Caution: Busy Week Ahead

Every Sunday night, I like to plan out my week.  By “plan out my week,” I mean that I sit down with my calendar (TickTick), look at what I have going on in the coming week, and exercise extreme optimism while I schedule out my tasks.  I habitually schedule too little time for tasks, plan too few breaks, and assume I can work far more hours than I actually can.

There are some weeks where I have lots of white space to fill, and other weeks where I have so many things scheduled that there’s little room for my to-do list.  Not that it stops me — I use that same time optimism even when I know I’ll desperately need whatever down time is available to me.

This week is the latter kind.  I have something going on every day, and for the most part they’re major, time-consuming things.  Effectively it means it’ll put me into survival mode, where I do the minimum necessary to take care of myself around my scheduled things and don’t get a lot else done.  I suppose it’s not a bad thing — at least I prioritize myself — but it’s also frustrating not to get as much done at home.

Since I have a lot to do in addition to the things scheduled, I’m trying to approach this week with intention.  My time optimism wants me to still try to do it all, but logically I know if I try that, I’ll get overwhelmed and the survival mode will be worse.  Instead I’ll try to prioritize and just plan for the things I most want or need to get done, such as writing and working on taxes.

How do you handle it when you’re busier than usual?  Do you push yourself to still get things done, or do you focus on the necessities?

How I Took Back My Writing Habit

I know a lot of you will know what I mean when I say the past, oh, 14 months have been tough for writing.

I documented a lot of my struggles week by week in my progress reports for 2025, so I won’t go into that now.  But suffice it to say that my near-daily writing habit, which had gotten to be so strong throughout 2024, petered out in 2025.  In fact much of my motivation petered out in 2025.  It’s hard to focus on much of anything when the world is on fire… at least until you get used to the heat.

I knew I needed to find a way to get back on the horse, so to speak, and jump start my regular writing habit.  The question was how to do it.  I had tried on and off throughout 2025 and had not been successful.  I had tried new calendars and productivity planners and none of it had worked.  I was failing, and I was desperate.

During this period I had also become certain that I have ADHD.  It was a suspicion that had been growing for several years — a story I’ll go into another time — which led me to join a few groups on Facebook.  And through these groups, I discovered Finch.

I suppose “discovered” is not quite the right word — I had heard of it before, even had friends who used it, but had not looked into it nor seriously considered it as an option for me.  But people in the neurodivergence Facebook groups mentioned it occasionally, and I took note.  Eventually I decided to look into it.  It’s supposed to be a self-care app, but it quickly became obvious that you can use it for almost anything that helps you, so I decided early on to use it for my to do list.  I figured when you’re struggling as much as I was, getting things done IS self care.

Now, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with productivity tools.  I guess it’s a whole thing for ADHDers to go through various planners and systems, always trying to find something that works — that’s definitely the experience I’ve had.  Currently I’ve been using Tick Tick for about a year, which I switched to after Google decided to be evil and get rid of their DEI.  But like all systems, eventually it stopped working as well for me and I stopped getting things done, instead deferring tasks over and over again.  It’s been especially bad in the past year, with my motivation in the toilet.

But Finch has something the others don’t have: an external, compelling reward system.  Rewarding myself has never really worked for me — I don’t have the impulse control to wait for my “reward,” or I don’t see it as connected.  But Finch rewards me with rainbow stones for tasks I complete, which I can use to buy clothes, furniture, and colors for my birb.  Plus there are cute monthly themes, and data tracking that allows me to earn more for consistent streaks.  It’s fun and effective, as it keeps me invested in the system.  Even after three months, I don’t feel like I’m at any risk of petering out; quite to the contrary, I’ve been getting more done and building daily habits.

One of those habits is, of course, working on my novel.  I started using Finch just before the end of the year, and decided that as soon as 2026 started, I would start trying to work on my writing projects almost every day again.  And immediately, I was able to.  I just needed that little added incentive.  Since then, I’ve been using Finch for more and more of my to do list, added more daily or weekly habits that I wanted to build, and learned to weight harder and more time-consuming tasks to give me the extra push to get things done.

Another feature I’ve found helpful is Finch’s focus timer.  It works better than a regular focus timer for me, since I can’t minimize the app for very long or I lose my timer and the rainbow stones I was earning.  So it keeps me from getting distracted on my phone when I’m supposed to be doing something else. 

Finch might not work for everyone.  And even for me, it could never be my only way of keeping track of things — I still want and need that visual calendar to schedule tasks and rein in my time optimism.  But using Finch along with my calendar has helped me to overcome one of the toughest slumps I’ve ever experienced.  Thanks to Finch, I am writing nearly every day again!

That New Novel Feeling 🥰

We’ve had a mild winter in Colorado!  Spring is here already: The crocuses and daffodils in my garden are blooming, the days are getting longer, and I have a new novel growing in Scrivener.

Generally when I write, I try to stay focused on one novel, even when other ideas pop up (and they do — it seems like the more you write, the more ideas you get).  But sometimes there’s an idea that comes along and grabs you so thoroughly that you can’t help but start writing it.

I had that moment about a month ago.  My previous novel project had languished all throughout 2025, and while I had gotten back to work on it in 2026, I had lost some of the excitement for it — I was just doing the minimum on it every day to satisfy my to-do list task.

But this idea — basically a thoroughly steampunk retelling of Oz — grabbed me on February 14th.  I wrote a little of it and decided I needed to read the original book (since all I knew of it was from the original movie and the Wicked movies).  My retelling will be different, of course, but still very much a story for our times.  I’m tentatively calling it The Last Automaton of Oz.

I’ve updated my TrackBear profile to display my current projects — this new one, the novel that I have on hold, and a short story I wrote a while back and need to revise.  I also have (but didn’t include on my profile) the pair of suspense novels I wrote in 2024 that need a second draft, but that will be a big undertaking.  For now I’m going to keep working on Oz since it feels the most timely.

It feels good to be excited about a project again.  I don’t plan to let my unfinished novel project stay unfinished, but with everything going on in the world right now, I needed something that would be a more compelling competitor for my attention.