Camy's Writing Diary

I was listening to Joanna Penn’s Productivity For Authors audiobook. I have listened to it before, one or two years ago, and I enjoyed it at the time and found it helpful. But this time as I was listening, I noticed something about myself. The audiobook was talking about how to motivate yourself to sit down and write every day and form a writing habit. She talked about how difficult it could be to get yourself to write. I clearly remember feeling like that before, but I realized that since I started my writing streak experiment, it hasn’t been a problem for me. So the writing streak, even though it was really difficult for me when I started it, ended up helping me overcome that hurdle of motivating myself to write when I didn’t feel like it. I think it’s because I got into the habit of writing every day, even when the IBS made me feel really sick. My bare minimum is so small—only 100 words—that it’s easy to get that much done no matter how crappy I’m feeling. It’s a small enoug...

I’m starting on my new scheduling experiment of starting and stopping my writing at the same time each day, regardless of if my “frogs” got done, in order to try to transition more seamlessly and easily in deep focus for work. My IBS was bad again this morning, so I got another late start to my day. I had been hoping to get all my “frogs” done before lunch and then getting to my writing work by 1 pm, but because of my late start, I only got my Japanese study done before lunch.  However, while doing my Japanese, I got distracted down a grammar rabbit hole and ended up taking an extra 30 minutes. It was still important work that I would have eventually needed to get done, but doing it today took time away from my writing. After lunch, I got only a couple frogs done, and at 2 pm, the only frog I hadn’t done was my marketing task for the day. However, I decided to start writing work at 2 pm anyway, in the hopes I’ll do my marketing later. I realize as I’m typing this that it sounds...

I had another late start to the day because of my IBS. Because of that, I decided to skip the marketing for today, although I did spend a few minutes deciding what I’ll be writing for my next newsletter, so I don’t have to decide it later. Today I was reading Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World during lunch, and it reminded me that I need to make the transition from regular work to Deep Work as seamless and low-energy as possible. It shouldn’t be difficult or require any effort of willpower. It should be completely easy for me to do. He suggests: (1) set up a specific place where you can concentrate without any distractions, (2) if possible, also set up a specific time to start work, (3) have a schedule of what to do during the Deep Work session so that you have a goal of what work you’ll accomplish, and finally (4) have everything you need in order to work, whether it’s snacks or your research materials. I have numbers 1 and 4, but not necessarily number ...

My IBS started acting up this morning, so I had a late start to the day. The discomfort never really went away, so I decided to do some non-writing work, which doesn’t require so much concentration. I managed to get my “frogs” done since they are tasks I can do even if I’m not feeling great. I started feeling better later in the afternoon and got some writing done, but only a little more than an hour. Writing streak: 258 days Regency series: Editing: Time spent: 33 minutes Writing: Time spent: 45 minutes Writing: Total number of words: 634 words Writing-related business: Regency research reading: time spent: 31 minutes Email: time spent: 9 minutes Marketing: time spent: 42 minutes

I went back to doing my marketing task before my writing as one of my “frogs” , and surprisingly I found myself less stressed once it was done for the day. I realized that in doing my writing but having a task lurking that still needed to be done, it made me uneasy that I still had one more thing to do. I don’t know if it might have made me distracted while writing, but I definitely still had the idea in the back of my mind about how I still needed to do my marketing after I was done with my writing, even though I had a clear schedule of when to stop writing and get started on my marketing work. And ironically, I never did actually get to my marketing yesterday because other house chores came up. I might be just weird to be like this, to feel the need to get all my other smaller tasks done before I tackle the one big task of my day, but I think this is just part of my personality. Other people might feel less stress if they do the one big task first before doing the small tasks. I gu...

I was still trying my scheduling experiment where I try to put off my marketing work to after my writing work. The reason why is because the writing is more important than my marketing, and I wanted to try to get maximum time on my writing before working on the marketing. However, today, like the few days I tried it last week, I’ve barely been able to get to my marketing at the end of the day, and one day I didn’t do it at all. While skipping a couple days a week of marketing isn’t going to kill me, and the writing is definitely more important, the marketing is still an important part of my writing business and I can’t not do it at all. Today for once, my schedule lined up exactly how I planned. I even had minimal IBS pain today. However, because I had exercise and also several house chores to do, I didn’t start my “frogs" until around 10 am. And lunch took longer than just an hour because I had more house chores to do after lunch. So even though my schedule lined up today the...

OH MY GOSH it was so hard to focus on my writing today! And I have no idea why! The day started off great. I got up early, I took care of some house chores that needed to be done. I got my “frogs” done and had lunch. I always start off my writing session by editing what I’d written yesterday. It did take longer than normal because I’d left a note for myself to look something up. I knew the research would take a long time, and yesterday instead of doing the research right then, I left a note to do it today while editing. And yup, the research took a long time. But after the research and the editing was done, I had a really difficult time focusing in order to write prose on the scene. I had such high hopes for today since I had a lot of time and I had gotten so many words written yesterday. But I spent a lot of time just staring at the computer screen. The worst part was that I had completely forgotten to try the Pomodoro method to help me focus. Finally I remembered, and it did ...