I Wrote a Book on Time Management. And Still Managed to Miss Every Single Deadline for Publishing.

OK, first: Let’s clarify something – the deadlines were self-imposed.

Second: Still, it’s quite a controversial paradox, if you think about it.

Since I’m a huge fan of crime series, let me start my exoneration by saying – Here’s what happened.

 

1: The Birth of the Idea

I was doing some research on time management techniques, and at one moment I realized I had so much information, I might as well write a book. I am very systematic with a knack for organization and order, so as soon as I got the idea, the content backbone immediately crystallized before my eyes. There would be 52 time management techniques, and it would be called “The Essential 52: 52 Time Management Techniques for 52 Tightly Packed Weeks”. Perfect!

 

2. Setting the Deadline

It was somewhere in mid-October 2023 when I realized that it was pretty doable to write the book by the end of November and publish it on Amazon Kindle around Christmas, as a Christmas gift to myself. And so did the journey begin. Or the race against time. Depending on how you look at it.

 

3: Writing the Book

Strangely enough, and ironically, the easiest thing in writing a book is to actually write the whole thing. If you have a good idea, solid layout, and strong command of self-discipline, writing a book is a piece of cake. If you live in the 21^st century surrounded by all these wonderful and helpful writing and publishing tools, it’s more like a crumb.

 

4: First Reading

Once you have written and edited the book, all satisfied with the outcome and proud of yourself, you find a pool of reliable people whom you can trust, and you kindly ask them to read the book, fill in the accompanying questionnaire and give you their honest feedback. And then you wait. This is exactly what I did.

 

5. The Honest Feedback

In all fairness, I was more than satisfied with what I had written and how I had written it, so I didn’t expect extremely negative feedback or harsh criticism. However, I also didn’t expect so many genuinely insightful comments and remarks, which resonated with my original intention and purpose of writing the book. I thought to myself, “Huh, OK, this is not only good, but better than expected, so why not make it great?” And that was the moment the grounds under the Christmas deadline became shaky.

Let’s be frank, even before I sent the book for reading, I had already known what I would change. Those were some minor and boring interventions. However, after an extensive night with some friends of mine and a heated discussion on which time management technique was the best, as well as an ardent defense of certain techniques my friends found useless, I realized that perhaps their idea to add my own thoughts about each technique was not that bad, even though my initial idea was to present the techniques in the form of a guide or a textbook. You know, hazards of profession from being a teacher, and all. Then another friend suggested I should write detailed instructions on how to read the book and what to find where, which came as an epiphany as well. Obviously, another friend commented on the fact that since I already had self-assessment in the book, why not add a quiz for the time management approaches? “A quiz?” sighed the teacher in me with eyes wide open. “Say no more!” “Oh, and you should also put it at the end of the book, you know that usually all such things are there.” “At the end, right, gotcha.” Quite right, indeed.

 

6: Editing

So, there it was, back to the drawing board. Part II.

It’s funny, but once you have written the book according to your original idea, it seems that every intervention is a potential disaster waiting to happen. The second I removed the self-assessment part and put it at the back of the book, it was like somebody had stolen a piece of a perfect domino chain and tried to replace it with a sticky note that read “domino”. Obviously, this wouldn’t work, so I had to rearrange the beginning and the end of the book and start with the assemblage from scratch. Yay!

On the one hand, this was a major intervention. On the other, it was pretty logical and intuitive, so I didn’t lose that much time on it.

What did cost me a lot of time, effort, and nerves was editing smaller details such as rewriting sentences or completing paragraphs with additional information. I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but editing your own original text is like stuffing elephants in whitewash cracks. First, you shove them in with a hammer, and then repaint the whole surface with nail polish, hoping it won’t crack. After that, you stick a huge monochrome picture on the wall and put a nice pink ribbon on it, so that when the zoo people come, you can pretend to look at something and sound intrigued when you innocently respond, “Huh… Elephants, you say?” (Disclaimer: No real elephants were injured during the writing of both this post and the book. The figurative ones are happy they no longer live in the zoo. They have moved on from cracks to travel the world and teach Escape the Zoo Techniques to other elephants.)

 

7: Second Reading

The whole editing episode took one week longer than planned, and by the time it was finished, it was pretty obvious that there would be no book publishing on Christmas.

I sent the book to the selected few for the second reading and told them to read the book after Christmas and send me their feedback by the end of the year. “If I publish the book around the New Year, I am still on schedule, sort of, let’s say.”

 

8: Meanwhile, Part I: The Accounting Conundrum

Since my accountants are well informed about all the changes I’ve been introducing to my company, I wanted to give them a heads-up about the book.

“How do you mean, Amazon?”

“Amazon Kindle, self-publishing.”

“I see. But we aren’t sure how to post this as income… We’ll check with the tax office.”

“But the tax office…”

“The Tax Office doesn’t know anything about it.”

“I could have told you that. They didn’t know about it in 2014, when I first asked, in 2018, nor in 2020, the last time I checked.”

“We’ll see what we can find out…”

 

9: Meanwhile, Part II: The Parallel Tax Expert Investigation

Upon hearing those words, I immediately remembered I have a friend who is a tax advisor/expert. I called him and explained my issue. He said he’d check it. Two days later, he called, and I said, “Don’t want you to think I’m not working on it, it’s just a bit complicated from the Croatian tax and legal point of view, so I involved a colleague of mine.” “Um… Great… Thanks… I think…” Both grateful and annoyed, I hung up the phone and decided not to think about publishing until I finished the final version of the book.

 

10: Christmas COVID

Three minutes before Christmas, I sneezed and – lost the next several days to COVID. At one point, I was discussing the whole situation with a colleague of mine and got so upset that I think COVID decided to call it quits and ran off from the crazy unpublished lady, especially given the fact that I recovered right after the call as if nothing had ever happened, as soon as I calmed down.

 

11: More Quality Feedback

It was the end of the year when I received feedback from the second reading. It was really detailed but did not require any significant interventions. Thankfully. However, …

 

12: Belated New Year Holidays

Since COVID had messed up my plans to go home and visit my family, I decided to go home nevertheless, after New Year. I have two old grandmas, one pushing and the other one in her nineties, and deciding whether to see them or have the meeting with the tax advisors and edit the book, again, instead, was, honestly, a no-brainer for me. The book and the taxes would simply have to wait.

 

13: Epiphany

Back in my hometown, I stumbled upon an article on how to upgrade the experience of some time management techniques. Clearly unimpressed, I told my best friend I could think of at least three more interesting ways to tweak these techniques, on spot and in five minutes. He said, “Why don’t you?” And that’s how I decided to add yet another part to each technique chapter in the book. Whoops.

 

14: Editing, Part II

Once I returned home, I first added the new segment for each technique. Then, I carefully went through the second feedback and implemented all the suggestions that resonated with my own view of the book. At that time, it was already mid-January, and it was obvious that the book would not be published any time soon.

 

15: Meanwhile, Part II: The Time Drags On

Also, at that time, I realized I forgot about the tax advisors. I called my friend, and he explained there were some unforeseen circumstances, but that we should see each other on Friday. Sadly, that plan fell through, too. The meeting time dragged on, and once we finally met, I got all the answers.

 

16. Making It Official

Pretty satisfied with the information I got, I finally felt confident enough to open the Kindle account, happy because I finally have all the details in check. For some reason, and I honestly don’t know why, there must be a huge fault either in my brain, or my stars, because I’ve been an entrepreneur in Croatia for about 15 years, and I still have this cutesy romantic vision that there is a proverbial prince on the white horse who has all the right answers for running a business in Croatia and steering clear off the grey zone. (If you really do exist and are out there – nudge, nudge – get in touch!) Silly me!

Of course, as soon as I registered the account, I realized that all the information I had was completely wrong. Never mind, I’ll adjust my actions accordingly. Along the way. I guess.

 

17. Long Story Short

All these incidental setbacks aside, the only thing that was left to do with the book at the time were some minor details like the final layout, formatting tables and deciding on the final verdict regarding infographics and images.

“Minor” is a severe case of an understatement in this question because why keep it simple, when we can complicate. In short, I first created tables for all the examples. I wasn’t really satisfied because at some point I realized that it would be nicer to make infographics for each example. So, I made infographics. For all the examples.

 

18. Life Happens

In the meantime, in February, one of my grandmas died, so I went home. It was difficult for me to arrange a longer stay at home with my family, and I agreed with my mom to stay longer during Easter time.

Easter time arrived before you know it, and I spent some time with my family, away from any work. To be honest, I don’t even feel bad about extending my holidays. I can always publish a book, or find new clients, but I can only spend as much time with my family as life allows. Priorities first.

 

19. Long Story Shorter

Once I resumed my work on the book, I realized that simple tables work better for eBooks, at least for the purposes that I needed, so it was back to the drawing board. For the umpteenth time. Yaaaay!

Having reverted infographics to tables, I decided to read the book once again. (Oh, no!) Obviously, after so much time, I found some things I would like to change, and believe it or not, there were things that needed to be updated. Yes –only six months later! These are indeed crazy times we live in!

After I was finally satisfied with the v_final_27, The Essential 52 was ready to see the light of day. And so was I. Also, and would you know it – it took me ages to design the cover. I had the idea of what I wanted immediately, but making the idea work in practice and be easy on the eye, is a whole different story.

 

20. In Review…

At that point, all that was left was to define the price and several other minor details, and that was it. I finally clicked Publish. My heart pounded, my thoughts raced, I nearly swooned… But – Alas! Little did I know that before publishing, the reviewing process ensued. (No, I didn’t know that. Yes, I could have guessed that. No, I didn’t think about it – I had never published a book before! Sheesh!) So, I waited. And waited. And waited. For an entire week. And then…

 

20. Tick Tock Around the Clock

And then – finally! The email I had been waiting for: Your book is available in Kindle Store! It was Saturday evening, but the official day of publishing said: “Friday 13”! I have always had a knack for weird, awkward, and unusual things. It is only logical that my first book got published on Friday 13.

I cannot describe that combination of emotions having seen the book available for sale in Kindle Store. From horror to exhilaration, from dread to expectation, all that the plethora of emotional life has to offer. And the shock from knowing – the only thing left to do is to tell the world about it!

Oh well, bottom line…