Day 778: Clearing my metaphorical desk
I went back to doing my marketing task before my writing as one of my “frogs”, and surprisingly I found myself less stressed once it was done for the day. I realized that in doing my writing but having a task lurking that still needed to be done, it made me uneasy that I still had one more thing to do. I don’t know if it might have made me distracted while writing, but I definitely still had the idea in the back of my mind about how I still needed to do my marketing after I was done with my writing, even though I had a clear schedule of when to stop writing and get started on my marketing work. And ironically, I never did actually get to my marketing yesterday because other house chores came up.
I might be just weird to be like this, to feel the need to get all my other smaller tasks done before I tackle the one big task of my day, but I think this is just part of my personality. Other people might feel less stress if they do the one big task first before doing the small tasks. I guess each person has to figure out for themselves what works best. I think that for me, I need to get all my other smaller tasks done first and clear my metaphorical desk before I get started on my writing.
It seems paradoxical. After all, the writing is most important, so I should do that first thing, right? But I’ve found that if I don’t do those other small things first, they simply won’t get done at all. And while they’re less important than the writing, they’re still important and I can’t afford to not do them at all. I had started the experiment because I thought perhaps I have become disciplined enough that I would still get the marketing done even if I left it for last, but I was mistaken.
So here I am again where I was before the start of the experiment, doing my daily “frogs” before I start on my writing work: Japanese study, email, marketing, Regency research reading. I got that last done during lunch, so in a sense it was a working lunch. I’ve found that I can more easily motivate myself to dive right into writing work after lunch if I do some type of work while I eat, as opposed to simply reading a novel.
I was again trying to practice deep focus while writing. I was not as distracted as I have been at other times, but I still don’t think I was as focused as I could have been. I will have to continue practicing it and hopefully I’ll get better at it and be able to focus more intently when I work.
Writing streak: 257 days
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 59 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1721 words
Writing-related business:
Regency research reading: time spent: 47 minutes
Email: time spent: 4 minutes
Marketing: time spent: 42 minutes
My takeaway for today: For me personally, I feel the need to complete all my other smaller tasks first before tackling my biggest task of the day, my writing work.
I might be just weird to be like this, to feel the need to get all my other smaller tasks done before I tackle the one big task of my day, but I think this is just part of my personality. Other people might feel less stress if they do the one big task first before doing the small tasks. I guess each person has to figure out for themselves what works best. I think that for me, I need to get all my other smaller tasks done first and clear my metaphorical desk before I get started on my writing.
It seems paradoxical. After all, the writing is most important, so I should do that first thing, right? But I’ve found that if I don’t do those other small things first, they simply won’t get done at all. And while they’re less important than the writing, they’re still important and I can’t afford to not do them at all. I had started the experiment because I thought perhaps I have become disciplined enough that I would still get the marketing done even if I left it for last, but I was mistaken.
So here I am again where I was before the start of the experiment, doing my daily “frogs” before I start on my writing work: Japanese study, email, marketing, Regency research reading. I got that last done during lunch, so in a sense it was a working lunch. I’ve found that I can more easily motivate myself to dive right into writing work after lunch if I do some type of work while I eat, as opposed to simply reading a novel.
I was again trying to practice deep focus while writing. I was not as distracted as I have been at other times, but I still don’t think I was as focused as I could have been. I will have to continue practicing it and hopefully I’ll get better at it and be able to focus more intently when I work.
Writing streak: 257 days
Regency series:
Editing: Time spent: 59 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1721 words
Writing-related business:
Regency research reading: time spent: 47 minutes
Email: time spent: 4 minutes
Marketing: time spent: 42 minutes
My takeaway for today: For me personally, I feel the need to complete all my other smaller tasks first before tackling my biggest task of the day, my writing work.
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