Day 19: Clearing the decks, taking breaks
This diary has been very helpful in helping me to understand my typical daily habits, since I’ve been recording not only what I did but also how I felt throughout the day. Ever since I realized that I need to “clear the decks” every day before I start my writing work, I’ve been spending about 3 hours after waking up to do home chores, and then anywhere from 60-90 minutes doing email and other writing-related work.
(“Clearing the decks” is mentioned in 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox. “Clearing the decks” is the simple principle of doing everything else you have to do first so that you can focus just on your task at hand. For some people, that’s cleaning their desk or going to the bathroom or making a cup of coffee. For me, it’s doing all my home chores and email, because otherwise the thought of them left undone will nag me and distract me while I’m writing, which makes it hard for me to focus and get into flow state.)
Then I will usually be able to jump right into writing. I haven’t been taking a break when I’m writing, so I end up going 90 minutes or more. I was okay with it for about 2 weeks, but because I’ve been antsy and easily distracted for the past few days, now I think I need to schedule a break every hour. I’ll have to see if a five minute break is enough or if I need longer before I’m ready to jump back into work.
I have also started to realize that if I have something I have to do within an hour of starting my writing time (most of the time, if I’m starting the day late and I have to cook dinner), it’s hard for me to get into flow state and focus on my work. I’ve tried doing only 15 or 30 minutes of work but I’m not focused at all and don’t get much done. I’ve realized that in order to focus and get into flow state, I need to start working knowing that I have at least 2 hours of time where there’s nothing else I have to do.
This is just for this plotting phase of my book creation process. A part of me is very curious if I’ll need this block of time for when I’m writing my rough draft. Also, I’m a little afraid that the long hours I’ve been able to focus while plotting won’t translate over when I start writing.
Today I’m continuing work on volume 5, doing my spiritual and romantic arcs.
***
Finished the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 5! However, it was a struggle to focus again today, so I’ll stop here and spend some time reading or watching Netflix to refill the creative well.
I wanted to experiment with taking scheduled breaks, but found myself too antsy to work for long periods. I ended up stopping to take breaks about every half hour, and the breaks ranged from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. I’ll continue experimenting in the next week.
Tomorrow I’ll work on Snowflake step 6 for volume 6.
Time spent writing: 2 hours, 36 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 41 minutes
My takeaway for today: This diary has been very helpful in helping me to understand my typical daily habits, since I’ve been recording not only what I did but also how I felt throughout the day.
(“Clearing the decks” is mentioned in 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox. “Clearing the decks” is the simple principle of doing everything else you have to do first so that you can focus just on your task at hand. For some people, that’s cleaning their desk or going to the bathroom or making a cup of coffee. For me, it’s doing all my home chores and email, because otherwise the thought of them left undone will nag me and distract me while I’m writing, which makes it hard for me to focus and get into flow state.)
Then I will usually be able to jump right into writing. I haven’t been taking a break when I’m writing, so I end up going 90 minutes or more. I was okay with it for about 2 weeks, but because I’ve been antsy and easily distracted for the past few days, now I think I need to schedule a break every hour. I’ll have to see if a five minute break is enough or if I need longer before I’m ready to jump back into work.
I have also started to realize that if I have something I have to do within an hour of starting my writing time (most of the time, if I’m starting the day late and I have to cook dinner), it’s hard for me to get into flow state and focus on my work. I’ve tried doing only 15 or 30 minutes of work but I’m not focused at all and don’t get much done. I’ve realized that in order to focus and get into flow state, I need to start working knowing that I have at least 2 hours of time where there’s nothing else I have to do.
This is just for this plotting phase of my book creation process. A part of me is very curious if I’ll need this block of time for when I’m writing my rough draft. Also, I’m a little afraid that the long hours I’ve been able to focus while plotting won’t translate over when I start writing.
Today I’m continuing work on volume 5, doing my spiritual and romantic arcs.
***
Finished the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 5! However, it was a struggle to focus again today, so I’ll stop here and spend some time reading or watching Netflix to refill the creative well.
I wanted to experiment with taking scheduled breaks, but found myself too antsy to work for long periods. I ended up stopping to take breaks about every half hour, and the breaks ranged from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. I’ll continue experimenting in the next week.
Tomorrow I’ll work on Snowflake step 6 for volume 6.
Time spent writing: 2 hours, 36 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 41 minutes
My takeaway for today: This diary has been very helpful in helping me to understand my typical daily habits, since I’ve been recording not only what I did but also how I felt throughout the day.
Comments
Post a Comment