Today’s hard pill to swallow: counting this week, I have 11 standard focus blocks for the remainder of the year.

A standard-length post takes me two focus blocks to draft and edit. A long one takes four to six focus blocks. Shorties (<800w) don’t take a focus block - I can do them in about 30m.

A good visioning, project management, or coordination session takes a focus block.

Reading a book for research or writing may take me two or three focus blocks.

Doing quality book outreach to three or four people takes me a focus block.

A few good sales emails take a focus block.

Lots of activities to fund, too few focus blocks to fund them with.

By “standard,” I mean what I can reasonably count on without push-through, crunching, or working over the holidays. Sure, I may get up at 5am for a few mornings, feel like writing on the weekends, or opt for a build day during the holiday break, but I’ve learned to count those as bonus blocks when it comes to setting my own expectations with myself.

It’ll take me a day or two of triaging down to the essentials, then I’ll have to do it again because two days from then, I’ll see that I need to build in more margin.

That’s my focus block count and creative struggle? What’s yours?

(Not sure what I’m talking about? Read this post: productiveflourishing.c…)