I just started using a tool that is likely to improve and streamline  somewhat the way I attack my workload. It’s pretty popular, as far as I know, and it’s called Todoist.
Basically it is a list-making tool, a scheduler.
You put in the stuff you have to do, with dates and details. You can flag and prioritise the single entries, and it’s got a lot of nifty bits.
You can use it on your smartphone (I don’t) or on your PC, where it appears as a plugin for both your browser and your mail client.

I usually key in

• Title, brief description of each interesting open call
• The URL with the complete call description
• The deadline

And this is helping me a lot.

Right now, I’m looking at a call that goes like this…

Why is it always the teenage girl who is the heroine?
These are the stories of female protagonists who are never cast in the feature films. The awkward, the old, the forgotten, the different.
Their adventures were never meant to be. Their save-the-world expeditions shouldn’t have happened. They are the ones who stepped forward when no-one else would.

Isn’t this great?
And this being a low-priority gig that pais a very minuscule fee, it’s the sort of thing I’ll try and write in two after-dinner sessions – not for the money, but because I like the concept so much.

Another tool I have adopted is a simple spreasdheet where I write down

• Date I submitted my story
• Title
• Wordcount
• Genre
• Magazine/Anthology/Publisher I submitted to
• Contact details
• Deadline and promised reply time
• Notes

This has replaced my little notebook – it’s faster and it allows me more flexibility while I keep all of my submissions under control.

All of which, I am told by those in the know, is cold and sterile, and leaves little room for inspiration, for fighting our own demons and for communing with our Muse.
Right, my Muse.
I wonder where she’s now.
Up to no good, certainly.