Chaos and Snow

Good morning, friends. Look at me, posting when I am supposed to and early in the day (pay no attention to the fact that this month’s installment of Across Worlds with You was a week late, and purely because I spaced it completely, not because it wasn’t ready).

Despite time being arbitrary and all that jazz we talked about last month, there is something a bit magical about January, isn’t there? A feeling of potential, that there’s so much that could be done this year.

I think it lulls you into a false sense of security.

Sure, you can get a ton done in January! You have plenty of free time! The holidays are behind you (though not completely behind me, as the Christmas tree still needs to be moved to the basement), there’s potentially a bunch of days off of work for less prep-intensive holidays, sometimes it’s below zero for days on end and the whole state gives up, things like that. Add in the general feeling from the cultural zeitgeist that you can do anything because it’s a new year, and it’s really no wonder that everyone crashes in February.

That being said, I am having a great January.

This, too, is a false sense of security.

Because I can already see what I’ve done.

Traditionally I set a bunch of goals–writing goals, reading goals, art goals, video game goals, health goals, etc. Last year I cut them all out except for a single writing goal (finish a revision). (And also my yearly 50 books reading goal, but never mind that.) The idea is that I would spend all my time working on the one goal, and it would get done (spoiler alert: it didn’t), and life would be lovely.

But when I got to December and looked back at the year, it looked a little empty. Ridiculous, of course. I made great progress on said revision. It’s epic fantasy and runs 120K so of course it’s going to take longer than another work, and this will be THE FINAL REVISION because I say so, so it’s got to be perfect (ish). I also sold a couple short stories and wrote all of Across Worlds with You.

But still…looked empty.

So this year I added back in the other goals. The smaller, side writing goals, the art goals, the video game goals, etc.

So, yeah, January looks amazing. I’m crushing the art, video game, and reading goals. My writing goals are still making progress. But is it as much progress? Am I distracting myself from my main goal by poking at side goals?

Past experience says yes; that’s why we cut them last year.

So I reserve the right to drop the other goals at any point, especially if they’re providing too much distraction. And at least we’ll have lovely, ridiculous, unnaturally productive January to look back on and reminisce about, and repeat again next year. And the year after that.

Stay warm, friends.