Been a funny week for me. As many regulars will know, I’ve suffered from
ME/CFS for around 10 years. It’s a weird condition, coming and going, fooling
you into believing you’ve recovered when things are going fine for a while, and
then returning to bite you on the bum when the stress increases. That happened
this week and I had to take the last day of my day job, Friday, off. It drains
my batteries and makes everything much harder to do. It also means I have to
take more frequent and longer rests in order to recharge those batteries.
Today, Tuesday, I’m feeling as though I’m back on the road to recovery, so I
hope to be up to normal speed shortly. At any rate, I managed an hour’s
ballroom dancing with my wife last night and I’m not suffering too much this
morning.
So, what have I managed this 4th week of the year?
I’ve edited 2 chapters of the fantasy, written a new short story, started
another, edited another 2, submitted 2 contest entries and sent 2 stories off
to magazines, thereby catching up on last week’s targets. I’ve reviewed my 6th
book of the year and started reading the 7th of my target of 52, and written and posted another blog post.
All in all, not bad. I’d have liked to have completed the story I’ve
started (maybe today I’ll manage that). I’d like to have done a couple more
chapters of the fantasy. But one thing I’ve learned over the last 10 years is
that I can do so much and no more. Once I try to exceed the work my batteries
will power, I simply become drained and then have to spend more time recovering
than I’ve used in producing. In the end, it’s not worth the wasted time and
energy. So, I have to pace myself in order to get at least something done. I
have a theory, which will shortly be either borne out or shattered, that it’s
my day job, the part-time employment, that causes the ME/CFS. I cease that work
in late March and retire from the wage-slave arena in early April. We’ll see
then just how correct have been my suspicions.
So, that’s me for this first month of the year. How about you? Keeping
those resolutions? Reaching your targets? Enjoying what you’re doing?
The pie chart, explained:
'Writing' - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer
works.
'Editing' - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.
'Research' - discovery of info for story content, market research,
contests and blog posts.
'Reading' - books and writing magazines.
'Admin' - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation and
general admin tasks.
(You’ll note, if you’re a regular visitor, that I’ve substituted ‘Networking’
for ‘Emails’ here; it seemed a more accurate label.)
Share your triumphs and disasters here, so your fellow writers can
commiserate, congratulate or simply empathise.
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