Today’s post is about HB90, productivity, and writing. But first, a little context.
For the past year and a half, my day-job title has been Editorial Assistant and Project Manager. My job has involved writing and editing news articles, feature articles, and other copy. But the larger part of my workday is spent coordinating the efforts of a small communications and marketing team as we fulfill the print and graphic needs of various departments at a small liberal arts college.
What that means is that every recruiting brochure, every athletics poster, every video and podcast, every direct mailer, calendar, press release, and event photography, goes through me. I use a fancy software suite to manage it and keep a record of every moving piece at any given moment. I earned my Google Project Management Certification (though I’m not a full-fledged PMP yet).
All that to say, I’ve spent A LOT OF TIME thinking about how things get done.
But for some reason, until I signed up for Sarra Cannon’s HB90 Bootcamp in June, I never applied that mindset to my writing career.
Following the Arrows
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been paying attention to what Emily P. Freeman calls “arrows.” Arrows are little indicators that point you toward an answer to questions you’ve been asking. Maybe others would call them signs from God or the universe, or maybe even omens.
Whatever you call them, they’d been pointing at Sarra for a while.
Someone recced her Shadow Demons series as something I might enjoy reading (I did).
Someone whose guidance I trust in the indie author world mentioned HB90.
I attended an Author MBA online conference where a session about Plottr got me hooked on a new piece of plotting software–and it includes a scene template for “Sarra Cannon’s Scene Roadmap.”
Who is this Sarra Cannon? I found myself wondering.
Enter HB90
HB90 stands for Heart Breathings 90. Heart Breathings is the community paranormal YA author Sarra Cannon 1Bookshop affiliate link has created online for like-hearted writers.
HB90 is her quarterly-planning method. Sounds simple, right? But it’s not just about planning in three-month segments. She also teaches you to:
- Look at how much time you have BEFORE you make your plans.
- Make a list of everything you want to do…and then EVALUATE that list.
- Realize that you can’t do ALL THE THINGS, no matter how much you want to.
- Look at the methods she recommends and adapt them to fit your ACTUAL life.
She doesn’t overlook neurospicy writers, either. She doesn’t tell you, “It’s my way or the highway.” She encourages you to find the parts that work for you and throw out what doesn’t.
What I’m saying is, Sarra Cannon isn’t selling you snake oil or a silver bullet.
Sarra Cannon’s HB90
Here’s how she describes it on her website:
Every year in December, I would sit down and map out the entire year to come with all the lofty goals I wanted to complete (and they all appeared attainable at the time), but eventually, I realized that I was always around 30 days behind in where I should have been to achieve each goal. So, I would sit down with all my cute stationery supplies (because that ALWAYS makes everything better!) and redo my plans/goals from scratch. Eventually, once I had done this more times than I can count on one hand, I knew I needed a new plan.
That’s when I decided to try planning in 90-day increments and this new system was a game-changer! Breaking my larger goals down into smaller projects, and then into even SMALLER tasks helps me do a deep dive into the pieces of the puzzle that will actually fit together to complete the goal.
Why 90 days? Great question! 90 days is long enough to see viable results, but it’s not so long that we get way off course.
Join the HB90 Bootcamp
So why am I telling you all this today? Because the latest round of HB90 Bootcamp just opened for registration on September 1, and I decided I believe in this course so much that I want to be an affiliate.
If you sign up for HB90 using my affiliate link, I get a 20% commission. Everyone who enrolls gets lifetime access.
HB90 helped me get Shroudling across the finish line and into your hands, and it’s helping me meet my writing goals and business goals as I work on Witchery’s End. I can’t recommend it enough.
