Stretched Thin

Today, I’m treating this blog post as therapy. I’m feeling over-stretched and out of sorts. As usual, I have taken on too much. My new day job is very demanding and often leaves me feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I’ve also made a commitment to my old job, to help tie things off, so that my students don’t feel abandoned. On the academic front, I’ve got a couple of months left to complete amendments to my thesis and less time to write a methodology case study for SAGE online. On the writing front, Alauddin is coming along but there is a bit of a start and stop routine at the moment due to the aforementioned commitments. There is also the amount of time I have to sink into social media to build my ‘author platform’. Also, I’m a black belt in procrastination.

So what am I going to do about it? Well, blog, obviously. But other than that, what else am I going to do? I use a method called the Eisenhower principle (I may have mentioned it before). I’m going to have to prioritise the things that are both urgent and important. In this case, that is the thesis amendments, the marking of papers and the article for Sage Online. Once again, my professional and academic commitments are taking precedence over my creative aspirations. This is why I need you people on the other side of this post to help me out.

I’m not begging for money. What I am asking for is that if you have read any of my books, please review them wherever you have bought them (Amazon, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple, Google, Smashwords, etc.). If you have a Goodreads account, then you could also help by reviewing them there too. Be honest. If you hated it, say why. If you loved it, say why. If you’re somewhere in the middle then explain why that is. If you haven’t purchased a copy of my book, its available in your local libraries in the UK, you can order it from any bookshop, its available in both print and electronic versions. The ebooks are relatively cheaper and available on multiple platforms. The day my writing is generating enough income to survive on I will quit my day job. The academic stuff is also tied to the daily grind. Ultimately, its there to maintain and enhance my employability.

I recently took part in a mutual interview with another writer on Substack (I will link it when its available). One of the questions they asked me was what does my ideal day as a writer look like. The short version of the response was plentiful coffee and lots of writing. The long version is that my day would be split up with writing the new stuff in the mornings, researching/world-building/editing in the afternoon. My evenings would be to read for pleasure without feeling guilty about the writing that I should be doing.

May the All-Mighty accept our aspirations and create abundance and fecundity in our time and grant us that which is good for us and protect us from that which is bad from us. Ameen.