fits in around the nooks and crannies of the other stuff. Sand might represent watching TV alone -- not super important to me.

One way to fit in big rocks is to put them in first. I am happy to say that, although holiday stuff and time with those I love took up a lot of my writing time this weekend, I was up and writing about 6 a.m. today. I need to put that big rock in earlier tomorrow. My hope is to log in 25,000 words before Jan. 1. Can you tell I studied project management in grad school?

That's a lot of rocks, though, so here is the last tip until I think of some more. It is to consistently put the rocks in the jar. Every day. I totally need to work on this.

One of my favorite books on getting it all done is "First Things First," by Stephen Covey. I read it in my early 30s when I was working hard, caring for aging parents and young children and generally wearing myself out. It was a game changer for me.