This or That (Big Dreams Blog Update #10)

As this month closes another Update Day calls, so here it is. I answer.
What is Update Day you ask? Started by masterminds (or is that evil geniuses?) Misha Gericke and Beth Fred the Big Dreams blog hop follows the journey of 18 bloggers and their crazy, big dreams. And not all of those dreams are writing- or reading-related either. I've seen some crazy ones, like an ultra marathon of 100K or creating a new writing genre--check out these dreamers and cheer them on, or join us with your own whacky big dream! Click the icon above (w/ credit here to Shah Wharton).

Now I was glancing back at my last Update post for the previous month and I realize I made some lofty goals—especially in the writing area.

…actually just with the writing.

You see July is the second CampNaNo and my goal was to revise the first draft of my contemporary romance from June, but life and school (mostly school!) got in the way. SO after two days of little writing I figured something had to give. If I wasn’t going to write, I couldn’t well sit around on my butt and do nothing.

And that brings me to the flash topic of this post. Essentially I should call it “This or That: budgeting your time wisely” because something I’ve realized over the past year is how I tend to view my time.

A year ago my relationship with time was poor. I was always finding ways to “kill it” or “waste it” doing anything: playing video games, watching TV/movies, etc. I wasn’t really approaching it as a precious gift and when I really need it—like when I’m trying to cram finals or finish an essay the night before it’s due—I recognize just how important it is.

I’m babbling, but my point is I’ve learned that if I don’t want to do something and if I’m going to step away that I should find something else to do with my time. In this case I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to write, and I was afraid it would affect my studies if I forced my butt in the chair to write. So I did the next best thing: I set a goal instead to read.

I was a few books shy of the 75% mark of my reading/reviewing challenge and I thought it would be a great time to read and alleviate my mind from all the studying on the side.

So I read and read and read, and the last 3 weeks flew by. I just finished summer school and I can’t believe how nice it was balancing school with reading, especially when I often spent a lot of those nights curled up at the end of the day with a book in bed.

And this is the way I hit my goal. It snuck up on me really, kinda like how these Update posts sneak up at the end of the month, wondering where the time went—“I swear it was only the beginning of July yesterday, wasn’t it?”

Of course I have new goals to set for the coming month. With school out and the summer still oh-so young, I’m going to divvy my time up by exploring some local towns nearby with my family, continue reading and reviewing, and picking up where I left off with my writing/revising.

In order to ensure I don’t waste the 5 weeks I have left before school starts, I’ve decided to start a blog series of infrequent, but at least weekly check-ins on the how-goes-it of my revision process. I’m actually starting tomorrow, but I’ll probably not post until the end of the weekend or something.

To round it up, if you find you’re stuck doing one thing than broaden your scope and find something else to fulfill your time. Don’t want to write? Then read. Not in the mood for reading, you say, then exercise, draw, bake, clean, compose an interpretative dance and perform it for your family/friends—just do something else. Something fun and creative and exciting and keep moving forward.

That sums up my July.

Stay tuned for August.