How I Keep Track of My Writing

 

My Writing Planner - the blank spaces at the beginning of the month were because
I had to take time to sort out our 2025 financial info for our tax lady.

Over the past few years, I’ve spent time each day recording what I’ve been writing. Currently, I write for Medium (Tues & Thurs), for Substack (Mon, Wed, Fri), for my author’s website PaulineEvanosky.com or PME (Tues & Thurs), and for my website Talking to Spirit, which I also call TTS (Sun & Tues). I’ve been trying to schedule the publication of these articles and build up a bit of a stockpile for myself. It’s so if I need a day off here or there or plan something to do that isn’t something I normally do, I’ve got a cushion.

This has resulted in a pattern of work in which, over time, I write at least two articles a day. Sometimes I can get three written in a day, like I'm doing today, and very infrequently I’ll get four done. But mostly, it seems to be two articles a day. I don’t want to stress out about it, but I do want to have a bit of consistency for readers if that’s something they like.

There are a couple of places where I write that I do not publish, like my journal which can sometimes run into the thousands of words and my daily motivational bits in my Do-Good File of 150 to 200 words. It was a long time ago that, in my retirement, I realized I had the luxury of having all day to write. In fact, if I were sleepless, I could get up at 3 am, write for a few hours, and then go back to bed. I never realized what a beautiful thing a nap can be in the middle of the day.

That’s my writing life. At one point, before I started tracking all of this, back when I wasn’t writing as much, I realized that it might happen that there would be a span of time when I didn’t get bupkis done. So, what was I doing? Playing solitaire all day long? Reading? Watching movies? The reading is essential for any writer. The movies could be said to be supportive of a writing habit. I could also argue that solitaire kept my mind sharp. None of that (except the reading) really and truly fulfilled the dream I needed. Which was to write. That’s what got me tracking stuff. Also, I would get confused about when I should publish stuff and end up double-publishing on some days. Which, I suppose, isn’t a bad thing either. And sometimes I still do that if I am moved by something. I’ve got my rules, and then I break them. It’s a system I’m comfortable with.

This is my Words Count Spreadsheet. There is another column to the right that keeps a tally of how much I've written that day, and another column for the month.
So far, even including today's work (3/23) it is at 50,742 words for the month of March, 2026.

So my system involves two spreadsheets and a daily planner I designed for myself in Excel. The one spreadsheet just counts words. I get a word count on every article (excepting the ending bits of thanks and here are some links), I count my Do-Good File which doesn’t get published, but often proves to be a springboard into publishable articles and I count my journal which does the same as the Do-Good File with the added benefit of being a soap box where I can holler to my heart’s content if that’s what I want to do.

The second spreadsheet is where I track the stats I can get from the different platforms I write on. In this spreadsheet, I record the articles I will publish. It gives me a good visual to see if I’ve forgotten to write something.

This is what I call my Medium Stats. That's just the first writing platform I wrote for. Since then I've added more pages to the workbook. What is pictured here is March, 2026 for this website. To the side you can see my tab for TTS (Talking to Spirit) and Substack. Medium is off to the side.

The last thing is the planner I made. It takes up two printed pieces of 8 ½ by 11-inch paper. The month gets laid out in a grid system with the schedule listed. This, by far, is a huge help to me. I leave it open on my desktop all the time because I’m using it all the time and will schedule in whatever article I’ve finished. It quickly shows me blank spots I need to fill. I also only print two months at a time, so that if something doesn’t seem to be working, I can delete it or even add something new to the schedule. The planner picture is at the top of this article.

When I worked for somebody else before I retired, they generally all told me what to do and when to do it. Now that I work for myself, well, that’s something I have to keep track of.

I know having regrets about something isn’t really a teaching moment for yourself, but you know? If I’d been doing an abbreviated version of this years ago, I think I could have rolled into retirement firing on all cylinders. As it was, it took me a good five years or more to get my ducks lined up.

If this helps anybody to give a thought to how they track their writing, then it’s a good thing. Also, if you are billing anybody, this might also help you to track how much time you’re spending on their stuff and if they are just sucking you dry, or if the business is good.

What is nice about my system is that I will soon alter it to include book projects. I've already written a three-book series for young people about finding work. I wrote it a couple of years ago, and it needs to be edited and published. I've got plans for other books too, and I'd like to see some work on them. Will something need to give in my schedule, or am I accustomed to it enough that I can just pile the new projects on? Time will tell. 

Writing books is my life's work. I want it to mean something, and if what I've written here gives you some ideas, then I've done my job.

Thanks for reading. I’ve listed some more places where I am on the Internet. And, for the first time, I’ve created a Donate PayPal Button. Hey, if you don’t ask, how is it anybody will know you need some dough, right? Right.

🌺 Pauline Evanosky

 🌺My Links:

Talking To Spirit — my website
Talking To Spirit on Substack

Pauline Evanosky on Medium
Talking To Spirit on Substack

Pauline Evanosky — my author’s website

My Table of Contents for Medium — Updated Monthly
My Table of Contents for Substack — Also Updated Monthly

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References I recommend on your path to more psychic awareness from TalkingtoSpirit.com

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