The Creative Cycle

A post about writing and depression, on the MS Editors blog.

Lara's avatarMS Editors

I don’t know about you, but 2016 left me with several serious dry seasons when it came to creative juices flowing.

Sometimes, for our mental, emotional, or physical health, we need to take a break.

Absorbing information, researching, and being entertained are all parts of the ten steps for writing a novel.

I once wrote that there’s no such thing as writer’s block—you’re just not writing. I still think that’s true. Last month, my family got a new Windows tablet that is pretty much 98% useless. The other 2% is the solitaire games I haven’t played since I switched to MacBooks my freshman year in college.

This has a point, I swear. Have you ever played Freecell? It’s a solitaire game in which very few deals are unsolvable. Playing Freecell is even easier on the computer, because you can use the undo button to back up indefinitely. Since…

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Printable 2017 Quarterly Calendar

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Near the end of 2015, I made a post about time management, which included free downloads to help you get organized for the new year, including a Gantt Chart Excel template and a printable blank quarterly calendar.

Plan a Month’s Worth of Projects with a Gantt chart

Here’s what the Gantt Chart template looks like:

gantt chart

Click to download the Excel Template

Track your progress AND plan out your month so you know which tasks you should work on each day.

Plan Several Months at Once with a Quarterly Calendar

I’ve been using this quarterly calendar since 2015 as a family planner, color-coding events and appointments for each family member. We can see the whole year at a glance, and I use it daily! It also works really well for planning out projects. You could use highlighters to create Gantt Charts on your calendar.

The new calendar spans January to December, 2017, and this time I added a color version.

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