New trailer slide show – click link below

[slideshare id=57134544&doc=21stpowerp-160116212124]

It’s been another busy week, writing, keeping up with social media – as well as the necessary business side of things – and doing a day job. It’s a common grumble for most authors – even traditionally published ones:

I’m spreading myself too thinly, I’m trying to do too many things and nothing seems good enough, I’m overwhelmed by everything I need to be doing, i hear you all cry.

There’s nothing there i haven’t screamed myself while pulling out my hair, still tapping away at 11 o’clock at night, with an early start for my commute to London the next day. There comes a time when you have to ask the question; why am i putting myself through all this?

This is where you have to have a good hard talk to yourself, and ask why you started this in the first place. Isn’t the answer that you needed to do it? That there is something deep inside that needs to come out or drive you mad? Somewhere along the line the drive to get it out there, be successful and maybe make some money, takes over, until the writing time (the enjoyable part) is squeezed so small, you barely have time at all. And reading Pah! When do you do that?

When i reached this point i made a plan. First of all i would read on my commute (no social networking) – that’s 35 minutes each way – an hour of good reading time a day. I would brake down my other time into sections – making sure writing got the best chunk when my mind was at its best. I saved emails and business/social networking until i was too tired to do anything else. And if you haven’t got time to post 50 times a day on twitter, it’ll live. Choose the times that are most active. For me, that is India and Asia in the morning, and the USA in the evening. I just check it periodically for any interesting posts to retweet. I don’t bombard anyone on Facebook; just 1-2 posts a day only, and once a day on tumblr. But if i miss because i’m busy on something more important, it’s not the end of the world.

The secret is to enjoy what you do. I spent all this week building my trailer slide show (see top of this post) I learned how to use powerpoint and had great fun with it. Now it’s time to concentrate on some serious writing, and that will become the main thing i’m working on for a few days.

Remember you can’t be good at everything if you are doing too much. Concentrate on one big job at a time and then go on to the next. Plan your time. Read – and above all enjoy yourselves.