Day 871: Dictation, day 45
Productivity while sick:
For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling well enough to be able to write for any length of time. My IBS was really bad for several weeks, mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was eating that was causing the IBS flareup. I think I finally figured out what food it was, because I'm feeling much better today than I have for the past several weeks.
I did a little bit of writing every day, just to keep up my streak. I also did about five minutes of dictation on four different days since I last blogged. However, most days, my nausea was especially bad, and so I just did 100 words on my manuscript through typing.
I also adjusted my microphone set up at my desk, and I am hoping that this will make it easier for me to start dictation every day. I know from experience that in order to get myself to stop procrastinating, I need to make it very easy for me to start work. I'm hoping that this new desk set up will help me so that I have no excuses about starting my dictation.
I read a few productivity books while I was sick. I wanted to figure out how to prevent procrastinating before starting work. I was reminded that one of the most effective methods is to simply do it first thing in the day.
My problem is that I was usually sick first thing in the day, and my IBS would typically not ease up until late afternoon, and it would always leave me feeling tired after battling it all day. So I wasn't able to do my writing first thing in the day.
While it might help eliminate procrastination if I do my writing first thing in the day, that won't work if I'm sick with IBS. I can still try to make a schedule and do my writing at the same time every day, but if I'm sick, I can't always adhere to that schedule. And so the schedule will only work as long as I'm not feeling sick from the IBS.
And as I've learned the past few months, I can't create a schedule that will only work when my IBS is feeling better. I have to figure out how to do my work around the times when I haven't IBS flareup. I can't assume that I'll be feeling fine all the time. No matter how careful I am with my diet, as the past few weeks have shown, even foods that supposedly are okay for me to eat can cause a flareup.
So, adjusting my microphone set up at my desk is one way in which I hope that I will be able to be productive and do my work without procrastination even if I'm not feeling great. It's still difficult to do dictation when I am queasy or in pain, but if the IBS flareup is not too bad, I might be able to get some work done if the symptoms decrease by the early afternoon, and if I am not feeling too tired.
I have also decided to let other things fall by the wayside. When I was feeling better, I had been more present on social media, and now that I'm feeling better, I could conceivably go back to it. But I think I will hold off on that. Right now, I want more time for my writing because I fell behind. I might do like some other authors and only do social media once or twice a week, but right now I’m still feeling mentally and physically tired from all the IBS issues, so I think I’ll skip the social media for now.
Also, I was doing my Hawaii book on Thursdays instead of my Regency, but since I’ve fallen behind on writing my Regency while I’m ahead on my Hawaii book, I’m also starting to wonder if maybe I should instead try to write in my Regency series Monday through Friday, and then to work on the Hawaii series on Saturdays. I would do more marketing on Saturdays, and I also was considering not doing marketing on weekdays at all unless I had some urgent marketing tasks that needed to be done, so that I could focus more on the writing at this time.
Anyway, I will go back to dictating my fiction today. I'm not sure how long I will be able to work today. My intestines feel fine at the moment, although sometimes I will feel a wave of discomfort for a few minutes every so often. However, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to do at least an hour of dictating my fiction today.
I expect the dictation today will be very slow since I haven't done dictation for a couple weeks. It's a bit frustrating that my health has kept me from keeping up a dictation streak of dictating every single day. I think my dictation improves when I do it daily. However, the IBS flareup simply wouldn't allow me to dictate on some days because I was feeling so sick. On those days, it was usually easier simply to type out my 100 words on the keyboard rather than dictating. I think it's because I need to focus more and concentrate more when I write with dictation and when I type. And when my body is in pain, I default to typing, which takes less mental energy than dictation.
***
Blocking problems:
As expected, my dictation speed was painfully slow, about 2200 words per hour. In 1.25 hours, I dictated about 2700 words, but I ended up deleting a TON of them, ending up with a total of only 2100 usable words after I did the cleanup editing. I am going to try to continue doing a little dictation every day. That’s the only way I’ll get better at it.
I also realized something really important. One of the reasons my dictation was really slow was because my blocking notes weren’t well organized. I simply threw a bunch of stuff down and at the time, I had expected to be typing the scene and so I could rearrange the parts in the right order as I was writing.
But when I dictate, I need the blocking notes to be in order or else it slows down the dictation as I try to figure out where each piece goes. Unlike with typing, I can’t go back and tweak and add things out of order.
I stopped dictation in the middle of a scene, and so I think I’ll take some time to fix my blocking notes before I continue dictating the rest of the scene.
I also may need to go over my blocking notes before dictating each scene to make sure it’s in order so that the dictation doesn’t stall. This will take time before I start the next scene, so I’ll need to budget that time in my writing time each day.
Writing stamina:
I was once again reading about other authors’ writing routines and feeling a bit like a loser that I can’t do 6-7 hours of writing a day. I had to remind myself that my IBS takes up several hours each day, which I spend either in bed or in the bathroom.
Now that I’m starting to feel better, I also realized that I’m like a runner who’s recovering from injury. I can’t go out and write as many hours as I used to when I was feeling better. I have to start small again and build up my writing stamina. So writing only an hour today was actually a really good thing. Hopefully I can build up my stamina over the next several weeks so that I can write more and more each day.
Writing streak: 350 days
My takeaway for today: When I dictate, I need the blocking notes to be in order or else it slows down the dictation as I try to figure out where each piece goes. So I may need to go over my blocking notes before dictating each scene to make sure it’s in order so that the dictation doesn’t stall.
My second takeaway for today: I have to build up my writing stamina all over again, starting small and working more hours each day over time.
For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling well enough to be able to write for any length of time. My IBS was really bad for several weeks, mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was eating that was causing the IBS flareup. I think I finally figured out what food it was, because I'm feeling much better today than I have for the past several weeks.
I did a little bit of writing every day, just to keep up my streak. I also did about five minutes of dictation on four different days since I last blogged. However, most days, my nausea was especially bad, and so I just did 100 words on my manuscript through typing.
I also adjusted my microphone set up at my desk, and I am hoping that this will make it easier for me to start dictation every day. I know from experience that in order to get myself to stop procrastinating, I need to make it very easy for me to start work. I'm hoping that this new desk set up will help me so that I have no excuses about starting my dictation.
I read a few productivity books while I was sick. I wanted to figure out how to prevent procrastinating before starting work. I was reminded that one of the most effective methods is to simply do it first thing in the day.
My problem is that I was usually sick first thing in the day, and my IBS would typically not ease up until late afternoon, and it would always leave me feeling tired after battling it all day. So I wasn't able to do my writing first thing in the day.
While it might help eliminate procrastination if I do my writing first thing in the day, that won't work if I'm sick with IBS. I can still try to make a schedule and do my writing at the same time every day, but if I'm sick, I can't always adhere to that schedule. And so the schedule will only work as long as I'm not feeling sick from the IBS.
And as I've learned the past few months, I can't create a schedule that will only work when my IBS is feeling better. I have to figure out how to do my work around the times when I haven't IBS flareup. I can't assume that I'll be feeling fine all the time. No matter how careful I am with my diet, as the past few weeks have shown, even foods that supposedly are okay for me to eat can cause a flareup.
So, adjusting my microphone set up at my desk is one way in which I hope that I will be able to be productive and do my work without procrastination even if I'm not feeling great. It's still difficult to do dictation when I am queasy or in pain, but if the IBS flareup is not too bad, I might be able to get some work done if the symptoms decrease by the early afternoon, and if I am not feeling too tired.
I have also decided to let other things fall by the wayside. When I was feeling better, I had been more present on social media, and now that I'm feeling better, I could conceivably go back to it. But I think I will hold off on that. Right now, I want more time for my writing because I fell behind. I might do like some other authors and only do social media once or twice a week, but right now I’m still feeling mentally and physically tired from all the IBS issues, so I think I’ll skip the social media for now.
Also, I was doing my Hawaii book on Thursdays instead of my Regency, but since I’ve fallen behind on writing my Regency while I’m ahead on my Hawaii book, I’m also starting to wonder if maybe I should instead try to write in my Regency series Monday through Friday, and then to work on the Hawaii series on Saturdays. I would do more marketing on Saturdays, and I also was considering not doing marketing on weekdays at all unless I had some urgent marketing tasks that needed to be done, so that I could focus more on the writing at this time.
Anyway, I will go back to dictating my fiction today. I'm not sure how long I will be able to work today. My intestines feel fine at the moment, although sometimes I will feel a wave of discomfort for a few minutes every so often. However, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to do at least an hour of dictating my fiction today.
I expect the dictation today will be very slow since I haven't done dictation for a couple weeks. It's a bit frustrating that my health has kept me from keeping up a dictation streak of dictating every single day. I think my dictation improves when I do it daily. However, the IBS flareup simply wouldn't allow me to dictate on some days because I was feeling so sick. On those days, it was usually easier simply to type out my 100 words on the keyboard rather than dictating. I think it's because I need to focus more and concentrate more when I write with dictation and when I type. And when my body is in pain, I default to typing, which takes less mental energy than dictation.
***
Blocking problems:
As expected, my dictation speed was painfully slow, about 2200 words per hour. In 1.25 hours, I dictated about 2700 words, but I ended up deleting a TON of them, ending up with a total of only 2100 usable words after I did the cleanup editing. I am going to try to continue doing a little dictation every day. That’s the only way I’ll get better at it.
I also realized something really important. One of the reasons my dictation was really slow was because my blocking notes weren’t well organized. I simply threw a bunch of stuff down and at the time, I had expected to be typing the scene and so I could rearrange the parts in the right order as I was writing.
But when I dictate, I need the blocking notes to be in order or else it slows down the dictation as I try to figure out where each piece goes. Unlike with typing, I can’t go back and tweak and add things out of order.
I stopped dictation in the middle of a scene, and so I think I’ll take some time to fix my blocking notes before I continue dictating the rest of the scene.
I also may need to go over my blocking notes before dictating each scene to make sure it’s in order so that the dictation doesn’t stall. This will take time before I start the next scene, so I’ll need to budget that time in my writing time each day.
Writing stamina:
I was once again reading about other authors’ writing routines and feeling a bit like a loser that I can’t do 6-7 hours of writing a day. I had to remind myself that my IBS takes up several hours each day, which I spend either in bed or in the bathroom.
Now that I’m starting to feel better, I also realized that I’m like a runner who’s recovering from injury. I can’t go out and write as many hours as I used to when I was feeling better. I have to start small again and build up my writing stamina. So writing only an hour today was actually a really good thing. Hopefully I can build up my stamina over the next several weeks so that I can write more and more each day.
Writing streak: 350 days
My takeaway for today: When I dictate, I need the blocking notes to be in order or else it slows down the dictation as I try to figure out where each piece goes. So I may need to go over my blocking notes before dictating each scene to make sure it’s in order so that the dictation doesn’t stall.
My second takeaway for today: I have to build up my writing stamina all over again, starting small and working more hours each day over time.
Comments
Post a Comment