Day 774: Scheduling experiment, take 2
Today is the second day of a scheduling experiment I’m trying to do. Instead of doing my marketing work first thing before my writing, like I have to do with my “frogs” (Japanese study, email, and Regency research reading) in order to make sure I get them done, I planned to do my marketing after my writing. I still did my other “frogs” before writing, but I was hopeful I’d be able to stop writing at 5 pm and then work on my marketing work. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d get to it, because in the past, when I left my marketing to the end of my day, often I’d be so tired that I would simply skip it.
My writing ended up taking longer than I expected. I had thought it wouldn’t be so hard to stop writing by a certain time, but it was actually a bit difficult because I was trying to write a certain number of words today, and I hadn’t made it by 5 pm, so I kept working and didn’t finish my writing until almost 6 pm.
I was trying to concentrate, but I admit my mind was distracted often. I’m still trying to practice deep focus, but I think I need to work on it more. I forgot to try the Pomodoro method when I was getting distracted today, so I need to remember to use the Pomodoro method tomorrow to try to practice deep concentration.
Since I’m trying to eat by a certain time every day, I ended up eating dinner, and then doing my marketing afterwards. I’m glad I didn’t skip my marketing altogether, but it was also a bit hard to get back to work after eating, since I usually take the time after dinner to wind down and get ready to go to bed.
On the one hand, I got my full amount of writing done that I wanted to do today because I did the writing first, before my marketing work, and worked all the way up until dinnertime in order to make my word count goal. On the other hand, I had to do some work after dinner because I didn’t finish my writing at the time I wanted.
But if I think about what’s more important, the writing is obviously more important than the marketing. Sure, I am risking not getting my marketing done at all since I’m leaving it to the end of my workday when I’m most tired. Sure, my newsletter might be late or not go out at all if I don’t do my marketing. But ultimately, getting my book done is the priority. So even though it sucked that I had to do marketing after dinner, I still managed to keep it down to about 30 minutes of marketing work, and I managed to get a full 1500 words done on my book.
I guess I’ll continue with this scheduling experiment tomorrow. I’m hoping that as I continue to practice deep focus, I’ll be able to concentrate better and write faster and get my work done on time.
Writing streak: 253 days
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 18 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1570 words
Writing-related business:
Regency research reading: time spent: 28 minutes
Email: time spent: 13 minutes
Marketing: time spent: 37 minutes
My takeaway for today: Don’t forget to use the Pomodoro method in order to practice deep focus and concentration!!!
My second takeaway for today: Even though it sucked to have to do marketing work after dinner, what’s more important is that I got a good amount of writing work done because I left the marketing for later rather than doing it before the writing. I’ll continue this scheduling experiment in leaving the marketing for last, even though I’m risking not getting it done at all.
My writing ended up taking longer than I expected. I had thought it wouldn’t be so hard to stop writing by a certain time, but it was actually a bit difficult because I was trying to write a certain number of words today, and I hadn’t made it by 5 pm, so I kept working and didn’t finish my writing until almost 6 pm.
I was trying to concentrate, but I admit my mind was distracted often. I’m still trying to practice deep focus, but I think I need to work on it more. I forgot to try the Pomodoro method when I was getting distracted today, so I need to remember to use the Pomodoro method tomorrow to try to practice deep concentration.
Since I’m trying to eat by a certain time every day, I ended up eating dinner, and then doing my marketing afterwards. I’m glad I didn’t skip my marketing altogether, but it was also a bit hard to get back to work after eating, since I usually take the time after dinner to wind down and get ready to go to bed.
On the one hand, I got my full amount of writing done that I wanted to do today because I did the writing first, before my marketing work, and worked all the way up until dinnertime in order to make my word count goal. On the other hand, I had to do some work after dinner because I didn’t finish my writing at the time I wanted.
But if I think about what’s more important, the writing is obviously more important than the marketing. Sure, I am risking not getting my marketing done at all since I’m leaving it to the end of my workday when I’m most tired. Sure, my newsletter might be late or not go out at all if I don’t do my marketing. But ultimately, getting my book done is the priority. So even though it sucked that I had to do marketing after dinner, I still managed to keep it down to about 30 minutes of marketing work, and I managed to get a full 1500 words done on my book.
I guess I’ll continue with this scheduling experiment tomorrow. I’m hoping that as I continue to practice deep focus, I’ll be able to concentrate better and write faster and get my work done on time.
Writing streak: 253 days
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 18 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1570 words
Writing-related business:
Regency research reading: time spent: 28 minutes
Email: time spent: 13 minutes
Marketing: time spent: 37 minutes
My takeaway for today: Don’t forget to use the Pomodoro method in order to practice deep focus and concentration!!!
My second takeaway for today: Even though it sucked to have to do marketing work after dinner, what’s more important is that I got a good amount of writing work done because I left the marketing for later rather than doing it before the writing. I’ll continue this scheduling experiment in leaving the marketing for last, even though I’m risking not getting it done at all.
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