Day 193: Mental overload
I had a sort of mental meltdown for the past 2 weeks. I think I was really overwhelmed by all the things I had piled up for me to do—almost all of them marketing things and stuff to do for my book launch—and my brain shut down.
This actually happens to me once every few months. I really beat myself up the last time this happened, but I think I need to instead figure out why it happened and try to fix it.
I know that my creative well was pretty dry because I spent a lot of time reading and watching Netflix. So maybe I’m not spending enough time reading? Maybe?
I also know that I had put a lot of things on my To Do list, and the past few days made me realize I just can’t fill up the list like that. I might feel okay now, but all last week, I was mentally pretty drained.
So I went through my To Do list and just deleted a bunch of stuff. Luckily, the hardest parts for my book launch were already done, so I didn’t have to worry about that. But some of the other stuff—mostly marketing stuff—I’m going to put off until later when I have a little more time and mental energy to tackle them.
I also realized that the great thing about indie publishing is that I don’t have to get everything done around my book launch date. I can still do marketing for book 1 in the series months after it releases, so I don’t have to worry about missing out on promo opportunities this month. I can just do it next year when I have more books out.
Right now, blogging and posting stuff on social media are way down on my priority list and I'd rather work on my book, so I'm going to do just that. The thought of keeping up my blogging regularly stresses me out a bit, so I'm just going to blog when I feel like it. It might be tomorrow, it might be next month.
I'm going to see how much work I can get done today. I'll start by editing/rewriting The Spinster Spy for 30 minutes so I write a little prose today, and then I'll continue work on blocking volume 3.
I also joined the Winter challenge on 4thewords.com since that seemed to really motivate me to write more, and to work on different quests.
***
I got a little bit of work done on The Spinster Spy, then I did some house chores, then had lunch where I did some reading. After the mental meltdown I had, I'm tempted to take it a bit easier today on my work schedule.
I read somewhere from a RITA award winning writer that you should read 1 hour for every hour you write. At the time, I thought that was kind of hard if you're writing full-time and you're not a best-selling author, because you need to spend more time writing in order to release more books, so that you can buy groceries and pay the mortgage.
But maybe there's some truth in that. I know I haven't been reading very much, and I know I was pretty starved for creative content. I don't know if I could read an hour for every hour I write, but I could definitely make more time for reading than I have been.
I prefer having a more predictable schedule, which is why I beat myself up so much the last time this happened. So if I don't want to have another 2-week hiatus, I need to try to get more reading done each day.
Part of the reason I haven't been reading is because I was trying to write for more hours during the day, and when I added the hours for house chores and things, I just didn't have a lot of reading time left. So I'd read for maybe an hour a day. But maybe I should try writing for fewer hours in order to get a couple more hours of reading in?
Breaks are always difficult for me because half the time, I end up doing house chores, which always take longer than I think, and also which really can’t be put off (like dishes or laundry). But lately I’ve been doing more social media, which was something that didn’t distract me much before (in general), so I’m not sure why it’s distracting me now.
But now that I am thinking of doing more reading, I took a longer lunch and read a book, and now I can get back to doing blocking for volume 3. I think I will try for another 3-4 hours of work for today and then spend some time reading.
***
I worked on blocking for about 3 hours and then listened to a webinar on dictation, and now I'm feeling pretty tired. I had kind of been hoping for another hour of blocking but 3 hours isn't bad.
However, now I'm too tired to do much reading, and I only got maybe an hour or 90 minutes at most today. If I keep neglecting my reading, I'll have another mental meltdown eventually and I don't want to go through that again.
I was very undisciplined with my breaks again. I've been more protective of my back and was trying to get up and walk every hour, but each time I took a break, I often took 45-60 minutes! I really have to get that under control.
I had forgotten about a tactic I wanted to try earlier, about listening to an audiobook during my breaks. This might keep me from going on social media, which I did a lot more today (outside of the 30 minutes I give myself for social media). I will try that tomorrow.
Since I had so many non-working days, I decided to switch up how I'm tracking my writing. Instead of tracking how many days it takes me to work on a book, I'm going to track number of hours, since days can change depending on how many hours I work per day on my book. I'll post the totals tomorrow.
Blocking: time spent: 3 hours, 11 minutes (volume 3)
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 11 minutes (Spinster Spy)
Writing: Time spent: 0 (although I did a lot of writing when editing Spinster Spy, since the original draft had been with dictation)
Writing: Total number of words: 0
Writing: Average speed: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 8 minutes (but this doesn't include the 2 hours--yes, two hours!--I wasted surfing Facebook and Goodreads today when I was supposed to be taking a "short" break)
My takeaway for today: MAKE time in my day to read more to hopefully prevent mental meltdown from low levels in my creative well.
My second takeaway for today: Lately I have been wasting time on social media during my breaks when I should instead fill that with reading.
This actually happens to me once every few months. I really beat myself up the last time this happened, but I think I need to instead figure out why it happened and try to fix it.
I know that my creative well was pretty dry because I spent a lot of time reading and watching Netflix. So maybe I’m not spending enough time reading? Maybe?
I also know that I had put a lot of things on my To Do list, and the past few days made me realize I just can’t fill up the list like that. I might feel okay now, but all last week, I was mentally pretty drained.
So I went through my To Do list and just deleted a bunch of stuff. Luckily, the hardest parts for my book launch were already done, so I didn’t have to worry about that. But some of the other stuff—mostly marketing stuff—I’m going to put off until later when I have a little more time and mental energy to tackle them.
I also realized that the great thing about indie publishing is that I don’t have to get everything done around my book launch date. I can still do marketing for book 1 in the series months after it releases, so I don’t have to worry about missing out on promo opportunities this month. I can just do it next year when I have more books out.
Right now, blogging and posting stuff on social media are way down on my priority list and I'd rather work on my book, so I'm going to do just that. The thought of keeping up my blogging regularly stresses me out a bit, so I'm just going to blog when I feel like it. It might be tomorrow, it might be next month.
I'm going to see how much work I can get done today. I'll start by editing/rewriting The Spinster Spy for 30 minutes so I write a little prose today, and then I'll continue work on blocking volume 3.
I also joined the Winter challenge on 4thewords.com since that seemed to really motivate me to write more, and to work on different quests.
***
I got a little bit of work done on The Spinster Spy, then I did some house chores, then had lunch where I did some reading. After the mental meltdown I had, I'm tempted to take it a bit easier today on my work schedule.
I read somewhere from a RITA award winning writer that you should read 1 hour for every hour you write. At the time, I thought that was kind of hard if you're writing full-time and you're not a best-selling author, because you need to spend more time writing in order to release more books, so that you can buy groceries and pay the mortgage.
But maybe there's some truth in that. I know I haven't been reading very much, and I know I was pretty starved for creative content. I don't know if I could read an hour for every hour I write, but I could definitely make more time for reading than I have been.
I prefer having a more predictable schedule, which is why I beat myself up so much the last time this happened. So if I don't want to have another 2-week hiatus, I need to try to get more reading done each day.
Part of the reason I haven't been reading is because I was trying to write for more hours during the day, and when I added the hours for house chores and things, I just didn't have a lot of reading time left. So I'd read for maybe an hour a day. But maybe I should try writing for fewer hours in order to get a couple more hours of reading in?
Breaks are always difficult for me because half the time, I end up doing house chores, which always take longer than I think, and also which really can’t be put off (like dishes or laundry). But lately I’ve been doing more social media, which was something that didn’t distract me much before (in general), so I’m not sure why it’s distracting me now.
But now that I am thinking of doing more reading, I took a longer lunch and read a book, and now I can get back to doing blocking for volume 3. I think I will try for another 3-4 hours of work for today and then spend some time reading.
***
I worked on blocking for about 3 hours and then listened to a webinar on dictation, and now I'm feeling pretty tired. I had kind of been hoping for another hour of blocking but 3 hours isn't bad.
However, now I'm too tired to do much reading, and I only got maybe an hour or 90 minutes at most today. If I keep neglecting my reading, I'll have another mental meltdown eventually and I don't want to go through that again.
I was very undisciplined with my breaks again. I've been more protective of my back and was trying to get up and walk every hour, but each time I took a break, I often took 45-60 minutes! I really have to get that under control.
I had forgotten about a tactic I wanted to try earlier, about listening to an audiobook during my breaks. This might keep me from going on social media, which I did a lot more today (outside of the 30 minutes I give myself for social media). I will try that tomorrow.
Since I had so many non-working days, I decided to switch up how I'm tracking my writing. Instead of tracking how many days it takes me to work on a book, I'm going to track number of hours, since days can change depending on how many hours I work per day on my book. I'll post the totals tomorrow.
Blocking: time spent: 3 hours, 11 minutes (volume 3)
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 11 minutes (Spinster Spy)
Writing: Time spent: 0 (although I did a lot of writing when editing Spinster Spy, since the original draft had been with dictation)
Writing: Total number of words: 0
Writing: Average speed: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 8 minutes (but this doesn't include the 2 hours--yes, two hours!--I wasted surfing Facebook and Goodreads today when I was supposed to be taking a "short" break)
My takeaway for today: MAKE time in my day to read more to hopefully prevent mental meltdown from low levels in my creative well.
My second takeaway for today: Lately I have been wasting time on social media during my breaks when I should instead fill that with reading.
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