My Weakness is Organizing

As you read my article title, what are your thoughts? Ten to one you're thinking that I am ill adept at organization. However, I'm here to tell you that the weakness I'm talking about is my love of organizing. That's right. My love of organizing. It's a sinister form of procrastination. Here's how it works. At the time of this writing, I own seven flash drives, thumb drives, call them what you will. To say that I own them is somewhat misleading. Two of them I appropriated from my kids. Appropriation in this case means that until I'm finished with them the kids are not getting them back. I merely have to convince them that my stuff is slightly more important than their stuff and as long as that holds true, Alex's appropriation committee has the right to hold onto their stuff. All parents know this to be an accepted rule of thumb. (thumb drive, rule of thumb... I know, I know, but sometimes I can't help myself) I digress.

I need a new flash drive. Why? Isn't it obvious? My other seven flash drives are full (mostly). Many of them contain the same material. Stuff I copied and sent to a particular flash drive because I didn't remember that I had already copied that same info onto another (or two) of my flash drives. I can't delete any of them. The second copy is a backup of the first and the third copy is a backup of the second. Obvious, right? I need a new flash drive to organize all of the really important stuff that I saved on all seven flash drives onto a master flash drive. A master flash drive. That's the key.

Did I mention that I'm a firm believer in Pareto's Principle? The 80/20 rule. You wear 20% of the same clothes 80% of the time. You eat the same 20% of your favorite food, 80% of the time. 20% of your work activity is responsible for 80% of your income, etc. I'm a new Indie author and therefore 20% of the crap I've accumulated on those seven flash drives are responsible for 80% of the actions I need to take to write, publish and promote my books. But which 20%? Let's say I have 50 (and that's conservative, but I don't want you thinking I'm a hoarder) products all to do with various aspects of book writing and publishing. Some books attack promotion only, others promotion and marketing, yet others on marketing and book cover creation. Then there are the folders which cover Facebook ads, permafree info, countdown deals, website URL's that will accept my free or almost free books (some depending on if my book has several 5 star reviews, others not so picky) Folders with articles on keyword and category importance, book blurb, author bio, secret techniques only previously known by seven figure authors... you get the picture.

Here's the kicker though. This is the magic moment where I reveal why organizing is my weakness and a tool in my arsenal of procrastination. (Oh, yes. I have an army of such tools at my disposal) I convince myself of the importance of tackling my flash drive problem, but at what expense? Writing time. If I don't write, I can't increase my written assets. 20% of my written work will result in 80% of my sales, but 20% of twenty books will provide more income than 20% of ten books. I need to write. Yes, promotion and marketing are super important, but marketing twenty books is more profitable than marketing ten books. There is an order for all authors in the cosmos. You can't promote or market what you don't have. Therefore, writing has to come first. So, please excuse me. I have to attend to my cosmic duty. Technically, writing this article was a form of procrastination. A sneaky way for me to avoid writing the next chapter in my current book. Oh, I'm good. I sneaked up on my procrastinating self, yet again.