The past three TAA Conversation Circle discussions were packed with tips and strategies from TAA members! Here are just 9 tips shared during these discussions:

Writing Strategies

“At the end of each day, I print out what I have drafted. And then the next day, wherever it is I ended the previous day, that’s my starting point, rather than trying to scratch my head and figure out where I was when I left off.” – Margaret Reece

“I put a post-it on my computer to note where I left off for the day. Having that little nudge as to where to pick up is good, particularly if you can’t get back to it right away.” – Frank Carrano

“What I have found to be a really great strategy for me is to meet with my co-author every week. We meet for an hour every Tuesday morning. We keep each other on track, so there’s that accountability piece.” – Mary Beth Averill

“Whenever errant thoughts come into your head while you’re supposed to be writing, such as ‘don’t forget to get milk’ or ‘the contractors are coming today’, put them in a ‘parking lot’ by having a piece of paper nearby where you put those thoughts. That way you don’t let go of them or try to remember them, but then you can get right back to your writing. This also works when you’re feeling kind of anxious, or you’re having fears or worries or a sentence is terrible or, you’re thinking, ‘everybody’s gonna hate this, why am I writing it?’, those thoughts can also go in the parking lot so that you can just get it all out of your head and then go back to what you were doing.” – Michelle Boyd

Organizational Strategies

“I have been using a hard bound bullet journal for about two years. Mine has graph paper in it. It’s amazing for me. It’s how I keep my life organized. I just made a page today that’s headed ‘Create Conversation Circle Notes’ and when I hear things that people say that I think are useful, I’m writing on that page. The thing that’s wonderful about bullet journals is you don’t have to leave blank pages. If you don’t know how many pages of notes you’ll be taking today, it doesn’t matter because the system is set up so that you can just add more pages whenever you want to. It keeps me from having a lot of notes on Post-its all over the place.” – Mary Beth Averill

“Organization begins with my physical space. I have a dedicated home office in my basement and just having a clear, organized, clean, tidy space really frees my mind of distractions, because clutter for me is a distraction.” – Paul Krieger

“About nine months ago, I got a stand up desk. It was one of the smartest things I ever did because it really helps me keep only what I need on my desktop. I also have multiple computer monitors because I do a lot of work with data and it allows me to have things open while I’m working on them. Every Sunday night I set goals for the week by writing them down and sharing them with my accountability buddy. This really keeps me get organized on what I want to focus on and what I have to do.” – William Cleveland

Marketing Strategies

“One thing that has really helped me is my blog, which I started in 2013. My target audience is other instructors that teach introductory accounting. I share a short story every week or two with the tutorial video that they can assign to students so they don’t have to buy my book or use my books to use those. It really does grease the wheels, because when I go to conferences and meet people, people do know who I am, so the blog has been really, really useful.” – Wendy Tietz Read her blog “Accounting in the Headlines”

“Vocalize the ‘Look Inside” tool on your book’s Amazon page. Do a short snippet video of your books with your voice behind it.” – John Anomdeplume (Hodges)

Join us October 26 at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion on editing strategies!