Over the years, I have set up weekly goals that I write down in a notebook, to keep me on track. I feel more productive when I can check off things I accomplished in a particular week, even if the week included vacuuming and mopping floors, a couple of my least favorite chores. One of my favorite quotes is: "I understand the concept of cooking and cleaning, just not as it applies to me." And since I do not have a housekeeper visiting to take care of my housecleaning, those chores are mostly mine to do. 

I also write down goals related to my writing, marketing, and learning, which includes working on the variety of books I've been writing, marketing my current books, and improving and expanding my vocabulary, which I am never satisfied with and am constantly adding to - I even have a small, narrow, lined paper that I bought specifically for keeping in whatever book I'm reading to add unfamiliar words as I read. 

And then, of course, my writing friend, Nancy, and I started contacting each other when we fulfill our daily goal - a way to be accountable. It is giving ourselves an extra boost and sense of accomplishment that say yes, I worked on my writing today. Of course, the biggest proof is when we begin to finish the books we are writing. That happened for me just in the short time that Nancy and I have been meeting - I completed two books, both in the editing stages now. I have so many unfinished books on my list that finishing these two gave me a great sense of accomplishment. 

There are many things in life that we have no control over, one of them is the weather. An early spring Nor'Easter took out power across our state with 100% out in our town. We have a generator but that stopped working about 1 1/2 days - we had to rent one, much smaller than ours, so although I got a lot of reading done in the one room we were able to keep warm along with our two refrigerators, I wasn't motivated to do much writing besides taking a few notes on ideas I have. And then 5 days later, the power was back - but now we had a slew of dirty dishes and laundry and other chores to take care of that had been put on hold for those 5 days. But that's life. You just move on and get back on schedule. And now you have a new event to write about!