Newsletter Week of 12 Jun 2020
The Reference Library (book review column) • Analog July/August 2020 • read for free
This has been a week for steady progress on a number of goals, which is how things really get done.
Slow-but-steady doesn't get a lot of attention. In our limited-attention-span culture, we often get the impression that most accomplishment comes from short, intense bursts of activity. We celebrate the all-nighter, the overnight success. We make a huge deal out of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, but never mention WriFiHuWoDaYe (Write Five Hundred Words Daily Year).
Over the last six decades, my experience has been clear: steady, consistent effort is the best way to work on large projects.
How did I convert over 10,000 books in my personal library to PDF files? Scanning 5-10 books a day. Copy 2,500 VHS videocassettes to DVDs? Two or three a day. Rip thoses DVDs to mp4 videon files? One or two a day. Write and publish 20+ print books and 50+ ebooks? Five hundred words a day.
If you have a big project that's not going anywhere, try restructuring it so you can make a little bit of progress each day. Set your daily goal to be something you can realistically accomplish; if it's too easy, you can always increase your goal later. You want to get a jolt of satisfaction every day for meeting your goal, not daily frustration at falling short.
- Scanned 14 more books
- Ripped 9 more DVDs to mp4
- Legion of Super-Heroes website: Halfway through indexing 1997
- Added 500 words to my memoir
- More work on the next gay erotic short story
- More progress on the Great Kitchen Rearrangement
A Black Lives Matter protest in our sleepy little suburb. Hooray to all the marvelous young people who organizaed & participated.
Stargate: SG1 (tv series)
Everyone's talking about emerging from lockdown. Just for the record, I want to say that we here at Meerkat Meade are staying locked down. We're staying isolated, washing our hands, maintaining social distance, and staying home as much as possible.
Almost every time they announce a new higher-risk category for COVID-19, I'm in that category. I'm over 60, diabetic, have type A blood, am bald, and have autism. I keep expecting the announcement that science fiction writers are more susceptible to the virus.
Until we have more effective treatments and/or a vaccine, I expect to continue lockdown as much as possible.