Day 953 - Disrupted routine

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I have had a difficult time getting started on work today because my morning schedule was disrupted. We awoke to find the power had gone out because of the storms.

I usually have a set schedule of things I do in the morning. It's partly because I have found that my brain tends to be a little fuzzy for the first hour or two after I wake up. It's not a problem if I have things to do that don't require a great deal of creativity, but I found that my fuzzy brain makes it hard to write, because I will usually stare at the blank screen or have long periods of silence when I dictate as I try to think of what to write next.

So my morning ritual keeps me busy and helps to get my mind warmed up and firing. I usually exercise, do some house chores, make breakfast and make tea. The tea is especially comforting when I sit down at my computer after breakfast.

My reliance upon rituals and routine is also probably why it's difficult for me to get started with writing if I have had IBS issues in the morning. The IBS disrupts my normal routine, which might also make it difficult for me to focus my thoughts.

Luckily, the power came back on around noon. My IBS had been bothering me a little bit when I woke up, and it continues to bother me even now, but now that the house is warmer, and I can open the refrigerator, I feel like I can get back on track.

I know I shouldn't be so dependent upon these kinds of rituals in order to get started on work. It makes it difficult for me to work when my schedule is disrupted. I would like to be able to train myself to simply get started on work when it's time to work, but the IBS has made it difficult for me to do that.

My IBS is still bothering me now, but hopefully I can get some dictation done. I did some dictation exercises, and that seemed to help warm me up. I was a little disrupted when I had battery issues with my digital recorder, but that's fixed now. I seem to be having a lot of technical difficulties lately. But I really want to make this dictation work and it necessitates using more technology than simply writing in a word processing program.

***

Unfortunately the IBS issues only got worse, so I did what I’ve been doing lately and doing other types of work instead of writing, at least until the IBS symptoms went away. I ended up doing a lot of marketing work.

However, the IBS didn’t clear up until almost dinnertime. I didn’t think of it, but during the afternoon, I should have spent some time doing my cycling edit for the writing I did yesterday. I can still do edits even if I’m not feeling well, but I had gotten so used to doing marketing instead of editing, that I didn’t think to do that instead.

Regardless, I got a lot of my marketing tasks done and I’m ahead of schedule. That will make things easier down the line when I have to start getting ready to release my next book (the one I’m working on right now), because a lot of tasks will be done ahead of time.

I ended up doing dictation after dinner, and I tried to be more conscious about just dictating the first thing that came to mind, and repeating myself to fix it if it didn’t sound quite right. I also did some brainstorming with dictation when I got stuck on a logic hole in the scene I was writing. But I eventually finished the scene, which is a good thing. However, since most of the time was taken up with trying to fix the problem, the actual number of words written for the scene was few—I ended up with only 1450 words, but it took me an hour and 40 minutes for the dictation and the cleanup editing.

I admit that I felt discouraged, because dictation is supposed to be faster, yes? But I also realized that I had still needed that time to brainstorm to fix the problem with the scene, and I’m positive it was faster to dictate my brainstorm than it would have been to type it. I was also very focused while I was doing the brainstorming and writing, whereas when I get stuck when I’m typing, I will usually be easily distracted. So I realized that the dictation ended up helping me today.

On a whole, I feel like I’m more productive with the dictation. I think I get more done than I otherwise would, mostly because I find I can focus and not be distracted. Even when I’m only walking in my office and dictating into my digital recorder, I am much more focused than I would have been sitting at my computer.

If I can get my IBS back under control and do my dictation earlier in the day, when I have more time and more energy, I think I could get a lot of words written.

But I have to get my IBS under control again. It had felt much better just before Christmas and even during the holiday week, but since I got back home from visiting family, I’ve had issues that distract me during the day.

I also realized today that I need to train myself to be able to just start work when it’s time to start work even if my routine is messed up. I know it’s possible because I’ve talked with plenty of authors who had to learn to write around other family obligations and distractions. I want to be able to have more self-discipline to just start my work and stop procrastinating or being thrown off by a disrupted routine.

Writing streak: 432 days

Dictation streak: 8 days

My takeaway for today: If your IBS is bothering you, do your cycling edit first rather than marketing.

My second takeaway for today: I think I end up being more productive with the dictation because I’m better able to focus as I’m writing and not be so easily distracted as I am when I sit and type.

My third takeaway for today: I need to try to train myself to be able to just start work, even without a ritual or routine.