Day 145: Cycling and Alphasmart for the win!
Not entirely sure how to handle the procrastination issue from yesterday, but today I shook things up a little.
I usually need some physical exercise first thing to get my brain moving, so while I woke up extra early again, I did yoga. I haven't done it for a while, so I felt a little sick afterward, but after breakfast, that passed.
Now I'm headed into writing, but without checking my email first. This could be dangerous because for me, email is like exercise--if I don't do it first thing, it might not get done at all. Usually I need to do my email before work, because it's like eating my frog, but since I want to get work done today to make up for yesterday, I'm foregoing the frog to try to get into a writing mindset earlier in my day, when I might be more productive (not sure yet, but preliminary data seems to indicate I write faster within the first 6 hours of waking up). I hope I won't regret it.
I'm still trying that cycling experiment, so I'm starting with a little editing first, then easing into writing.
***
So far, I think the cycling experiment has been going really well and helping me to overcome my loathing of self-editing. I did about an hour of editing, and although it was kind of a lot of work, it was the kind of less-challenging mental work that I could do first thing in the day when my brain hadn't yet completely woken up.
It also helped that I only edited for an hour. Before, I had the entire manuscript to self-edit and was looking at an entire day of editing, which was really rather daunting. Breaking it up this way not only helps me ease into the writing and remind me where I am in the story, it also makes the editing more palatable.
After the editing, I did a little more than an hour of writing on the Alphasmart and I'm pretty pleased with how that went. I did about 1800 words in a little more than an hour!
I also worried that I would avoid checking email, but I ate my frog during my break.
But my problem is still getting back to my writing after my break!
I've considered not taking a break at all, but decided eventually that I can't do that. My body needs the breaks. I simply can't sit for longer than an hour without getting up to stand and walk around. And I usually go walking to the kitchen or the bathroom and see something that needs to be done. I'm terribly undisciplined! Why can't I just get back to work after five minutes of stretching?
I also noticed today that after I stopped working, I felt like my brain was tired and needed to be "reset" somehow. I wonder if that's why I tend to take long breaks? But I don't want to need to reset my brain. I want to be able to take 5 minutes to go to the bathroom and grab a cup of tea and then go back into work.
I'm going to need to figure this out somehow. I just don't know how. I'll need to think about it some more, and maybe do some research online.
***
I got some more work done before lunch, but again I procrastinated before getting back to work. This time, I got caught up in a book I was reading while eating lunch and I wanted to see how it ended.
This made me wonder if my procrastination and lack of motivation lately is because I haven't refilled the creative well enough lately. I really haven't been reading enough. Normally I try to get in at least an hour a day, but lately I haven't gotten in even half an hour a day.
Maybe when I'm procrastinating, it's because I'm mentally drained and I haven't refilled the well? At the same time, a part of me doesn't want to waste even more time NOT WRITING.
Still, this bears thinking about. If extra time reading will keep me from procrastinating throughout the day, I'll end up getting more done, right?
I also discovered that maybe I need to "prime the pump," so to speak. When I was procrastinating, I was basically sitting at my desk and staring into space, unmotivated to write. I got very angry at myself and grabbed the Alphasmart and started journalling about it.
But the act of typing somehow made it easier to think about getting back to the writing. So maybe I just need to spend some time journaling or free writing before I start work after a break?
I don't know if either of these ideas has any merit, but it's what I thought about while berating myself for procrastinating. So now I'll stop procrastinating and start working again.
***
The journalling really did seem to unlock my brain and I was able to dive right into my writing after typing the above.
I did really well on the Alphasmart! I was able to write reasonably fast, although I didn't quite hit 2000 words per hour.
I think part of that is because I can sometimes type very fast, and the Alphasmart keyboard can't keep up (it has 2-key rollover) so I have many more typos on the Alphasmart than on my computer with my gaming keyboard, which has n-key rollover. So I spent a lot of time backspacing to correct typos, because I simply couldn't keep going without fixing them first.
(I kind of want the Freewrite by Astrohaus, because it has Cherry MX brown switches, but I haven't been able to find out if it has n-key rollover, which I need for my typing speed.)
I found that unlike when I write in the 4thewords.com website, I will stop after each scene. I need to learn how to move on to the next scene if I haven't written for a full hour yet.
I'm kind of tired and it's getting close to the end of the day, but I want to try to get more hours of work put in. As of this writing, I've edited for 1 hour and written for only 2.5 hours. I'm going to try to write another hour to get more words done today.
***
Wow! I did a lot of words today!
I did notice my energy (mental and physical) was flagging during this last writing sprint, but I still managed to write over 1100 words at 1500 words per hour!
I think the Alphasmart really works well! I had been resistant to using it because I knew the editing was going to be really bad, but since I've been able to do the editing without problems thanks to this cycling experiment, now I can use the Alphasmart without worries.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the number of words I wrote today, even though I only wrote for 3.3 hours. If I hadn't procrastinated so much earlier, I might have gotten even more hours of work done!
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 21 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 5597 words
Writing: Average speed: 1690 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 18 minutes
My takeaway for today: Now that the cycling is helping with the self-editing hurdle, the Alphasmart is great for faster writing speed!
I usually need some physical exercise first thing to get my brain moving, so while I woke up extra early again, I did yoga. I haven't done it for a while, so I felt a little sick afterward, but after breakfast, that passed.
Now I'm headed into writing, but without checking my email first. This could be dangerous because for me, email is like exercise--if I don't do it first thing, it might not get done at all. Usually I need to do my email before work, because it's like eating my frog, but since I want to get work done today to make up for yesterday, I'm foregoing the frog to try to get into a writing mindset earlier in my day, when I might be more productive (not sure yet, but preliminary data seems to indicate I write faster within the first 6 hours of waking up). I hope I won't regret it.
I'm still trying that cycling experiment, so I'm starting with a little editing first, then easing into writing.
***
So far, I think the cycling experiment has been going really well and helping me to overcome my loathing of self-editing. I did about an hour of editing, and although it was kind of a lot of work, it was the kind of less-challenging mental work that I could do first thing in the day when my brain hadn't yet completely woken up.
It also helped that I only edited for an hour. Before, I had the entire manuscript to self-edit and was looking at an entire day of editing, which was really rather daunting. Breaking it up this way not only helps me ease into the writing and remind me where I am in the story, it also makes the editing more palatable.
After the editing, I did a little more than an hour of writing on the Alphasmart and I'm pretty pleased with how that went. I did about 1800 words in a little more than an hour!
I also worried that I would avoid checking email, but I ate my frog during my break.
But my problem is still getting back to my writing after my break!
I've considered not taking a break at all, but decided eventually that I can't do that. My body needs the breaks. I simply can't sit for longer than an hour without getting up to stand and walk around. And I usually go walking to the kitchen or the bathroom and see something that needs to be done. I'm terribly undisciplined! Why can't I just get back to work after five minutes of stretching?
I also noticed today that after I stopped working, I felt like my brain was tired and needed to be "reset" somehow. I wonder if that's why I tend to take long breaks? But I don't want to need to reset my brain. I want to be able to take 5 minutes to go to the bathroom and grab a cup of tea and then go back into work.
I'm going to need to figure this out somehow. I just don't know how. I'll need to think about it some more, and maybe do some research online.
***
I got some more work done before lunch, but again I procrastinated before getting back to work. This time, I got caught up in a book I was reading while eating lunch and I wanted to see how it ended.
This made me wonder if my procrastination and lack of motivation lately is because I haven't refilled the creative well enough lately. I really haven't been reading enough. Normally I try to get in at least an hour a day, but lately I haven't gotten in even half an hour a day.
Maybe when I'm procrastinating, it's because I'm mentally drained and I haven't refilled the well? At the same time, a part of me doesn't want to waste even more time NOT WRITING.
Still, this bears thinking about. If extra time reading will keep me from procrastinating throughout the day, I'll end up getting more done, right?
I also discovered that maybe I need to "prime the pump," so to speak. When I was procrastinating, I was basically sitting at my desk and staring into space, unmotivated to write. I got very angry at myself and grabbed the Alphasmart and started journalling about it.
But the act of typing somehow made it easier to think about getting back to the writing. So maybe I just need to spend some time journaling or free writing before I start work after a break?
I don't know if either of these ideas has any merit, but it's what I thought about while berating myself for procrastinating. So now I'll stop procrastinating and start working again.
***
The journalling really did seem to unlock my brain and I was able to dive right into my writing after typing the above.
I did really well on the Alphasmart! I was able to write reasonably fast, although I didn't quite hit 2000 words per hour.
I think part of that is because I can sometimes type very fast, and the Alphasmart keyboard can't keep up (it has 2-key rollover) so I have many more typos on the Alphasmart than on my computer with my gaming keyboard, which has n-key rollover. So I spent a lot of time backspacing to correct typos, because I simply couldn't keep going without fixing them first.
(I kind of want the Freewrite by Astrohaus, because it has Cherry MX brown switches, but I haven't been able to find out if it has n-key rollover, which I need for my typing speed.)
I found that unlike when I write in the 4thewords.com website, I will stop after each scene. I need to learn how to move on to the next scene if I haven't written for a full hour yet.
I'm kind of tired and it's getting close to the end of the day, but I want to try to get more hours of work put in. As of this writing, I've edited for 1 hour and written for only 2.5 hours. I'm going to try to write another hour to get more words done today.
***
Wow! I did a lot of words today!
I did notice my energy (mental and physical) was flagging during this last writing sprint, but I still managed to write over 1100 words at 1500 words per hour!
I think the Alphasmart really works well! I had been resistant to using it because I knew the editing was going to be really bad, but since I've been able to do the editing without problems thanks to this cycling experiment, now I can use the Alphasmart without worries.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the number of words I wrote today, even though I only wrote for 3.3 hours. If I hadn't procrastinated so much earlier, I might have gotten even more hours of work done!
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 21 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 5597 words
Writing: Average speed: 1690 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 18 minutes
My takeaway for today: Now that the cycling is helping with the self-editing hurdle, the Alphasmart is great for faster writing speed!
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