Day 847: Dictation, day 37 - really bad procrastination
I don't know why but I procrastinated a lot before I started work this afternoon.
It could be because I had some bad cramping this morning from IBS, and although I took medication, it didn't start to get better until the early afternoon. When I did start to feel better, I decided to scramble to try to get work done while I was feeling well, but for some reason I kept procrastinating starting.
I don't know why I am like this. It's very frustrating. I even have all my technology already set up. I decided to dictate at my desk, and I already have my podcast microphone set up, so all I had to do was start the audio recording app that I'm using. And yet I spent a lot of time just wandering around the house and doing random house chores rather than starting work.
I don't think it has anything to do with the new scene that I'm writing. It's a very necessary scene, and I thought I did a good job blocking it. It should be easy to write. And yet, I procrastinated starting work.
I do admit that I'm a bit tired after battling the IBS this morning. I've noticed that if the cramping is bad, I'm usually left pretty tired in the afternoon. But I don't think that's all of it. I've been racking my brains, and I really don't know why the procrastination was so bad today.
I'm also frustrated because I haven't had to battle procrastination in a long time. Since I started the writing streak, I hadn't had any problems getting started doing work. And yet today, when I need to get work done within a certain amount of time, I didn't want to get it done.
I wonder if the time pressure contributes to it. Maybe I have a very contrary nature, and if I have to get something done within a certain time period, I become extra stubborn and don't want to do it. I think it must be kind of immature.
Regardless, I finally got seated and am ready to get started with work. As before, I'm skipping the dictation exercises so that I have more time to get writing done. I hope that not doing the dictation exercises is not going to make my dictation worse. I hope that I can still get better at dictating my fiction even though I'm not doing the dictation exercises. I guess I'll just have to keep trying it and see.
***
Ugh what a terrible day. When it was time to start cooking dinner, I decided to stop work. I ended up only getting 37 minutes of dictation done because I had procrastinated so much, and because I was unwilling to keep working through dinner (although I suppose eating late is not very healthy for me anyway, so it was probably just as well that I didn’t keep working and push dinner to later).
I fully admit that part of the reason I quit was because I was lazy and tired and didn’t want to keep working. Sometimes it really is hard for me to work later in the afternoon. Also, since I was sitting at my desk, it was easier to me to give in and decide to stop. If I were walking or even outside in the backyard, I think it would be a little harder for me to just stop work.
Unfortunately, the dictation is easiest when I’m dictating at my desk since my blocking notes are up on my computer, and there’s no ambient noise from cars or people. Even in my backyard the other day, the neighbor’s dog would bark occasionally and there were a lot of bugs that distracted me.
I’m not sure how to battle my procrastination except to try to get my writing done first thing in the morning. I hope my IBS isn’t too bad tomorrow and I can get started on work earlier in the day. I can’t really count on that, though, which is why I’ve been trying to get work done around my IBS discomfort.
However, my IBS has been getting better over the past couple days, so I’m hopeful this flareup is passing. I’ll just have to let go of my frustration with myself today and try my best to work hard tomorrow.
I’m glad I forced myself to get dictation done today, because I had been tempted to just do the bare minimum via typing and call it a day. I hope the dictation practice will eventually pay off and help me to get better at it. My dictation speed was a bit faster today at 3000 words per hour, and I dictated almost 2000 words, but I ended up deleting almost 500 words of the dictation and ended up with only about 1500 words after doing the cleanup editing.
And really, even though I’m frustrated that I didn’t get much done, I still got 1500 clean words done in my manuscript today despite feeling terrible this morning. 1500 words is much better than nothing.
Writing streak: 326 days
My takeaway for today: Try to do my dictation writing first thing to battle procrastination.
It could be because I had some bad cramping this morning from IBS, and although I took medication, it didn't start to get better until the early afternoon. When I did start to feel better, I decided to scramble to try to get work done while I was feeling well, but for some reason I kept procrastinating starting.
I don't know why I am like this. It's very frustrating. I even have all my technology already set up. I decided to dictate at my desk, and I already have my podcast microphone set up, so all I had to do was start the audio recording app that I'm using. And yet I spent a lot of time just wandering around the house and doing random house chores rather than starting work.
I don't think it has anything to do with the new scene that I'm writing. It's a very necessary scene, and I thought I did a good job blocking it. It should be easy to write. And yet, I procrastinated starting work.
I do admit that I'm a bit tired after battling the IBS this morning. I've noticed that if the cramping is bad, I'm usually left pretty tired in the afternoon. But I don't think that's all of it. I've been racking my brains, and I really don't know why the procrastination was so bad today.
I'm also frustrated because I haven't had to battle procrastination in a long time. Since I started the writing streak, I hadn't had any problems getting started doing work. And yet today, when I need to get work done within a certain amount of time, I didn't want to get it done.
I wonder if the time pressure contributes to it. Maybe I have a very contrary nature, and if I have to get something done within a certain time period, I become extra stubborn and don't want to do it. I think it must be kind of immature.
Regardless, I finally got seated and am ready to get started with work. As before, I'm skipping the dictation exercises so that I have more time to get writing done. I hope that not doing the dictation exercises is not going to make my dictation worse. I hope that I can still get better at dictating my fiction even though I'm not doing the dictation exercises. I guess I'll just have to keep trying it and see.
***
Ugh what a terrible day. When it was time to start cooking dinner, I decided to stop work. I ended up only getting 37 minutes of dictation done because I had procrastinated so much, and because I was unwilling to keep working through dinner (although I suppose eating late is not very healthy for me anyway, so it was probably just as well that I didn’t keep working and push dinner to later).
I fully admit that part of the reason I quit was because I was lazy and tired and didn’t want to keep working. Sometimes it really is hard for me to work later in the afternoon. Also, since I was sitting at my desk, it was easier to me to give in and decide to stop. If I were walking or even outside in the backyard, I think it would be a little harder for me to just stop work.
Unfortunately, the dictation is easiest when I’m dictating at my desk since my blocking notes are up on my computer, and there’s no ambient noise from cars or people. Even in my backyard the other day, the neighbor’s dog would bark occasionally and there were a lot of bugs that distracted me.
I’m not sure how to battle my procrastination except to try to get my writing done first thing in the morning. I hope my IBS isn’t too bad tomorrow and I can get started on work earlier in the day. I can’t really count on that, though, which is why I’ve been trying to get work done around my IBS discomfort.
However, my IBS has been getting better over the past couple days, so I’m hopeful this flareup is passing. I’ll just have to let go of my frustration with myself today and try my best to work hard tomorrow.
I’m glad I forced myself to get dictation done today, because I had been tempted to just do the bare minimum via typing and call it a day. I hope the dictation practice will eventually pay off and help me to get better at it. My dictation speed was a bit faster today at 3000 words per hour, and I dictated almost 2000 words, but I ended up deleting almost 500 words of the dictation and ended up with only about 1500 words after doing the cleanup editing.
And really, even though I’m frustrated that I didn’t get much done, I still got 1500 clean words done in my manuscript today despite feeling terrible this morning. 1500 words is much better than nothing.
Writing streak: 326 days
My takeaway for today: Try to do my dictation writing first thing to battle procrastination.
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