Getting stuff done

I talk to a lot of people in my job. Invariably, through one way or another, I let them know I like to write thriller novels in my spare time. I consider it my meditation and have been doing it for over a decade.

I recently launched myself in the online publishing sphere (after years of constructive rejection), releasing some books (with more to follow - I've included some links at the end).

On reflection of all of that, I wanted to share what I call my 5 P's. Now, if you Google "5 P's of ..." there are a bunch of options: leadership, selling, motivation, life, success, nursing, planning... and the list goes on. Mine is the 5 P's of getting-stuff-done. Most of what I read spoke about the same kinds of things (but not all) and dutifully covered aspects of my own P's.

PERSEVERANCE - Sometimes things get in the way, and we need to push through it. A lot of organisations I've worked for, and work with, suffer from the 80/20 rule. They get distracted by the new shiny thing when the project is 80% completed, leaving the remainder floating in an abyss for someone else to pick up one day. We need focus.

When I run my 5 km, I'm usually pretty shattered after three. It would be easy to give up and walk at that point. No one would care. No one would hassle me. But I've got one rule that stays with me when the times get tough: Keep going.

When I write, I always have a new idea for another story, something that just demands my attention. Sometimes I don't know what to write next (some people call that writer's block, I call it an opportunity to watch Netflix). It would be easy to write the next big idea, but that won't help get the current story finished. Take a break, sure, but don't stop. Keep going.

POSITIVITY - Sometimes things get hard, and we beat ourselves down. Having a positive mindset is something that is spoken a lot about these days in various forums. When things go wrong, we let ourselves know about it. We're our own harshest critic. Sometimes that voice is telling us to quit or distracting us with countless possibilities. We need to remain positive in the tough times.

Every time I hit the wall (you know, about that 3 km mark), a little voice tells me to stop, that the body is tired, that it's okay to stop. That's one of those defining moments. Am I going to be dictated to by that little voice in my head, held hostage by those thoughts, or am I going to change my thinking?

When I finished one of my books, I started to fall down the rabbit hole. What if nobody likes it, what if no one wants it, what if no one buys it, what if all the reviews are terrible, and the list goes on. I can tell you now, those questions don't lead to success. I'm not suggesting a 180-degree shift in thinking; 'Everyone's going to love it' is equally unproductive. However, if I tell myself that I believe in the story, and it's a great story, then my actions are going to be very different.

PASSION - Sometimes we get lost, and we lose a bit of love for what we are doing. Particularly in times of hurt, crisis, pain, change, whatever, it's easy to fall out of love of what we do, where we do it, and who we do it with. The great thing is you get to choose those things. No - not easy. Yes - you control. We may not work in our passion, but we need to be passionate about what we do. We need to remember our passion.

There's a reason I get up early (for me) every Saturday, or hit the pavement at dusk a few times a week. It's not because anyone would miss me. It's not because of money, or even to be healthy. I run because I like it. I'm not very good at it, but I still like to do it. For me, there's some achievement linked to it.

I've sat at a computer screen. A blank page. A flashing cursor. I've asked myself: "Is this love, or labour." I'm not going to lie. Sometimes you need to pull up your socks, roll back the sleeves, and trudge through the tough stuff. What kept me going was my passion for writing, the overwhelming sense of achievement when pieces fall into place or I type "The End".

PLANNING - We need to know where we're going, what we're trying to achieve, and (generally) how we're going to get there. In organisations I've worked with, planning becomes second to doing. They get caught up in the day-to-day of getting work done. People would rather swing the axe then figure out which tree needed to be cut down. We are all under immense time pressure, so I understand. It just doesn't help us get a better result. We need to take the time to plan (and reflect). If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

I'm a fan of vague goals. So my plan when I go running is rather open - it lets me flex when I need to, given the environment and everything else. My goal is always an endpoint (5 km, 6 km, whatever), to run at a comfortable pace, and to keep going no matter what. Secondary to this is my time goal, invariably 5 min/km.

There are generally two types of people when it comes to writing: planners (people who outline) and pantsers (who write by the seat of their pants). What they both have is an idea in their heads, generally a beginning, middle, end. They might even have a character, scene and plot in mind. And this is what they write to. The planner just has more detail on those things. No one (I'm fairly sure) starts writing a rom-com that turns into a paranormal sci-fi horror story. My point is planning helps guide the action towards an end goal.

But no one mentioned PACE.

Pace is the manner in which we keep moving forward, some may call it execution. And we must keep moving forward, no matter what. There are a lot of distractions, a lot of thoughts in our heads, fantastic opportunities to do something different. If we don't keep moving forward, we'll never reach our goals. But inching forward, ever so slowly, won't get us there. If you want to save money in an organisation, you won't do it by counting the pens in the stationery cupboard. There needs to be a greater momentum to get there. If you are heading towards your goal, do it at pace.

You can dawdle a marathon, but how long is that going to take you? I ran a 5 km trail recently. It was hard. It was the hardest course I had encountered. And, yes, I walked up the hill at the end. But if you're going to walk, do it with purpose. Make the effort and continue some sort of pace.

If you wrote one word a day in a ninety-thousand-word novel, it would take almost 250 years. This is just as unrealistic as writing ten-thousand words per day of sustained effort towards a single project. It just doesn't work that way. If you want to get from the exposition to the resolution, you've got to work at pace (note there is a difference between first draft and editing).

I hope something in here has been useful, if only a little. Perhaps you will reflect on how you do things or even create your own rules for getting your stuff done.

If you're interested in crime, conspiracy, and psychological thrillers, you can check out my website at https://kennethjamesallen.com/

Alternatively, search for name wherever you download e-books.