Day 146: Can't get to the root of my procrastination
I wasn't able to do my physical exercise first thing this morning--I woke up starving and ate instead of doing yoga, so now I have to wait an hour before doing it or else I'll be hurling my breakfast.
The problem is that the exercise typically helps my brain to wake up. So I'm starting work right now, but there's a chance I'll only be staring blankly at the screen.
However, I'm continuing the cycling experiment, so I'll be doing self-editing first, and that's less mentally taxing than writing. So my brain fog might not make much difference in my work output if I'm only editing.
After the editing, I'll dive into the writing. I'll be using my Alphasmart today again since it seemed to work really well yesterday. I'm going to try timing myself rather than going by scenes, so that I'll start a new scene rather than stopping like I did yesterday. That might help with my forward momentum.
I also forgot to mention yesterday that my blocking notes were on my Kindle rather than my computer or phone, and that seemed to work really well, too, since I was essentially unplugged.
I still haven't really found a solid solution to my procrastination problem. Ideally I'd like to be able to return to writing after only a 5 or 10 minute break, which I haven't been disciplined enough to do. I also had brain fog that made me sit and stare at my computer yesterday, although that seemed to be solved when I did a bit of journalling to "prime the pump." My challenge today will be in keeping my breaks to only 5 or 10 minutes in between writing sprints.
***
I hadn't thought about this before, but when I write a lot, the editing the next day takes longer! I've finished editing, but it's taken me almost an hour and a half and I need to take a break for my back. I hope this doesn't devolve into massive procrastination like yesterday!
***
As I feared, getting myself back to work was hard. I really don't understand why I putz around so much and don't want to get right back to work. Luckily I had started a monster on 4thewords.com so I had to get back by a certain time or I'd lose my monster battle. Thank God for 4thewords! I think I'd procrastinate so much longer without those monster battles I start before my break.
Knowing this about myself, maybe I should start a 600 word/60 minute monster battle before break. Then I really have to get back to work within 5 or 10 minutes since I'll need about 45 minutes to battle the monster, just to be safe.
However, aside from using 4thewords to manage my procrastination, I really want to know why I do it, so that I can get to the root of the problem. I know I really love this book I'm writing, this entire series, really. Now that I'm writing on my Alphasmart, I'm usually at my kotatsu desk which is pretty comfortable with all my snacks and blankets around me. I really need to figure out what the underlying issue is.
Anyway, I have to get back to writing to finish the monster before time runs out!
***
I wrote for a little over an hour, then before taking a break I started a 60 minute monster.
It did get me back to work after 15 minutes, but I have to admit I felt rather fuzzy headed as I was writing to finish battling the monster. I also wrote at a slightly slower pace than when I wrote for an hour, and I only wrote for a little less than 40 minutes because I had to make sure to input the words from my Alphasmart before the 60 minute monster ran out.
It's lunchtime so I think I'll just take a long break to eat.
***
I read a book during lunch, then went for a walk and listened to an audiobook, and I came back from my walk physically tired and only a little mentally refreshed. Mostly I just feel tired, which is ridiculous since according to Toggl I only actually worked about 3 hours this morning.
I just don't understand why I don't have the stamina I did when I was plotting the book. Is the writing that much more strenuous? I feel like I ought to have better focus than this.
I need to figure out why the procrastination and lack of motivation is so bad!
***
Well I took a nap and ended up sleeping a lot longer than I expected. I wonder if I really was tired and that's why I couldn't focus?
Regardless, it's now Sunday morning as I'm writing this and it's my writing Sabbath, so I won't know how it affects my procrastination problem until Monday. Plus now my sleep schedule is all screwed up.
I didn't get much done today, but maybe that's for the best if my body needed the extra rest. However, I did write at a faster pace than my previous days, I think because I had been doing shorter sprints of 20 minutes or less.
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 2426 words
Writing: Average speed: 1673 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 20 minutes
My takeaway for today: I need to figure out why the procrastination and lack of motivation is so bad!
The problem is that the exercise typically helps my brain to wake up. So I'm starting work right now, but there's a chance I'll only be staring blankly at the screen.
However, I'm continuing the cycling experiment, so I'll be doing self-editing first, and that's less mentally taxing than writing. So my brain fog might not make much difference in my work output if I'm only editing.
After the editing, I'll dive into the writing. I'll be using my Alphasmart today again since it seemed to work really well yesterday. I'm going to try timing myself rather than going by scenes, so that I'll start a new scene rather than stopping like I did yesterday. That might help with my forward momentum.
I also forgot to mention yesterday that my blocking notes were on my Kindle rather than my computer or phone, and that seemed to work really well, too, since I was essentially unplugged.
I still haven't really found a solid solution to my procrastination problem. Ideally I'd like to be able to return to writing after only a 5 or 10 minute break, which I haven't been disciplined enough to do. I also had brain fog that made me sit and stare at my computer yesterday, although that seemed to be solved when I did a bit of journalling to "prime the pump." My challenge today will be in keeping my breaks to only 5 or 10 minutes in between writing sprints.
***
I hadn't thought about this before, but when I write a lot, the editing the next day takes longer! I've finished editing, but it's taken me almost an hour and a half and I need to take a break for my back. I hope this doesn't devolve into massive procrastination like yesterday!
***
As I feared, getting myself back to work was hard. I really don't understand why I putz around so much and don't want to get right back to work. Luckily I had started a monster on 4thewords.com so I had to get back by a certain time or I'd lose my monster battle. Thank God for 4thewords! I think I'd procrastinate so much longer without those monster battles I start before my break.
Knowing this about myself, maybe I should start a 600 word/60 minute monster battle before break. Then I really have to get back to work within 5 or 10 minutes since I'll need about 45 minutes to battle the monster, just to be safe.
However, aside from using 4thewords to manage my procrastination, I really want to know why I do it, so that I can get to the root of the problem. I know I really love this book I'm writing, this entire series, really. Now that I'm writing on my Alphasmart, I'm usually at my kotatsu desk which is pretty comfortable with all my snacks and blankets around me. I really need to figure out what the underlying issue is.
Anyway, I have to get back to writing to finish the monster before time runs out!
***
I wrote for a little over an hour, then before taking a break I started a 60 minute monster.
It did get me back to work after 15 minutes, but I have to admit I felt rather fuzzy headed as I was writing to finish battling the monster. I also wrote at a slightly slower pace than when I wrote for an hour, and I only wrote for a little less than 40 minutes because I had to make sure to input the words from my Alphasmart before the 60 minute monster ran out.
It's lunchtime so I think I'll just take a long break to eat.
***
I read a book during lunch, then went for a walk and listened to an audiobook, and I came back from my walk physically tired and only a little mentally refreshed. Mostly I just feel tired, which is ridiculous since according to Toggl I only actually worked about 3 hours this morning.
I just don't understand why I don't have the stamina I did when I was plotting the book. Is the writing that much more strenuous? I feel like I ought to have better focus than this.
I need to figure out why the procrastination and lack of motivation is so bad!
***
Well I took a nap and ended up sleeping a lot longer than I expected. I wonder if I really was tired and that's why I couldn't focus?
Regardless, it's now Sunday morning as I'm writing this and it's my writing Sabbath, so I won't know how it affects my procrastination problem until Monday. Plus now my sleep schedule is all screwed up.
I didn't get much done today, but maybe that's for the best if my body needed the extra rest. However, I did write at a faster pace than my previous days, I think because I had been doing shorter sprints of 20 minutes or less.
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 2426 words
Writing: Average speed: 1673 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 20 minutes
My takeaway for today: I need to figure out why the procrastination and lack of motivation is so bad!
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