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 afternoon around 3—when I don’t snack, I get so hungry around 4 that I start eating anything I can see, so I snack in order to curb those cravings. I don’t eat anything after dinner and go to bed around 10.
This “chrono-diet” is supposed to help my intestines get back to their preferred schedule according to my circadian rhythm (the full explanations are in the book). Unfortunately, it took me a while to develop better discipline to go to bed on time, wake up on time, and eat at specific times of the day. However, now that I’m doing better about that, I actually think that my intestines have been able to self-heal a bit better now that I’m on this schedule, which allows natural sunlight to trigger my body’s functions. I think I can tell my intestines are most active from 10 am to 2 pm, and from 10 pm to 2 am, because those are usually the blocks of time when my IBS is bad, if I have a flare up. However, I will usually start to feel better after 2 pm, so I’ve been able to get some work done once my intestines settle down.
I have started my writing work at 1 or 2 pm every day and end at 5 pm, assuming my IBS isn’t too bad. It’s put my work on a stricter schedule, which enables me to make sure I carve out time to get writing done.
Anyway, while I still have a few flare-ups, my health has slowly been getting better and I’m feeling like I have more energy. Hopefully this “chrono-diet” will help reduce my IBS symptoms so my diet won’t have to be so strict.
Writing with chronic illness
Before I started this new daily schedule, my flare-ups got really bad for a few months, and I realized that I needed to figure out a way to work even when I’m sick. It isn’t just the pain and discomfort, but often I’m laid low by fatigue that sets in even after the pain dies down, so the number of hours a day when I actually felt well enough to work was much smaller than expected.
I wondered how writers with real chronic illnesses get work done. I supposed they pushed themselves to work through the pain when it wasn’t too bad.
It reminded me of one of my writer friends who does have a chronic illness, and she once told me that she often writes on her phone. I think what she does is at moments throughout the day when her pain is lessened, she gets some writing done no matter where she is or what she’s doing. She doesn’t have to sit at her desk or get out her computer. She just writes until she can’t anymore.
When I thought about it, that’s rather freeing, too. She doesn’t have to feel guilty about not writing a lot in each session because she knows she’ll just write more in the next session, whether that’s in a few hours or the next day. It also enables her to keep working when she’s having a bad day.
I starting thinking that this might be how writers with chronic illness get their work done, in small chunks during the day when they’re feeling better. It’s similar to how other writers who have kids will take a few minutes to write during the times they have the chance to be alone.
I realized that on days when I have an IBS flare-up, writing in short spurts wherever I happen to be—even if it’s in bed and on my phone—will enable me to keep writing on days I don’t feel well. Even on days I feel absolutely terrible, there are several moments during the day when the pain or discomfort isn’t quite so bad, and I can always spend those few minutes writing a hundred words or so on my phone. Now that I’m writing on 4thewords, I always have access to my manuscript and can add a little to it using the web browser on my smart phone.
I’ve realized that trying to work while battling this IBS has forced me to be patient and flexible. If I’m not feeling well at the moment I sit down to work, I try to remember just to take some medication and wait a little while before trying again.
Granted, there were some days I was so unhappy that I just threw in the towel and did the bare minimum for the day, and then didn’t look at my computer for the rest of the day. That happened about 25% of the time. But the other 75% of the time, I’d try to get some work done that day, usually later in the day when the discomfort eased a bit. The writing streak really helped, because I didn’t want to keep the streak by just doing 10 minutes of work each day.
Breaking up the marketing into smaller tasks
It (finally) occurred to me that I should try to do a little bit of marketing work every day in order to make sure that I get it done. Up until that point, I would simply do a bunch of marketing tasks a few times a month, but sometimes I’d procrastinate, especially if there are a lot of things I need to do.
But I decided to break my marketing into smaller tasks that take only 20-30 minutes. I don’t have to write a blog post all at once—I can add a few hundred words to it over the course of a few days. Same thing with my newsletter—I can write a little bit every day rather than writing it all at once, and then an additional day to log in to MailChimp to format and schedule it to go out. After I finish a manuscript, I have a checklist of tasks that need to be done in order to publish the book, but very few of those tasks need to be finished right away. After I finish the manuscript, I could allocate time each day to accomplish one or two of those tasks until they’re all done.
I found that it’s a lot easier to get myself to do my marketing when I know it’s only one small task a day. I have a checklist where I list all my marketing as checkboxes I can tick off as I get them done. Since each task is small, there are a lot of checkboxes, but it makes it easier for me to rearrange and prioritize what marketing tasks need to be done sooner rather than later, and each marketing task only takes me about 30 minutes each day for a few days.
I’ve finally been getting my marketing work done on time rather than scrambling to do it. It’s nice feeling more on top of things.
Doing my “frogs” first
The daily marketing task has become one of my “frogs” (from Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time) or the concept of “clearing the decks” (from 5,000 Words Per Hour). Whatever I call them, they’re tasks I absolutely need to do before I start writing each day. (Right now, my “frogs” are: my Japanese study, email, marketing, and Regency research reading.)
They are tasks that are non-urgent, but they’re still important, and the reason I do them first thing is because I know I won’t get them done at all if I don’t do them before I start on my writing. Before, I did my writing first thing, but then I was usually too tired to get to these tasks after I finished my writing work for the day, and so they just never got done.
For example, for several months I fell behind on my Japanese study because I was too tired to get to it after I finished writing for the day, and when I finally picked it up again, I had forgotten EVERYTHING. So now I do it first thing every day so that I don’t undo my hard work and forget all the vocabulary and grammar I’ve been learning.
For other writers, the writing is their “frog” and so they have to do that first thing. But for me, thanks to my writing streak (see below), I started having fewer problems getting myself to get started writing every day. Instead, it was other important things that fell by the wayside, so they have become my daily “frogs.”
I have tried several times over the past few months to see if I have finally developed enough discipline to do my “frogs” after my writing work rather than before it, because honestly, they take a lot of time, and at the end of the day, the writing is the most important work I have to do. Ideally, I’d do my writing first and then get to my frogs afterward.
But every time I try, I just end up not getting my frogs done at the end of the day, for whatever reason. So now I just suck it up and do my frogs first thing. They get done, and then I move on to the writing. Now that I’m doing that “chrono-diet” schedule, I’ve been trying to start my writing work at the same time each day and end at the same time each day, so if my IBS happens to be especially bad and I don’t have as much time, sometimes one or two frogs don’t get done. But it’s not the end of the world to skip them a couple times a week. Ultimately, they’re getting done mostly consistently.
Simplified writing schedule
Another way in which I changed things up so that I could write even when I have an IBS flare-up was to simplify my daily work schedule. Each day, I will usually need to take a few hours to do my exercise and to do house chores, but I usually had at least 5-6 hours to get work done. However, when my IBS is bad, that time is significantly decreased.
So I reduced the number of tasks I had to do each day and rearranged things so that I only had one major writing project to take up the majority of my time each day.
I also wanted to simplify things because I read about the concept of “batching” in the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Basically, you focus intently only on one task or project at a time over a period of several days. I couldn’t do batching for all the tasks that I have to do, but I could definitely work on only one writing project at a time.
Before, I was doing a little bit of work every day on several things: my Japanese study, email, marketing work, Regency research reading, blocking/outlining my Regency series, writing in my Regency series, and writing in my Hawaii serial novel. I cut that down and only did the things that I absolutely had to do a little bit of every day.
I have to do my Japanese every day (I wouldn’t remember anything if I took time off from my studies), and I also have to clean out my email inbox every day or else the messages will pile up, and when that happens I will usually procrastinate in taking the time to clean it out because it’s such a big, daunting job. Nowadays, email will typically only take me about 10-15 minutes.
I debated about doing a little marketing work every day or trying to do it only one day a week, but when I had tried to do that before, I would often procrastinate doing my marketing because I knew I had a lot of marketing work to do and again, it’s a big, daunting job. When I only have one marketing task to do a day, it’s a lot easier to make myself do it, so I decided to continue to do one marketing task every day.
For the same reason, I also decided to continue to do a little bit of Regency research reading every day, although I do it during lunchtime so it doesn’t feel like “work” since it’s a task I do at the dining room table, not at my desk. If I don’t do a little bit of research reading every day, it simply never gets done because I don’t feel motivated to do it. But it’s much easier for me to make myself do it if it’s only a few minutes every day at lunchtime.
In addition to these four daily things, my current project is writing book 4 in my Regency series. I stopped doing blocking/outlining in the series, and instead, I’ll just block/outline each book just before writing it.
(On a side note, I discovered that I need to do the writing in larger chunks of time. For a while, I was only writing a couple hundred words a day in the manuscript while I was blocking a different volume in the same series for the majority of my time each day, but the pacing of the manuscript got really slow. I think it was because I was only writing a small amount every day. So now, for each book, I’ll do the blocking for the whole book first, then I’ll focus on writing it and completing it all at once rather than trying to write and block at the same time. This corresponds nicely to the “batching” I’m doing in simplifying my schedule.)
Instead of writing a little bit in my Hawaii serial novel every day, I set aside one day a week to work on it instead of my Regency book. Ideally, in order for “batching” to be most effective, I’d only work on my Regency series and not switch to a different series, even for one day a week, but since I write in two genres, I just have to suck it up.
This simplified schedule means I take about an hour to do my Japanese study, 30-60 minutes to do my email and marketing work, 15-30 minutes of research reading during lunch, and then the rest of the time I have available to do my writing project. When I’m not sick, and when I don’t have a lot of house chores to do, that can be anywhere from 4-5 hours, but when I’m sick, or if I happen to have a lot of house chores that absolutely need to be done, that can be as little as one hour. However, one hour is better than nothing.
Writing Streak for the win
I’ve been keeping up a writing streak for over 250 days now! I have written at least 100 words of prose every single day without skipping. Some days it was really hard, especially when I had an IBS flare-up. But 100 words usually doesn’t take me longer than 5 or 10 minutes, and no matter how terrible I’m feeling, there are a few times during the day where I have at least 5 or 10 minutes when I’m not in (as much) pain and can crank out 100 words.
Keeping a writing streak while battling a chronic illness has been challenging, and I’ve had to lower my expectations for daily word counts and learn patience in dealing with discomfort. I have a low pain threshold, so when I feel bad, the last thing I want to think about is doing work, but I’ve learned to just wait it out and eventually I’ll feel well enough to be able to get some work done later that day, despite how badly the day may have started, or even if I suddenly got a flare-up in the middle of the day.
Where the streak has helped the most is that it reduced the number of times I procrastinate instead of getting started on my writing. Before, I would be really frustrated with myself because I would almost always procrastinate instead of just getting started on my writing work, and I couldn’t figure out why I would do that. I tried meditation and exercise and journaling and aromatherapy. What ended up working was the writing streak.
Because of the streak, I was writing every day, and since the low bare minimum I’d set was so easy, it was easy to keep up the streak. I got into the habit of writing every single day, and at some point down the line, suddenly it wasn’t as difficult for me to sit down every day to write. Part of that is also because I don’t want to break my streak, so I always get in front of the computer to pound out at least a few words, but usually more than that. I’m not perfect and I still do procrastinate at times, but I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be when it comes to sitting down to write.
Another way the streak has helped me is that it forces me to get my head into the Regency series every single day, even when I only do 100 words and then forget about it the rest of the day. Since I’m constantly, consistently in my manuscript, I don’t forget where I am in the scene, or where I wanted the scene to go. As a result, when I do feel well enough to get more writing done, I can dive right into the manuscript and know exactly what I need to do next.
When I didn’t write for days at a time, I would forget where I was in the scene and I would have to spend time re-reading what I’d written as well as re-reading my blocking notes. But after I started the writing streak, I didn’t have to waste that time re-reading because I had refreshed my memory about the story every single day. Since I didn’t have to waste time re-reading stuff, it was a more efficient use of my time when I did feel better and could write more.
Also, most days I write more than 100 words, even if I’m not feeling well, and those words add up even if my IBS goes on for several weeks. I was feeling particularly awful in January, but because I did a little writing everyday, I still managed to finish a scene at the end of the month.
So despite the fact I originally didn’t think a writing streak would work at all, since I was sick so often, keeping up the streak has actually helped me a great deal to get stuff done and be more productive overall.
The only problem I have is that I never really figured out rewards I can give myself for milestones. Other places that utilize streaks, like my Japanese study website bunpro.jp, offer cute badges that they give you when you hit streak milestones. The only thing I’ve been able to do is make my own streak badges, which I’ve posted on the sidebar, but they don’t always feel like a “reward.” My IBS has made rewarding myself very difficult because I would usually be motivated by some favorite treat—which I can’t eat anymore. :( So I’m still trying to brainstorm ways to reward myself for my streak milestones to help keep me motivated.
Cycling and editing as I go: a way to cure my loathing of self-editing
I’m really quite terrible at self-editing and don’t like doing it very much. I have procrastinated doing it in the past, which is just stupid since I’m self-publishing and need to get books out quickly.
I’ve since learned that, at least for me personally, my self-editing improves if my rough draft is actually rather clean. When my rough draft is super rough and full of typos and errors and notes to myself to look something up, my self-editing only corrects those things and doesn’t pay attention to things like sentence flow and word choice. The resulting manuscript just isn’t as tight and clean as it could be.
So rather than doing “vomit writing” and writing a messy first draft, I have changed it up so that I write more slowly, and I edit my writing as I go. It’s very slow, and most writing articles will say that switching my brain from creating to editing back and forth will prevent me from getting into “flow” state. However, a messy first draft makes my self-editing that much harder later, and the manuscript will never be quite as strong as I’d like it to be. In order to prioritize the best writing I can do, I decided to edit as I go so that the manuscript is clean.
Additionally, I stopped recording my words per hour rate in my time spreadsheet. Seeing whenever my words per hour rate dropped on any particular day just depressed me. I would often try to write faster—and write more messily—to try to increase my writing speed.
When I removed that column from my spreadsheet, the writing was much less stressful. So I guess in this case, ignorance really is bliss. Since I don’t know my day to day writing speed, I don’t worry about it. I don’t write messy to try to compensate for a slower words per hour rate, and instead I’ve been trying to work on learning to focus more intently instead.
I still know that some days I’m writing a lot slower than others, and in general I’m pretty sure that I’m writing at a slower pace than I did when I was tracking my writing speed. But I find it much less stressful, also, and I think the lack of stress has made me enjoy the writing process a bit more than I did before.
How many words per day I can write depends on how many hours I have to work, which depends on my IBS and the amount of house chores I have to do, but in general I try to aim for about 1500-2000 words in my manuscript if I have 3 hours of time to work.
Honestly, I would love to increase my writing speed—and a strong part of my personality craves that kind of self-improvement. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed that it takes me so long to write however many words per hour each day.
But I realized that writing at my own pace makes the writing more enjoyable. I also knew that writing at this slower pace will make the self-editing easier and less stressful, and since I hate self-editing so much, anything that lightens that load is a win for me.
I also started doing what some writers call “cycling,” which is to start off my writing session by self-editing what I wrote the day before. Then once that’s done, I’ll continue writing from where I left off. That “cycling” or self-editing pass every day makes doubly sure the manuscript is as clean as I can make it, plus I will also tighten up word choices and take a look at the scene pacing (which I often don’t remember to do if the manuscript is messy). After I finish the entire manuscript, I’ll do one more self-editing pass before sending it to my proofreader, and once I’ve incorporated her corrections, the manuscript is ready to publish.
I realize that my loathing of self-editing is probably unique to me, but I still had to figure out a way to combat it.
Writing faster by using small word count monsters in 4thewords
I mentioned before about how gamifying the writing has been amazing in helping me to get more writing done. Lately I’ve discovered that for writing prose, small word count monsters are best for helping me to write a bit faster.
I do several 100 word monsters each with a 10 minute time limit. The short time limit for each monster forces me to keep writing so that I’m not tempted to just sit and stare at the screen, or to revise each sentence too much. I get each sentence to a good place where I’m reasonably satisfied with how it reads, and then I’m forced to move on since the time is counting down. 100 words is actually not a lot to write in 10 minutes, so it’s not a very stressful time limit.
The shorter time limit has been helping me to not spend too much time revising what I wrote. This is especially important since now I’m editing as I go instead of vomit writing, and there’s always the temptation to fiddle with a sentence forever. With a short time limit monster, I don’t fall into that trap.
Gamifying the writing for motivation
Not every writer is motivated by gamifying their writing, but I think that finding a way to motivate your writing like that is really important for productivity. Even if it’s not using 4thewords or making the writing into a game, I think it’s helpful if a writer can figure out how to motivate yourself to get work done even when you’re feeling poorly or even if you’re just feeling lazy.
Some people are writing full-time and therefore they’re motivated by the fact that if they don’t write, they don’t eat. However, in my case, whenever I had a deadline or an absolute necessity to write, the stress and pressure of writing caused writer’s block. I’m afraid that if I had to write simply to survive, the writer’s block would come back and it would be even more difficult for me to get any work done.
Other people are really good at self-discipline, and they withhold rewards if they don’t get a certain amount of writing done each day. I kind of use that method, because there’s a special snack (that’s really expensive) which I don’t allow myself to eat each day unless I get 500 words written. However, in general, I’m not terribly disciplined, and even a yummy snack is not enough to force me to write sometimes. I need an outside force to push me, which is why 4thewords works for me. Basically, it’s a game that I can’t cheat at.
The monsters in 4thewords have also been really great to help me brainstorm solutions to story problems. Whenever I have trouble figuring out how to solve a story problem, I do free-writing to brainstorm. 4thewords is perfect for this because I’m motivated to write a lot of words as I free-write in order to defeat monsters, and the more I write, the more I’m able to brainstorm ideas, whether they’re good or bad. The important part is to just keep writing and free-writing.
Every writer is motivated by different things, and there are very few writers who are always motivated all the time. There will be days you’re just not motivated to write. So in my opinion, it’s worth it to brainstorm to try to find a way to motivate yourself with something that means a lot to you or that you like. In my case, games motivate me because I enjoy them, so gamifying my writing has worked for me. It might seem silly that I’m motivated to push myself to write in order to finish a game quest, but that just works for my personality type. I think that writers might have to think outside the box a bit, but they can find something that works for their personality and their particular likes.
Combating procrastination
I think that I am very prone to distraction and procrastination, even when I have excellent intentions and the motivation to get work done. I really don’t know why I’m like this, and I should probably figure out 1) why I procrastinate even though I enjoy the writing so much, and 2) what I can do to prevent myself from procrastinating.
So far, I have figured out a fix for #2, and that is to have a special, tasty treat that I can only eat when I have written my words for the day. I tried giving that up when I started gaining weight, but I found that my motivation dropped and I was more prone to procrastination if I didn’t have something nice to eat during my writing time. I think that part of it is because my learning style is that I tend to crave tactile stimulation when I create, which in my case is writing.
I bought an insanely expensive but very good gluten-free pastry box on Etsy, and that actually did motivate me quite well. However, I couldn't afford that when I want to motivate myself every single day, so I searched around for some relatively easy pastry recipes I can make that won’t affect my IBS. I try to have at least one nice treat to eat during my writing, whether I buy it or make it myself. I also started exercising more to combat the weight gain, and I found it easier to exercise now because (1) I’m doing that new schedule, and (2) I’m motivated to exercise in order to eat tasty treats.
Combating distraction
I mentioned that I’ve been reading Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World and trying to learn how to focus intently so that I can combat my distraction and be more efficient when I write. According to the book, learning how to focus intently just takes practice, over and over, day after day. It’s unglamorous and really hard, and I can’t say I really can focus well. There are days when I’m terribly distracted and don’t get much done at all, and other days when I do okay. However, just the act of trying to practice deep focus helps to keep me from really bad procrastination, even if my thoughts are really distracted while I’m trying to work.
I’ve been learning that using the Pomodoro Method has helped me focus my attention, especially when I’m distracted, but I don’t always remember to use the Pomodoro Method, so I’m still learning to develop that habit. I have a Pomodoro app on my computer, so that has been helpful.
I think the act of practicing deep focus every day has been helping me develop a bit more discipline in my work routine, too. At least, I feel like I’ve been able to be more disciplined in my daily schedule.
Hopefully, one day I’ll get good enough that I can sit down and focus intently for several hours at a stretch and improve my writing speed so that I can get more done in a day. That’s my goal, anyway.
Marketing in two genres
I mentioned it above, but I’m currently working on both my Regency series, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, and also a contemporary book set in Hawaii, called Year of the Dog. Ideally, I would only be working on one genre at a time, but since I’ve written under two pen names, I had to take into account some marketing concerns.
Since I’ve published in two genres, I have two newsletters for marketing. I’m currently writing my Regency series, so my Regency readers have books coming out every few months to keep their interest. But I had difficulty figuring out what to do about my contemporary romantic suspense newsletter. At the time, I didn't have plans to release a contemporary novel until after I finish the Regency series.
I had been continuing my writing streak and finding that doing only 100 words a day was completely doable, even when I’m sick. So I thought about doing a little work each day on a contemporary book—it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and the majority of my time each day would still be my Regency series. Then, as I finish each chapter of the contemporary book, I could post each chapter on my blog as a serial novel.
Since then, I simplified my writing schedule (the “batching” I wrote about above) and switched from doing a little work on the Hawaii book each day to only one day a week. However I’m still writing about 700 words a week and posting one 3000 word chapter a month. I link to the chapter in my contemporary newsletter for my readers.
I wouldn’t have even considered this ambitious project if I hadn’t already had a completed contemporary romance manuscript that my editor had rejected several years ago. The story still needs significant revision because it doesn’t have suspense elements, and there are some things in the old manuscript that I’m not totally satisfied with—I wouldn’t want to publish it exactly as is even if I didn’t have to revise it for suspense elements.
But a piece of fiction posted on my blog is evergreen marketing. For one thing, I can keep my contemporary romance readers interested as I’m writing it, which will take at least until I finish writing this Regency series, so the effect of this marketing strategy will be a long interim, a couple years. Then after the free read is completed, I can put in effort to make an ad graphic and use that to point people to the free read on my blog. If they like my writing, they’ll buy the Hawaii series that the free serial novel is promoting.
So while the majority of my week is work on my Regency series, I take one day a week to work on Year of the Dog and I post a chapter a month on my blog. This is a way for me to market my contemporary books even though I’m not publishing contemporary novels at the moment.
In conclusion
I’m feeling better in general, but I’m also learning how to adjust my schedule and my work around my IBS, so that I can still get work done even though most days I’m not feeling my best.
I’ve adjusted my daily schedule so that I get all my non-urgent but important tasks (“frogs”) done before my writing. I only work on one manuscript each day so that I can get several hours of work done just on that one project and try to focus more intently on the work. Ideally I wouldn’t be working on two manuscripts at the same time, but since I’m writing in two genres, I just have to suck it up. I work on the Hawaii manuscript one day a week and the Regency the other days.
The writing streak experiment was a HUGE win for me, for various reasons, including the fact it’s helped me battle procrastination. Now it’s not as much of a problem for me to sit down to start writing every day.
I motivate myself by gamifying my writing on 4thewords.com and rewarding myself with tasty treats. I’m working to battle distraction by trying to learn how to focus more intently during my writing sessions.
I hope this evaluation has helped you come up with ideas for improving your own 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 afternoon around 3—when I don’t snack, I get so hungry around 4 that I start eating anything I can see, so I snack in order to curb those cravings. I don’t eat anything after dinner and go to bed around 10.
This “chrono-diet” is supposed to help my intestines get back to their preferred schedule according to my circadian rhythm (the full explanations are in the book). Unfortunately, it took me a while to develop better discipline to go to bed on time, wake up on time, and eat at specific times of the day. However, now that I’m doing better about that, I actually think that my intestines have been able to self-heal a bit better now that I’m on this schedule, which allows natural sunlight to trigger my body’s functions. I think I can tell my intestines are most active from 10 am to 2 pm, and from 10 pm to 2 am, because those are usually the blocks of time when my IBS is bad, if I have a flare up. However, I will usually start to feel better after 2 pm, so I’ve been able to get some work done once my intestines settle down.
I have started my writing work at 1 or 2 pm every day and end at 5 pm, assuming my IBS isn’t too bad. It’s put my work on a stricter schedule, which enables me to make sure I carve out time to get writing done.
Anyway, while I still have a few flare-ups, my health has slowly been getting better and I’m feeling like I have more energy. Hopefully this “chrono-diet” will help reduce my IBS symptoms so my diet won’t have to be so strict.
Writing with chronic illness
Before I started this new daily schedule, my flare-ups got really bad for a few months, and I realized that I needed to figure out a way to work even when I’m sick. It isn’t just the pain and discomfort, but often I’m laid low by fatigue that sets in even after the pain dies down, so the number of hours a day when I actually felt well enough to work was much smaller than expected.
I wondered how writers with real chronic illnesses get work done. I supposed they pushed themselves to work through the pain when it wasn’t too bad.
It reminded me of one of my writer friends who does have a chronic illness, and she once told me that she often writes on her phone. I think what she does is at moments throughout the day when her pain is lessened, she gets some writing done no matter where she is or what she’s doing. She doesn’t have to sit at her desk or get out her computer. She just writes until she can’t anymore.
When I thought about it, that’s rather freeing, too. She doesn’t have to feel guilty about not writing a lot in each session because she knows she’ll just write more in the next session, whether that’s in a few hours or the next day. It also enables her to keep working when she’s having a bad day.
I starting thinking that this might be how writers with chronic illness get their work done, in small chunks during the day when they’re feeling better. It’s similar to how other writers who have kids will take a few minutes to write during the times they have the chance to be alone.
I realized that on days when I have an IBS flare-up, writing in short spurts wherever I happen to be—even if it’s in bed and on my phone—will enable me to keep writing on days I don’t feel well. Even on days I feel absolutely terrible, there are several moments during the day when the pain or discomfort isn’t quite so bad, and I can always spend those few minutes writing a hundred words or so on my phone. Now that I’m writing on 4thewords, I always have access to my manuscript and can add a little to it using the web browser on my smart phone.
I’ve realized that trying to work while battling this IBS has forced me to be patient and flexible. If I’m not feeling well at the moment I sit down to work, I try to remember just to take some medication and wait a little while before trying again.
Granted, there were some days I was so unhappy that I just threw in the towel and did the bare minimum for the day, and then didn’t look at my computer for the rest of the day. That happened about 25% of the time. But the other 75% of the time, I’d try to get some work done that day, usually later in the day when the discomfort eased a bit. The writing streak really helped, because I didn’t want to keep the streak by just doing 10 minutes of work each day.
Breaking up the marketing into smaller tasks
It (finally) occurred to me that I should try to do a little bit of marketing work every day in order to make sure that I get it done. Up until that point, I would simply do a bunch of marketing tasks a few times a month, but sometimes I’d procrastinate, especially if there are a lot of things I need to do.
But I decided to break my marketing into smaller tasks that take only 20-30 minutes. I don’t have to write a blog post all at once—I can add a few hundred words to it over the course of a few days. Same thing with my newsletter—I can write a little bit every day rather than writing it all at once, and then an additional day to log in to MailChimp to format and schedule it to go out. After I finish a manuscript, I have a checklist of tasks that need to be done in order to publish the book, but very few of those tasks need to be finished right away. After I finish the manuscript, I could allocate time each day to accomplish one or two of those tasks until they’re all done.
I found that it’s a lot easier to get myself to do my marketing when I know it’s only one small task a day. I have a checklist where I list all my marketing as checkboxes I can tick off as I get them done. Since each task is small, there are a lot of checkboxes, but it makes it easier for me to rearrange and prioritize what marketing tasks need to be done sooner rather than later, and each marketing task only takes me about 30 minutes each day for a few days.
I’ve finally been getting my marketing work done on time rather than scrambling to do it. It’s nice feeling more on top of things.
Doing my “frogs” first
The daily marketing task has become one of my “frogs” (from Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time) or the concept of “clearing the decks” (from 5,000 Words Per Hour). Whatever I call them, they’re tasks I absolutely need to do before I start writing each day. (Right now, my “frogs” are: my Japanese study, email, marketing, and Regency research reading.)
They are tasks that are non-urgent, but they’re still important, and the reason I do them first thing is because I know I won’t get them done at all if I don’t do them before I start on my writing. Before, I did my writing first thing, but then I was usually too tired to get to these tasks after I finished my writing work for the day, and so they just never got done.
For example, for several months I fell behind on my Japanese study because I was too tired to get to it after I finished writing for the day, and when I finally picked it up again, I had forgotten EVERYTHING. So now I do it first thing every day so that I don’t undo my hard work and forget all the vocabulary and grammar I’ve been learning.
For other writers, the writing is their “frog” and so they have to do that first thing. But for me, thanks to my writing streak (see below), I started having fewer problems getting myself to get started writing every day. Instead, it was other important things that fell by the wayside, so they have become my daily “frogs.”
I have tried several times over the past few months to see if I have finally developed enough discipline to do my “frogs” after my writing work rather than before it, because honestly, they take a lot of time, and at the end of the day, the writing is the most important work I have to do. Ideally, I’d do my writing first and then get to my frogs afterward.
But every time I try, I just end up not getting my frogs done at the end of the day, for whatever reason. So now I just suck it up and do my frogs first thing. They get done, and then I move on to the writing. Now that I’m doing that “chrono-diet” schedule, I’ve been trying to start my writing work at the same time each day and end at the same time each day, so if my IBS happens to be especially bad and I don’t have as much time, sometimes one or two frogs don’t get done. But it’s not the end of the world to skip them a couple times a week. Ultimately, they’re getting done mostly consistently.
Simplified writing schedule
Another way in which I changed things up so that I could write even when I have an IBS flare-up was to simplify my daily work schedule. Each day, I will usually need to take a few hours to do my exercise and to do house chores, but I usually had at least 5-6 hours to get work done. However, when my IBS is bad, that time is significantly decreased.
So I reduced the number of tasks I had to do each day and rearranged things so that I only had one major writing project to take up the majority of my time each day.
I also wanted to simplify things because I read about the concept of “batching” in the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Basically, you focus intently only on one task or project at a time over a period of several days. I couldn’t do batching for all the tasks that I have to do, but I could definitely work on only one writing project at a time.
Before, I was doing a little bit of work every day on several things: my Japanese study, email, marketing work, Regency research reading, blocking/outlining my Regency series, writing in my Regency series, and writing in my Hawaii serial novel. I cut that down and only did the things that I absolutely had to do a little bit of every day.
I have to do my Japanese every day (I wouldn’t remember anything if I took time off from my studies), and I also have to clean out my email inbox every day or else the messages will pile up, and when that happens I will usually procrastinate in taking the time to clean it out because it’s such a big, daunting job. Nowadays, email will typically only take me about 10-15 minutes.
I debated about doing a little marketing work every day or trying to do it only one day a week, but when I had tried to do that before, I would often procrastinate doing my marketing because I knew I had a lot of marketing work to do and again, it’s a big, daunting job. When I only have one marketing task to do a day, it’s a lot easier to make myself do it, so I decided to continue to do one marketing task every day.
For the same reason, I also decided to continue to do a little bit of Regency research reading every day, although I do it during lunchtime so it doesn’t feel like “work” since it’s a task I do at the dining room table, not at my desk. If I don’t do a little bit of research reading every day, it simply never gets done because I don’t feel motivated to do it. But it’s much easier for me to make myself do it if it’s only a few minutes every day at lunchtime.
In addition to these four daily things, my current project is writing book 4 in my Regency series. I stopped doing blocking/outlining in the series, and instead, I’ll just block/outline each book just before writing it.
(On a side note, I discovered that I need to do the writing in larger chunks of time. For a while, I was only writing a couple hundred words a day in the manuscript while I was blocking a different volume in the same series for the majority of my time each day, but the pacing of the manuscript got really slow. I think it was because I was only writing a small amount every day. So now, for each book, I’ll do the blocking for the whole book first, then I’ll focus on writing it and completing it all at once rather than trying to write and block at the same time. This corresponds nicely to the “batching” I’m doing in simplifying my schedule.)
Instead of writing a little bit in my Hawaii serial novel every day, I set aside one day a week to work on it instead of my Regency book. Ideally, in order for “batching” to be most effective, I’d only work on my Regency series and not switch to a different series, even for one day a week, but since I write in two genres, I just have to suck it up.
This simplified schedule means I take about an hour to do my Japanese study, 30-60 minutes to do my email and marketing work, 15-30 minutes of research reading during lunch, and then the rest of the time I have available to do my writing project. When I’m not sick, and when I don’t have a lot of house chores to do, that can be anywhere from 4-5 hours, but when I’m sick, or if I happen to have a lot of house chores that absolutely need to be done, that can be as little as one hour. However, one hour is better than nothing.
Writing Streak for the win
I’ve been keeping up a writing streak for over 250 days now! I have written at least 100 words of prose every single day without skipping. Some days it was really hard, especially when I had an IBS flare-up. But 100 words usually doesn’t take me longer than 5 or 10 minutes, and no matter how terrible I’m feeling, there are a few times during the day where I have at least 5 or 10 minutes when I’m not in (as much) pain and can crank out 100 words.
Keeping a writing streak while battling a chronic illness has been challenging, and I’ve had to lower my expectations for daily word counts and learn patience in dealing with discomfort. I have a low pain threshold, so when I feel bad, the last thing I want to think about is doing work, but I’ve learned to just wait it out and eventually I’ll feel well enough to be able to get some work done later that day, despite how badly the day may have started, or even if I suddenly got a flare-up in the middle of the day.
Where the streak has helped the most is that it reduced the number of times I procrastinate instead of getting started on my writing. Before, I would be really frustrated with myself because I would almost always procrastinate instead of just getting started on my writing work, and I couldn’t figure out why I would do that. I tried meditation and exercise and journaling and aromatherapy. What ended up working was the writing streak.
Because of the streak, I was writing every day, and since the low bare minimum I’d set was so easy, it was easy to keep up the streak. I got into the habit of writing every single day, and at some point down the line, suddenly it wasn’t as difficult for me to sit down every day to write. Part of that is also because I don’t want to break my streak, so I always get in front of the computer to pound out at least a few words, but usually more than that. I’m not perfect and I still do procrastinate at times, but I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be when it comes to sitting down to write.
Another way the streak has helped me is that it forces me to get my head into the Regency series every single day, even when I only do 100 words and then forget about it the rest of the day. Since I’m constantly, consistently in my manuscript, I don’t forget where I am in the scene, or where I wanted the scene to go. As a result, when I do feel well enough to get more writing done, I can dive right into the manuscript and know exactly what I need to do next.
When I didn’t write for days at a time, I would forget where I was in the scene and I would have to spend time re-reading what I’d written as well as re-reading my blocking notes. But after I started the writing streak, I didn’t have to waste that time re-reading because I had refreshed my memory about the story every single day. Since I didn’t have to waste time re-reading stuff, it was a more efficient use of my time when I did feel better and could write more.
Also, most days I write more than 100 words, even if I’m not feeling well, and those words add up even if my IBS goes on for several weeks. I was feeling particularly awful in January, but because I did a little writing everyday, I still managed to finish a scene at the end of the month.
So despite the fact I originally didn’t think a writing streak would work at all, since I was sick so often, keeping up the streak has actually helped me a great deal to get stuff done and be more productive overall.
The only problem I have is that I never really figured out rewards I can give myself for milestones. Other places that utilize streaks, like my Japanese study website bunpro.jp, offer cute badges that they give you when you hit streak milestones. The only thing I’ve been able to do is make my own streak badges, which I’ve posted on the sidebar, but they don’t always feel like a “reward.” My IBS has made rewarding myself very difficult because I would usually be motivated by some favorite treat—which I can’t eat anymore. :( So I’m still trying to brainstorm ways to reward myself for my streak milestones to help keep me motivated.
Cycling and editing as I go: a way to cure my loathing of self-editing
I’m really quite terrible at self-editing and don’t like doing it very much. I have procrastinated doing it in the past, which is just stupid since I’m self-publishing and need to get books out quickly.
I’ve since learned that, at least for me personally, my self-editing improves if my rough draft is actually rather clean. When my rough draft is super rough and full of typos and errors and notes to myself to look something up, my self-editing only corrects those things and doesn’t pay attention to things like sentence flow and word choice. The resulting manuscript just isn’t as tight and clean as it could be.
So rather than doing “vomit writing” and writing a messy first draft, I have changed it up so that I write more slowly, and I edit my writing as I go. It’s very slow, and most writing articles will say that switching my brain from creating to editing back and forth will prevent me from getting into “flow” state. However, a messy first draft makes my self-editing that much harder later, and the manuscript will never be quite as strong as I’d like it to be. In order to prioritize the best writing I can do, I decided to edit as I go so that the manuscript is clean.
Additionally, I stopped recording my words per hour rate in my time spreadsheet. Seeing whenever my words per hour rate dropped on any particular day just depressed me. I would often try to write faster—and write more messily—to try to increase my writing speed.
When I removed that column from my spreadsheet, the writing was much less stressful. So I guess in this case, ignorance really is bliss. Since I don’t know my day to day writing speed, I don’t worry about it. I don’t write messy to try to compensate for a slower words per hour rate, and instead I’ve been trying to work on learning to focus more intently instead.
I still know that some days I’m writing a lot slower than others, and in general I’m pretty sure that I’m writing at a slower pace than I did when I was tracking my writing speed. But I find it much less stressful, also, and I think the lack of stress has made me enjoy the writing process a bit more than I did before.
How many words per day I can write depends on how many hours I have to work, which depends on my IBS and the amount of house chores I have to do, but in general I try to aim for about 1500-2000 words in my manuscript if I have 3 hours of time to work.
Honestly, I would love to increase my writing speed—and a strong part of my personality craves that kind of self-improvement. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed that it takes me so long to write however many words per hour each day.
But I realized that writing at my own pace makes the writing more enjoyable. I also knew that writing at this slower pace will make the self-editing easier and less stressful, and since I hate self-editing so much, anything that lightens that load is a win for me.
I also started doing what some writers call “cycling,” which is to start off my writing session by self-editing what I wrote the day before. Then once that’s done, I’ll continue writing from where I left off. That “cycling” or self-editing pass every day makes doubly sure the manuscript is as clean as I can make it, plus I will also tighten up word choices and take a look at the scene pacing (which I often don’t remember to do if the manuscript is messy). After I finish the entire manuscript, I’ll do one more self-editing pass before sending it to my proofreader, and once I’ve incorporated her corrections, the manuscript is ready to publish.
I realize that my loathing of self-editing is probably unique to me, but I still had to figure out a way to combat it.
Writing faster by using small word count monsters in 4thewords
I mentioned before about how gamifying the writing has been amazing in helping me to get more writing done. Lately I’ve discovered that for writing prose, small word count monsters are best for helping me to write a bit faster.
I do several 100 word monsters each with a 10 minute time limit. The short time limit for each monster forces me to keep writing so that I’m not tempted to just sit and stare at the screen, or to revise each sentence too much. I get each sentence to a good place where I’m reasonably satisfied with how it reads, and then I’m forced to move on since the time is counting down. 100 words is actually not a lot to write in 10 minutes, so it’s not a very stressful time limit.
The shorter time limit has been helping me to not spend too much time revising what I wrote. This is especially important since now I’m editing as I go instead of vomit writing, and there’s always the temptation to fiddle with a sentence forever. With a short time limit monster, I don’t fall into that trap.
Gamifying the writing for motivation
Not every writer is motivated by gamifying their writing, but I think that finding a way to motivate your writing like that is really important for productivity. Even if it’s not using 4thewords or making the writing into a game, I think it’s helpful if a writer can figure out how to motivate yourself to get work done even when you’re feeling poorly or even if you’re just feeling lazy.
Some people are writing full-time and therefore they’re motivated by the fact that if they don’t write, they don’t eat. However, in my case, whenever I had a deadline or an absolute necessity to write, the stress and pressure of writing caused writer’s block. I’m afraid that if I had to write simply to survive, the writer’s block would come back and it would be even more difficult for me to get any work done.
Other people are really good at self-discipline, and they withhold rewards if they don’t get a certain amount of writing done each day. I kind of use that method, because there’s a special snack (that’s really expensive) which I don’t allow myself to eat each day unless I get 500 words written. However, in general, I’m not terribly disciplined, and even a yummy snack is not enough to force me to write sometimes. I need an outside force to push me, which is why 4thewords works for me. Basically, it’s a game that I can’t cheat at.
The monsters in 4thewords have also been really great to help me brainstorm solutions to story problems. Whenever I have trouble figuring out how to solve a story problem, I do free-writing to brainstorm. 4thewords is perfect for this because I’m motivated to write a lot of words as I free-write in order to defeat monsters, and the more I write, the more I’m able to brainstorm ideas, whether they’re good or bad. The important part is to just keep writing and free-writing.
Every writer is motivated by different things, and there are very few writers who are always motivated all the time. There will be days you’re just not motivated to write. So in my opinion, it’s worth it to brainstorm to try to find a way to motivate yourself with something that means a lot to you or that you like. In my case, games motivate me because I enjoy them, so gamifying my writing has worked for me. It might seem silly that I’m motivated to push myself to write in order to finish a game quest, but that just works for my personality type. I think that writers might have to think outside the box a bit, but they can find something that works for their personality and their particular likes.
Combating procrastination
I think that I am very prone to distraction and procrastination, even when I have excellent intentions and the motivation to get work done. I really don’t know why I’m like this, and I should probably figure out 1) why I procrastinate even though I enjoy the writing so much, and 2) what I can do to prevent myself from procrastinating.
So far, I have figured out a fix for #2, and that is to have a special, tasty treat that I can only eat when I have written my words for the day. I tried giving that up when I started gaining weight, but I found that my motivation dropped and I was more prone to procrastination if I didn’t have something nice to eat during my writing time. I think that part of it is because my learning style is that I tend to crave tactile stimulation when I create, which in my case is writing.
I bought an insanely expensive but very good gluten-free pastry box on Etsy, and that actually did motivate me quite well. However, I couldn't afford that when I want to motivate myself every single day, so I searched around for some relatively easy pastry recipes I can make that won’t affect my IBS. I try to have at least one nice treat to eat during my writing, whether I buy it or make it myself. I also started exercising more to combat the weight gain, and I found it easier to exercise now because (1) I’m doing that new schedule, and (2) I’m motivated to exercise in order to eat tasty treats.
Combating distraction
I mentioned that I’ve been reading Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World and trying to learn how to focus intently so that I can combat my distraction and be more efficient when I write. According to the book, learning how to focus intently just takes practice, over and over, day after day. It’s unglamorous and really hard, and I can’t say I really can focus well. There are days when I’m terribly distracted and don’t get much done at all, and other days when I do okay. However, just the act of trying to practice deep focus helps to keep me from really bad procrastination, even if my thoughts are really distracted while I’m trying to work.
I’ve been learning that using the Pomodoro Method has helped me focus my attention, especially when I’m distracted, but I don’t always remember to use the Pomodoro Method, so I’m still learning to develop that habit. I have a Pomodoro app on my computer, so that has been helpful.
I think the act of practicing deep focus every day has been helping me develop a bit more discipline in my work routine, too. At least, I feel like I’ve been able to be more disciplined in my daily schedule.
Hopefully, one day I’ll get good enough that I can sit down and focus intently for several hours at a stretch and improve my writing speed so that I can get more done in a day. That’s my goal, anyway.
Marketing in two genres
I mentioned it above, but I’m currently working on both my Regency series, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, and also a contemporary book set in Hawaii, called Year of the Dog. Ideally, I would only be working on one genre at a time, but since I’ve written under two pen names, I had to take into account some marketing concerns.
Since I’ve published in two genres, I have two newsletters for marketing. I’m currently writing my Regency series, so my Regency readers have books coming out every few months to keep their interest. But I had difficulty figuring out what to do about my contemporary romantic suspense newsletter. At the time, I didn't have plans to release a contemporary novel until after I finish the Regency series.
I had been continuing my writing streak and finding that doing only 100 words a day was completely doable, even when I’m sick. So I thought about doing a little work each day on a contemporary book—it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and the majority of my time each day would still be my Regency series. Then, as I finish each chapter of the contemporary book, I could post each chapter on my blog as a serial novel.
Since then, I simplified my writing schedule (the “batching” I wrote about above) and switched from doing a little work on the Hawaii book each day to only one day a week. However I’m still writing about 700 words a week and posting one 3000 word chapter a month. I link to the chapter in my contemporary newsletter for my readers.
I wouldn’t have even considered this ambitious project if I hadn’t already had a completed contemporary romance manuscript that my editor had rejected several years ago. The story still needs significant revision because it doesn’t have suspense elements, and there are some things in the old manuscript that I’m not totally satisfied with—I wouldn’t want to publish it exactly as is even if I didn’t have to revise it for suspense elements.
But a piece of fiction posted on my blog is evergreen marketing. For one thing, I can keep my contemporary romance readers interested as I’m writing it, which will take at least until I finish writing this Regency series, so the effect of this marketing strategy will be a long interim, a couple years. Then after the free read is completed, I can put in effort to make an ad graphic and use that to point people to the free read on my blog. If they like my writing, they’ll buy the Hawaii series that the free serial novel is promoting.
So while the majority of my week is work on my Regency series, I take one day a week to work on Year of the Dog and I post a chapter a month on my blog. This is a way for me to market my contemporary books even though I’m not publishing contemporary novels at the moment.
In conclusion
I’m feeling better in general, but I’m also learning how to adjust my schedule and my work around my IBS, so that I can still get work done even though most days I’m not feeling my best.
I’ve adjusted my daily schedule so that I get all my non-urgent but important tasks (“frogs”) done before my writing. I only work on one manuscript each day so that I can get several hours of work done just on that one project and try to focus more intently on the work. Ideally I wouldn’t be working on two manuscripts at the same time, but since I’m writing in two genres, I just have to suck it up. I work on the Hawaii manuscript one day a week and the Regency the other days.
The writing streak experiment was a HUGE win for me, for various reasons, including the fact it’s helped me battle procrastination. Now it’s not as much of a problem for me to sit down to start writing every day.
I motivate myself by gamifying my writing on 4thewords.com and rewarding myself with tasty treats. I’m working to battle distraction by trying to learn how to focus more intently during my writing sessions.
I hope this evaluation has helped you come up with ideas for improving your own productivity!
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