Day 52: To battle distraction and procrastination, try shaking things up

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I had previously found that “clearing the decks” before working was the best way to clear my mind to write, but since I was so distracted yesterday (and I procrastinated quite a bit), I decided to try to shake things up by writing before I did my writing-related work (like checking email and social media).

I was afraid I’d be distracted by thoughts of stuff I would have to do in my email (which is what had happened to me before), but today I was able to focus on my writing relatively well. I was a little distracted, but not very much.

So the “shake things up” experiment seemed to work well. I’ll try it again tomorrow.


***

My creativity tanked after about 3.5 hours—I’ve spent the last hour struggling over the same plot problem. I don’t know if this is my natural rhythm or if it’s because my back started bothering me about an hour ago. Regardless, I think it’s time to take a longer break.

***

My upper back issue is feeling like it’s going to turn into a full-blown migraine, so I’m going to post this and go lie down.

Mini-scenes plotted so far: 64
Time spent writing: 4 hours, 42 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 25 minutes

My takeaway for today: When I find myself being distracted or procrastinating, shaking things up by changing my writing routine might help.

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