Day 346: Japanese flashcards; schedule; email
I noticed yesterday that I was really tired when I finally got around to doing my Japanese flashcards at the end of the day, and I wondered if maybe I should include that as part of my clearing the decks routine in order to get it out of the way sooner. I know that I haven’t been consistent with my Japanese studies, and it was partly because I was stressed about finishing the book, plus when I was sick I didn’t have much mental energy for anything, not work or Japanese study. But I also think that I didn’t do my Japanese partly because at the end of the day I was too tired to do it, and I didn’t have enough motivation to summon up the energy to get it done.
It reminded me of trying to get into running more consistently. I have figured out that if I don’t go running right after waking up and before I start doing anything else, then I won’t go running at all that day. It seems like Japanese study is the same for me.
So today, I did my Japanese flashcards before I started work, not that I have a lot of work today since I’m still on break after finishing the Hawaii book. My only concern is that it pushes back the time I start work, and I worry that it will take away energy I need in order to do my writing, which is a more important activity.
I suppose I’ll just need to keep this up and see how it goes when I start writing again. If I can train myself to do longer hours of focused work on my writing, it might help build my stamina and enable me to do both the Japanese and the writing without my energy flagging on the latter.
I started using a written schedule for my days, which is easy to do with my online journalling app, Day One. It also made it easy to adjust my schedule as things changed. I found that the schedule made me much more efficient in what I did after I woke up, because it lists everything I have to do in the morning. I went straight from one chore to another, and it was nice to not have that extra little bit of effort to remember what I needed to do, especially because today in particular I had a lot of different house chores to do. I also didn’t have moments where I was distracted doing something I didn’t have to do.
It’s strange to be so dependent on my schedule on my phone, though. I’m not sure how I feel about that. But the knowledge that I was very efficient this morning makes me feel pretty good.
My husband was worried about the fact that I’m only checking email on weekends, just in case I get some urgent email about something related to the house or finances or whatever. I rarely get any of those, but since he’s worried, I might have to start checking email everyday. Even though I hate doing it and it derails my creative mojo state. I think I might be able to simply check my messages on my phone at the end of the day. If there’s nothing urgent, then I won’t have to do anything more, I can still wait until the weekend to respond to and organize my emails.
I’m left with the question of what work to do today, when I’m technically supposed to be resting. I could continue working on my fantasy serial novel since it’s just a side project, or I could just ignore the resting and start work on the next Regency. I’m feeling a little guilty to not be doing work, so I might ease into the Regency today and see how I feel.
***
I’m glad I decided to look at my Regency book today, although I confess I didn’t get much work done because I got DISTRACTED! Yes I realize the irony of that when I’ve been trying to practice Deep Work.
Anyway, I realized that since I had to switch my brain to write the contemporary novella, and I’ve been working on that since February (so for about 3.5 months), I feel like I’ve completely forgotten what happened in my Regency series.
I know I complained yesterday about editing my Regency book, but I decided to go back and re-read the 3 books I’ve written in order to get my brain back into the time period and the series. I’ll be editing as I go, but I don’t think it’ll be the detailed editing I was doing on the Hawaii book. I’ll correct anything that jumps out at me, but that’s it.
I’m also going to give up on doing a more detailed edit of the Regency novels. I just don’t have the time or the inclination to do a deep edit.
So, I’ll be doing the re-read over the next few days, and it’ll be less mentally tasking than writing or outlining, so while I won’t be totally resting after finishing the Hawaii book, I also won’t be diving full-on back into work.
I actually was distracted by updating my book catalog, which is not a very urgent task but is something important (to me) that I do eventually want to finish. It was not even remotely work-related, but it did give me a great deal of satisfaction to do some more work on it.
I’ll get started tomorrow on the re-read. I’m actually kind of looking forward to reading my book now that I know I don’t have to do a deep edit on it. (Why do I hate editing so much?)
My takeaway for today: Try doing Japanese flashcards before work (in order to maintain consistency in my Japanese studies) and see if it affects my writing energy and productivity.
It reminded me of trying to get into running more consistently. I have figured out that if I don’t go running right after waking up and before I start doing anything else, then I won’t go running at all that day. It seems like Japanese study is the same for me.
So today, I did my Japanese flashcards before I started work, not that I have a lot of work today since I’m still on break after finishing the Hawaii book. My only concern is that it pushes back the time I start work, and I worry that it will take away energy I need in order to do my writing, which is a more important activity.
I suppose I’ll just need to keep this up and see how it goes when I start writing again. If I can train myself to do longer hours of focused work on my writing, it might help build my stamina and enable me to do both the Japanese and the writing without my energy flagging on the latter.
I started using a written schedule for my days, which is easy to do with my online journalling app, Day One. It also made it easy to adjust my schedule as things changed. I found that the schedule made me much more efficient in what I did after I woke up, because it lists everything I have to do in the morning. I went straight from one chore to another, and it was nice to not have that extra little bit of effort to remember what I needed to do, especially because today in particular I had a lot of different house chores to do. I also didn’t have moments where I was distracted doing something I didn’t have to do.
It’s strange to be so dependent on my schedule on my phone, though. I’m not sure how I feel about that. But the knowledge that I was very efficient this morning makes me feel pretty good.
My husband was worried about the fact that I’m only checking email on weekends, just in case I get some urgent email about something related to the house or finances or whatever. I rarely get any of those, but since he’s worried, I might have to start checking email everyday. Even though I hate doing it and it derails my creative mojo state. I think I might be able to simply check my messages on my phone at the end of the day. If there’s nothing urgent, then I won’t have to do anything more, I can still wait until the weekend to respond to and organize my emails.
I’m left with the question of what work to do today, when I’m technically supposed to be resting. I could continue working on my fantasy serial novel since it’s just a side project, or I could just ignore the resting and start work on the next Regency. I’m feeling a little guilty to not be doing work, so I might ease into the Regency today and see how I feel.
***
I’m glad I decided to look at my Regency book today, although I confess I didn’t get much work done because I got DISTRACTED! Yes I realize the irony of that when I’ve been trying to practice Deep Work.
Anyway, I realized that since I had to switch my brain to write the contemporary novella, and I’ve been working on that since February (so for about 3.5 months), I feel like I’ve completely forgotten what happened in my Regency series.
I know I complained yesterday about editing my Regency book, but I decided to go back and re-read the 3 books I’ve written in order to get my brain back into the time period and the series. I’ll be editing as I go, but I don’t think it’ll be the detailed editing I was doing on the Hawaii book. I’ll correct anything that jumps out at me, but that’s it.
I’m also going to give up on doing a more detailed edit of the Regency novels. I just don’t have the time or the inclination to do a deep edit.
So, I’ll be doing the re-read over the next few days, and it’ll be less mentally tasking than writing or outlining, so while I won’t be totally resting after finishing the Hawaii book, I also won’t be diving full-on back into work.
I actually was distracted by updating my book catalog, which is not a very urgent task but is something important (to me) that I do eventually want to finish. It was not even remotely work-related, but it did give me a great deal of satisfaction to do some more work on it.
I’ll get started tomorrow on the re-read. I’m actually kind of looking forward to reading my book now that I know I don’t have to do a deep edit on it. (Why do I hate editing so much?)
My takeaway for today: Try doing Japanese flashcards before work (in order to maintain consistency in my Japanese studies) and see if it affects my writing energy and productivity.
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