As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, earlier this year I took a big step towards turning my writing into something more than a hobby by transitioning from full-time to part-time work. I did this for practical and psychological reasons. In practical terms, I felt that I didn’t have the time or the energy I needed to really focus on my writing. Working five days a week, with an hour and a half round trip commute three days a week, and more days than not working into the evening, left me mentally and physically exhausted. I felt like I was always chasing my tail. My To Do list never seemed to get any shorter, and in fact was growing at an alarming rate. But I also did it to show myself and the people around me that I was serious about my writing. I wanted to do something that said writing was important to me, that it was something I wanted to pursue as a career.
The only problem is, I may have told the world that I’m serious about being writer, but apparently I didn’t tell myself. Every writing day I wake up full of good intentions and every writing day I end up doing the dishes, or the laundry, or the finances. Writing has been a hobby, a feel-good, reward activity for so long, that I feel guilty sitting down to write if there are other things that need to be done. I need to find a way to convince myself that writing is my job now, and that I need to sit down at my laptop and work. To be honest, I’m not really sure how to do this. Simply scheduling the time hasn’t worked. I tend to hit the snooze button a few too many times on writing days, and by the time I work out and take a shower, and do all the distracting little things that get in the way, I’m lucky if it’s still morning. I need accountability. I need concrete goals, something I can look at and say, “I’ve accomplished that,” or, “I have this far to go.” I’ve always been one to work better with deadlines. Will they work if I set them myself?
For my first goal/deadline, I’ve started working on Inky Girl’s self-explanatory 250 words a day challenge. My current work schedule is every other day: most weeks, I work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, leaving me Tuesdays and Thursdays to concentrate on my writing. While I tend to get most of my writing done in big chunks of time, I think it will be helpful to me to try and keep the creative pump primed. The challenge is generously open-minded about what kind of writing can count towards the 250 word goal, but for myself I’ve decided to limit it to creative writing and writing about writing. I need to be either working on a story or writing for my website or for this blog. If I’m desperate, I might count Twitter too, if it’s writing-related. I’m hoping that a steady flow of words, even if it’s a trickle, will make it easier for me to open the floodgates on the days where I have hours at my disposal. So far, it’s going pretty well. I’ve written six out of the last seven days (the rule is 250 words a day, six days a week). Most of this blog post was actually written over a couple of days as part of the challenge. I need to do a better job scheduling it, though. So far I’ve done all my writing around 11:00 at night. I’m still falling into the same pattern of putting writing last, but at least I’m writing. Maybe I need to go back to that procrastination book and look at unscheduling again.
If I figure out what I need to do to get myself to take advantage of this time I have carved out for writing, I’ll let you know. And if you have any tips or tricks for self-motivation and self-discipline, please share them in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
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