January. A time for planning. For reviewing your workin the past year and looking forward to all the things you will accomplish on top of your normal job (because we all work multiple jobs).
What are your resolutions? Can you show me your vision board? What’s your life plan, broken down by quarter?
January has a different meaning for me. January is about day-by-day, week by week survival. Why? Because I work with non-profits.
Here’s a small fact of life a lot of folks don’t realize. The busiest days of the year for non-profits are the days between GivingTuesday and the end of the year. It’s the last chance for anyone to make donations and get a tax break that year. So everyone who’s got enough to make a deduction is making a donation.
(Mind you, the Trump tax breaks for the rich made is to normal small donations don’t get you anything. Not like you used to. It’s a nice way to kill small donations while l eating your ultra rich friends get a nice tax dodge).
This means January is spent processing a lot of donations, and generating reports for broad members. If they have an advocacy wing, they’re dealing with Congress starting up session, along with every state legislature. Oh, did we mention this is a mid-term election year.
(Go and vote. You may not feel in inspired. The folks who stormed the Capital last year are. And they want to control how votes are counted.
This means, for someone like me, my calendar is filled with nonstop zoom meetings. I’m stuck indoors from dawn to dusk, without even a commute to get me into the world. And there are other things happening.
This is why I don’t have anything structured for this year. No resolutions, nothing. I do have a few things planned:
- Finish a Beta Read for a friend
- Finish edits on my short story for the upcoming NOIR anthology
- Complete revisions on Phantom Killer
- Promote new flash fiction story (Coming soon!)
- Write 3 short stories under A.J. Harris pen name (for March, April, and May respectively)
Lot to do. My only deadlines are ones based on submissions deadlines. Everything else, I’m just trying to play, week to week, month to month.
And that includes taking breaks. And learning what I can’t control, and what I can. But more about that in a bit. I’ll leave you with this thought:
Biomechanoid Blues 