Through my determination to meet my goals I’ve learned a few tricks for working writing into as many spare moments of life as I can. Here’s a few of the tips I’ve developed for fitting more writing into my day to day life.
*Lunch breaks: When I first started this goal I thought I would be able to get back some time for writing during my lunch break by sitting at my computer and working through that hour rather than socializing in the cafeteria. It’s a nice theory, but the reality isn’t real accurate. Not only do you have the distractions of the internet I have at home, but also of people coming up and talking to me thinking I’m working instead of on lunch.
*Solution: Get up from the desk. I get the most done if I get up from my seat and move. Unless I’m doing some promotion (which time needs to be set aside to do), I have found I need to get up from my desk to get any work done. If I’m in the second stage of revising (which is the round where I print out my work and correct it on paper, an essential step to rid my work of most of those pesky typos). Otherwise I’ll take a pad and pen and scribble some. It’s a longer way of doing things, instead of typing directly into the computer, but it’s faster overall, since it does actually get some words down, instead of the zero I’d get down if I stayed at my desk distracted.
*The drive home: I’ve always used the drive home for prewriting. I get some really great ideas on the drive home. Many around my writing, but others around work, my family, my home, my fur babies. Whatever’s on my mind. I’m almost always going a mile a minute and the car is a great time for my mind to just wonder and play as it can’t when I’m more focused at work and home.
*Improvement: I’ve found that if I take a few minutes to think about my writing, to actually say the current wrinkle I’m facing out loud before I leave the parking garage, I can focus my musing for the drive on my writing instead of whatever mishap occurred at work or the housework I have to do when I get home. Which means more solutions and less hold ups when I actually sit down at the computer. The same can be true of the shower, or doing housework like laundry, dishes, etc…
*Ereader: My Ereader is a big distraction. Especially when there’s a book on it I really want to read (like I felt with Qwillia Rain’s Rite of First Claim this last week). I can easily spend all night reading, even forget about eating dinner, until I finally pull away to find out its 3:30am (it makes me real pleasant the next day at work :D)
*Solution: I have begun leaving my ereader in my purse upstairs once I get home. If I have to walk up the stairs to get it, or dig the files out of my hard drive to read the book I want, the added work is enough to deter me. This way I can read before I go to bed as is my habit, but it’s not always there to tempt me until I pick it up and finish that book.
These are the tricks I found to limit distraction. As I find out more tips I’ll share them with you all. For now these are helping me to improve productivity. Does anyone else have any tips for gaining a little more time?
*Lunch breaks: When I first started this goal I thought I would be able to get back some time for writing during my lunch break by sitting at my computer and working through that hour rather than socializing in the cafeteria. It’s a nice theory, but the reality isn’t real accurate. Not only do you have the distractions of the internet I have at home, but also of people coming up and talking to me thinking I’m working instead of on lunch.
*Solution: Get up from the desk. I get the most done if I get up from my seat and move. Unless I’m doing some promotion (which time needs to be set aside to do), I have found I need to get up from my desk to get any work done. If I’m in the second stage of revising (which is the round where I print out my work and correct it on paper, an essential step to rid my work of most of those pesky typos). Otherwise I’ll take a pad and pen and scribble some. It’s a longer way of doing things, instead of typing directly into the computer, but it’s faster overall, since it does actually get some words down, instead of the zero I’d get down if I stayed at my desk distracted.
*The drive home: I’ve always used the drive home for prewriting. I get some really great ideas on the drive home. Many around my writing, but others around work, my family, my home, my fur babies. Whatever’s on my mind. I’m almost always going a mile a minute and the car is a great time for my mind to just wonder and play as it can’t when I’m more focused at work and home.
*Improvement: I’ve found that if I take a few minutes to think about my writing, to actually say the current wrinkle I’m facing out loud before I leave the parking garage, I can focus my musing for the drive on my writing instead of whatever mishap occurred at work or the housework I have to do when I get home. Which means more solutions and less hold ups when I actually sit down at the computer. The same can be true of the shower, or doing housework like laundry, dishes, etc…
*Ereader: My Ereader is a big distraction. Especially when there’s a book on it I really want to read (like I felt with Qwillia Rain’s Rite of First Claim this last week). I can easily spend all night reading, even forget about eating dinner, until I finally pull away to find out its 3:30am (it makes me real pleasant the next day at work :D)
*Solution: I have begun leaving my ereader in my purse upstairs once I get home. If I have to walk up the stairs to get it, or dig the files out of my hard drive to read the book I want, the added work is enough to deter me. This way I can read before I go to bed as is my habit, but it’s not always there to tempt me until I pick it up and finish that book.
These are the tricks I found to limit distraction. As I find out more tips I’ll share them with you all. For now these are helping me to improve productivity. Does anyone else have any tips for gaining a little more time?
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