Thursday, September 29th
Sep. 29th, 2011 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinNews For Today
Okay, so yesterday I mentioned better ways of doing things. Here's one of them. I'll be talking about another one tomorrow.
So my update schedule for TOMU chapters is "every four days" and my goal is "eight chapters a month". Obviously there is not a single month in the calendar with 32 days. My actual schedule is the 1st of every month, and then every 4 days thereafter. This creates a time crunch at the end of the month, where I'll only have 2 or 3 days to finish a chapter in a typical month (and 0 days in February, where I'd either have to post one chapter a day early and then post another one the next day or just let it stand as a 7 chapter month).
So why not go to a flat "every four days, period" schedule or one that doesn't try to squeeze in an extra chapter? For the latter consideration, part of it's emotional. Eight is the magic number of updates that makes me feel productive. And I'd rather give people more to read than less. As to why I make the publishing schedule reset every month... I want the updates to be predictable even to people who didn't pay attention to what day the last chapter came out.
But "the 1st of every month and every 4 days thereafter" isn't the most intuitive schedule to grasp. So here's my better way of doing 1st and 4: chapter on the 1st, and then every 4th day of the month. So 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, etc. See? It is a small change, but one that I hope makes things easier to grok.
And yes, there are only 3 days between the 1st and the 4th. But there are also 3 days between the 28th and the 1st in a 30 day month, and the full 4 days in a 31 day month. Instead of having one big crunch at the end of the month I'm having one or two smaller ones.
Now, because I didn't think of this earlier (and because of other things I didn't think of until late in the month), I might have to skip the update on the 1st of October or otherwise do something different. I don't want to do that. There's value in the fact that I haven't missed a planned update since starting this new regimen and I don't want to lose that. So I'm telling myself a smaller than normal update, even one that's an OT, will be acceptable, just as long as something goes live to read on Saturday.
State of the Me
Had another night of shallow, interrupted sleep. Again, delayed-release melatonin helped stop it from being a sleepless one.
Plans For Today
Got a chapter of Tales of MU to finish, a chapter of K&DR to work on ending, and a newsletter that needs to go out tomorrow.
Okay, so yesterday I mentioned better ways of doing things. Here's one of them. I'll be talking about another one tomorrow.
So my update schedule for TOMU chapters is "every four days" and my goal is "eight chapters a month". Obviously there is not a single month in the calendar with 32 days. My actual schedule is the 1st of every month, and then every 4 days thereafter. This creates a time crunch at the end of the month, where I'll only have 2 or 3 days to finish a chapter in a typical month (and 0 days in February, where I'd either have to post one chapter a day early and then post another one the next day or just let it stand as a 7 chapter month).
So why not go to a flat "every four days, period" schedule or one that doesn't try to squeeze in an extra chapter? For the latter consideration, part of it's emotional. Eight is the magic number of updates that makes me feel productive. And I'd rather give people more to read than less. As to why I make the publishing schedule reset every month... I want the updates to be predictable even to people who didn't pay attention to what day the last chapter came out.
But "the 1st of every month and every 4 days thereafter" isn't the most intuitive schedule to grasp. So here's my better way of doing 1st and 4: chapter on the 1st, and then every 4th day of the month. So 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, etc. See? It is a small change, but one that I hope makes things easier to grok.
And yes, there are only 3 days between the 1st and the 4th. But there are also 3 days between the 28th and the 1st in a 30 day month, and the full 4 days in a 31 day month. Instead of having one big crunch at the end of the month I'm having one or two smaller ones.
Now, because I didn't think of this earlier (and because of other things I didn't think of until late in the month), I might have to skip the update on the 1st of October or otherwise do something different. I don't want to do that. There's value in the fact that I haven't missed a planned update since starting this new regimen and I don't want to lose that. So I'm telling myself a smaller than normal update, even one that's an OT, will be acceptable, just as long as something goes live to read on Saturday.
State of the Me
Had another night of shallow, interrupted sleep. Again, delayed-release melatonin helped stop it from being a sleepless one.
Plans For Today
Got a chapter of Tales of MU to finish, a chapter of K&DR to work on ending, and a newsletter that needs to go out tomorrow.