Day 169: Breaks; mindset shift

-
Yesterday was my writing day off, so I mostly did busywork like cleaning out my email Inbox and organizing some of my research notes. I also listened to an audiobook and read a light novel, so I refilled the creative well, also.

Today I got up and tried to get writing right away. I can't remember why now, but I did some blocking on a future scene first, and then I started writing at the dining room table so that I could get away from my computer, to see if that helped with productivity and eliminating distractions.

It wasn't a great experiment, because I had forgotten how cold our dining room is, and the chill was really distracting. I only did half an hour.

I'm taking too long on my breaks. I was reading on a Facebook group that one really prolific author doesn't take breaks. I wonder if I should try to do that, just work straight through as long as I can? I don’t know if my body could handle that, though.

Maybe it’s my mindset that needs to change. Instead of taking a “break,” I’m stopping to use the bathroom or whatever and not really taking a “break,” I’m still just writing straight through. I’d really like to be able to work for 4-5 hours straight, so maybe that’s the key, a mindset shift.

I did my writing on the Freewrite Traveler today and I’m getting used to it. The arrow keys are very much like the Alphasmart, so that’s nothing new, but I’m still not really liking the lag time between my typing and the words appearing on the screen. I tend not to look at the screen as I’m typing on the Traveler because that lag is really distracting.

I was thinking I should also try typing slower, since that would also decrease my typos that I have to go back to fix. They say you should keep going and ignore the typos, but I just can’t do that, the typos nag at my brain until I go back to fix it. It might be slightly OCD. Also if I don’t fix the typos, that’s a lot of extra work when I do the self-edit, and if there’s a lot of little things like that to fix (like when I have to fix dictated scenes), then the self-edit isn’t as thorough since I’m fixing everything else.

I also got the paperback covers from my graphic designer today, so I spent time uploading the paperback versions of The Gentleman Thief and volume 1 in my series up on Amazon. As soon as the links are live, I’ll be able to email my Street Team so they can start posting reviews on Amazon for volume 1. I also registered the copyright for both books and updated the ISBN information.

One of my Street Team members emailed me today and said she absolutely loved volume 1! That made me feel so good!

***

I got a little more writing done today but I’m starting to fade, so I’m going to go to bed a little early. I think I’m about to get my period, which usually makes me more exhausted.

I wasn’t able to try that mindset shift experiment today, so I’ll try that tomorrow.

Blocking: time spent: 44 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours
Writing: Total number of words: 4431 words
Writing: Average speed: 1086 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 43 minutes

My takeaway for today: Tomorrow, try a mindset shift experiment and focus on working straight through with only short bathroom breaks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 783: Evaluation 7

-
It’s been almost seven months since I wrote my last Evaluation 6 , but I finally got around to Evaluation #7! Here’s the gist of what I’ve learned over the past few months about my writing and productivity. New schedule My IBS was slowly been starting to feel better recently. I am still extremely strict with my diet, but I am also starting to experiment with what foods I can and can’t eat. I have also started a new eating and sleeping schedule, which I have dubbed my “chrono-diet” because I’m trying to take advantage of my circadian rhythm, according to the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (I had borrowed a copy from the library but I enjoyed it so much I went ahead and bought it). I have started waking up at 6 am and exercising first thing, then having breakfast after exercise. I do house chores and/or work until noon, which is when I eat lunch. I’m supposed to not eat until dinner around 5:30 or 6, but I haven’t been able to break the habit of snacking in the aftern...
Read more

Day 252: Evaluation 5

-
It’s been a while since I’ve done an evaluation, so I figured I was overdue. In no particular order: Good health = good work I had some really bad health issues lately that kept me from writing entirely. However, I found it strange that I’ve been feeling very creative and motivated yesterday and today, despite getting in a lot of work hours yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t had any IBS issues for the first time in a couple weeks. Not even a little discomfort. This is kind of duh! in hindsight, but I think I underestimated how much my IBS was affecting my energy levels. I’ve been careful about what I ate, but I was also trying to figure out exactly what I could and couldn’t eat, so it resulted in some bad IBS bouts. So now I know I really need to be strict about what I’m putting in my mouth so that my health doesn’t adversely affect my energy for work! Sprints Another sort of duh! moment in hindsight, but sprints have been helping me with my productivity. At f...
Read more

Day 21: Bullet journal, Surrender statement

-
Today was my writing Sabbath so I didn’t do any writing today, but I spent a lot of time doing writing-related things. I did some blogging, and I also reviewed my writing To Do list. I cleaned it up by checking off what’s been done, deleting what I no longer need to do, and making note of what I need to do this coming week. Before I started bullet journaling (in an electronic journal app, Day One Journal ), I had my To Do lists in a couple different places and I’d usually forget things I needed to do. Now I have them in my bullet journal, which combines journaling with task organizer, and I’m less likely to forget. I still set reminders for myself in my phone, but since I’m using my journal throughout the day every day, I’m more likely to see things I need to do. I found some of my old To Do lists today and incorporated some things in my bullet journal. One of them was my writing Surrender Statement, which is a prayer I pray before starting each day’s work. What’s a Surrender Sta...
Read more