I have a really bad habit.

It’s one that encourages exactly the opposite behaviors of the prolific, productive writer/human I want to be.

I focus on what I haven’t gotten done, instead of focusing on what’s on my schedule, what I have time for, or what I’ve already accomplished. The spotlight only shines on What I Haven’t Done…

That’s so sad.

How often do we do this to ourselves? I’ll never build energy to move forward by beating myself up over the unfinished items in my wake. And that’s what I need—energy and momentum to go forth and conquer. (one of my life mottos!)

This year I’ve begun working with a Kanban board, which has seriously helped my productivity and attitude. In January, when I was taking the items down to start on February’s tasks, I automatically carried all the old sticky notes to the trash can. After all, I didn’t need them anymore, right?

Wrong!

At the last minute, I paused. In my hand were over a dozen things I had done in January. I HAD ACCOMPLISHED these things. And let me tell ya, over the last year, I’ve been pretty paralyzed, especially in the marketing arena. Getting these things done was a huge step for me and something I should acknowledge. Hell, celebrate even!

Rather than throw them away like trash, I took these precious reminders of my forward momentum and put them in this simple basket. Then I marked them as DONE.

To others, this might not be important or necessary, but for me its becoming more important on a daily basis to STOP beating myself up over what I didn’t do, ant START acknowledging the things I did do, did make time for, did accomplish.

Because those things are damn hard in my busy world, and that makes me a kick-ass author and person!

How do you celebrate your DONE?

Dani