Year: 2016

Today starts a two week experiment with a new schedule

Lynn

Here’s the writing schedule I’m going to follow for the next two weeks.

9:00-10:30
1:00-2:30
7:30-9:00

Why have I changed my schedule yet again?

The other schedule wasn’t working for me. At all. I didn’t write one single time during my scheduled writing time. Right now, in particular, I’m having trouble with getting started, and the large blocks of time weren’t helping that. Even two hours felt like too much of a commitment when there wasn’t a lot of time empty between the sessions.

So I created this new schedule with one thing in mind: making sure I don’t feel like I have a job.

That’s important. I don’t ever want writing to feel like a job.

  • I split the time blocks up so that I have huge breaks between writing sessions.
  • I made the sessions as short as I could while making them long enough that I can still get into flow during them.
  • I gave myself 3 of them so my total writing time each day fits into my long-term goals. 3 × 1.5 = 4.5 hours.
  • I started the first one later in the morning so I can sleep late if I have a bad night of sleep.
  • I’m not going to move the scheduled times if something comes up to preempt the time. I’ll just assume that I’ll miss one or two of these a month and live with that knowledge. (I won’t schedule anything during these times unless there’s no other choice.)
  • I’m not going to skip a session and claim that as a preempted time. I’ll just start writing as soon as I can near the time I was supposed to start and write for 1.5 hours. There’s enough time between sessions that this shouldn’t be a big deal.

I’m feeling hopeful this morning that this is the right thing to do.

Now, I’m off to get that first session done. I’ll post later today with the results for the first day of this experiment.

Here’s an update on a few other ongoing experiments

The no sweets experiment has been working really well (I’m down 4 pounds in two weeks), and I’ve decided to extend it indefinitely. The only exception is that I will allow myself sweets if I go to a birthday party, which is rarely more often than once a month, and usually less often. I’ll also allow myself sweets at my family’s annual Christmas party, but that’s it. These exceptions are clearly defined so they shouldn’t put any decision-making stress on me. That’s something I’ve liked about this experiment: no decisions. If it’s a sweet, the answer to “Can I?” is simple: “No.”

No caffeine: I haven’t had any coffee and I haven’t had any other caffeinated drinks either.

No Kboards or TPV: I haven’t been back to Kboards or TPV since I started that experiment. The fear of missing out is what was keeping me clicking on links. I’ve read a few author blogs I’d begun to ignore and checked out a podcast or two, but I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything, other than the entertainment factor I get from reading the posts themselves. This experiment has been good for me.

Experiments update

Lynn

In my post about how moderation doesn’t work for me, I laid out a plan for an experiment with abstinence and a strict adherence to my schedule.

It’s been a few days. And yeah. Some of it’s working out pretty well. Some of it isn’t.

Here are the details.

The no sweets experiment is going well, if you ignore the fact that I’m having a ridiculous number of cravings. Weight is down about four pounds and I’m eating anything I want except sweets and obvious junk like potato chips (which I don’t eat often anyway). I am definitely not going hungry.

The schedule experiment still hasn’t taken off, and today doesn’t seem poised to change that. Still, I’m going to get some writing done, because I want to and that’s going to be enough to get me to the computer at 2. (I’ve already missed the window for the 8-11 block, as it’s 12:57 PM right now.)

I haven’t relapsed with the coffee, despite several strong cravings.

I haven’t been back to Kboards or TPV.

It’s all a work in progress

Lynn

Hmm. It’s possible I was overly optimistic about my start time today for writing, since I was trying to make up for a really short night of sleep the night before.

You see, the night before last, I stayed up and binge watched Stranger Things on Netflix. I shouldn’t have, and I didn’t mean to, certainly, but once I got started watching it, I couldn’t quit. I think my lack of self-control is tied in to everything that’s been going on with my writing. On the other hand, I burned myself out and I’m going on a TV watching hiatus outside of my lunch break. (I watch TV during that time with my daughter and she would not be happy with me if I cut out that time together. So, not giving that up.)

Because of how tired I was yesterday, I stayed up late last night. I know that sounds at odds with how that’s supposed to work, but for some reason, when I’m desperately tired because of lack of sleep, I find it much easier to stay up late. I get a surge of energy in the evenings, usually around 8 or 9 o’clock and I start to feel like I can finally make up for a lackluster day. It’s a routine, or might as well be. It’s also one reason I have a hard time getting back into good sleep patterns when I mess up even just one night—and it’s why I try not to do that. I didn’t succeed last night and ended up getting to sleep around 12:30 AM. So of course, this morning I woke up at 6:56 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep, although I did try. I shouldn’t have. It did no good and it led me to getting up much later than I wanted to get up today.

It’s also put me off my stride and I’m struggling to get started this morning.

Not only that, but there’s a leak in a pipe in the basement and a repairman is here to fix it, and that’s also been a distraction.

But… even though I know it’s late, I’m about to try anyway. Since no one is here to notice that I’m not stopping at 11 AM today (the 11 AM to 2 PM break is not a break so much as it’s reserved non-work time), I’m going to write from now until 12 and then stop. After that, I’ll restart at 2 PM and go from there.

The goal today is unchanged: 3,233 words.

One thing you won’t find mention of is the multiple books experiment. I think it really works for me, but… I also think it has its flaws. If I’m still going to end up struggling to write the way I’ve been struggling these past two months, I think it’s best if I focus all my energy on one book at a time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason I’m having such a hard time with the particular book I’m working on now is because I’ve spread it out over such a long time period. According to the files in my backups folder, I made my first backup of that story back on 2/8/2015. That means I’ve been working on this book, in one way or another, for almost 18 months. That’s too long to spend on a book. I lose interest. I lose focus. I can’t write without either of those. I lose the threads of the story, and that’s worst of all, I think, because it leads to the other two problems.

This is something I just realized a few days ago. The multiple stories experiment has failed to keep me writing. If I’m going to struggle, I might as well reserve that struggle for one book so I can have a better chance of keeping up my momentum with whatever particular story I’m working on.

Anyway, it’s all a work in progress. I keep feeling like someday I’ll find the perfect system that’ll keep writing fun and keep me writing, but the truth is I know that’s not going to happen. I just have to keep doing whatever it takes to make as much progress as I can. I do love to write when a story is going well, and I’m happier doing this than I’ve ever been at any of my previous jobs. It’ll work out if I just keep moving. :)

Starting tomorrow: new plan, same schedule

Lynn

My current plan seems not to be working, but I don’t want to give up on the schedule just yet, because the reason it’s not working is definitely a personal one. Motivational issues, trouble getting started, all those usual things that plague me.

Anyway, the new plan is to just allow myself to write during the 8-11 and 2-5 time periods. Yes, it’s a bit of a mind game, but something’s got to be done.

Oh, and I did tweak the afternoon start time for the schedule, because I really think I need that longer break in the middle of the day (family, nap, reasons) and I might be more successful with this if I don’t set myself up for failure right off. That’s also the reason I’m sticking with the 8 AM start time for the time being. If I start earlier, that’s great, but it doesn’t seem to be likely, so why plan for it?

So tomorrow, I give this another go, and I do it by allowing myself to write from 8-11 and 2-5.

I deleted the alarms I’d set on my phone for my writing start times and I got rid of the detailed session lengths I had mapped out in my calendar (8-8:50, 9-9:50, etc.).

I’m trying to get away from the mindset of having to force myself to write. Honestly, if this is how it’s going to be for the rest of my life, it’s already time to move on and find another career. I certainly can’t keep this up forever!

All that said, the truth is that I believe my problems with writing almost always come down to a combination of perfectionism, fear of failure, and pressure. If I can mitigate those feelings, I can get to a better place with my writing—and have more fun with it—and maybe I’ll make real progress toward some of my larger writing goals.

That’s the plan anyway!

Self-sabotage has been the rule of the day

Lynn

Could it be that I’m suffering sugar withdrawal? Is that a thing? A real thing, at any rate, and not just something in my head? Because I’m definitely feeling out of sorts today. Maybe it’s just panic because I still can’t seem to make myself do any real work on my books.

I’ve written 372 words today, which I got in 39 minutes, so it’s not like I’m incapable of writing at a somewhat normal speed at the moment. But my brain feels sluggish, my thoughts scattered, and my ability to concentrate and focus is nonexistent. I thought I was going to die before that first 50 minutes was up! In the end, I couldn’t hold out. I had to get away from the computer, so I cut the session short at 39 minutes. And that was that. I haven’t been able to get back to it and here it is 5:14 pm.

I know something’s wrong because here’s what I’ve done today: I added all my email accounts to Thunderbird as POP3 accounts. I deleted the IMAP accounts. Then I added all my accounts as IMAP accounts, and followed that up by copying all my email into folders and deleting the POP3 accounts. Then I changed my mind, started to delete the IMAP accounts and replace them with POP3 accounts but stopped partially through that because I realized I had no idea what I wanted.

What I really wanted, I think, is to not think about the fact that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing.

 

Follow up to the follow up

Lynn

I did NOT write any fiction today. I didn’t do anything else writing or publishing related either. What I did do was… something. I swear it seemed important at the time, but I can’t even remember it at the moment.

Oh, yeah. I closed an account related to a pen name I’m not going to use and then deleted the google account that I’d set up for email for it, then got caught up with clearing up some email forwarding issues and the like. I spent much more time on that whole thing than was worth it. Seriously.

I also cleared out my saved passwords, tried to create a time tracking spreadsheet but gave up when I realized it wasn’t going to do anything but disappoint me when I don’t keep it updated, and… there was something else. I mean, I know I spent the entire day at the computer, and I didn’t spend any of it reading the forums and blogs I’ve committed to staying away from indefinitely. The time went somewhere.

I did download and set up a habit tracking app on my phone: Loop – Habit Tracker. The first habit I set up was “write every day” so I can get on top of my lack of writing. :o I added “no sweets” and “read fiction” on there too, because I’d like to track those. Other than that, I can’t remember what else I did with my day.

Ah, well. I already know I didn’t use my time wisely today.

Tomorrow I’ll do better. I’ll certainly try.

Follow up for several ongoing experiments

Lynn

I’ve stuck to the new food rules and avoided sweets entirely, with the exception of a teaspoon of honey each day (in some yogurt and orange spice tea). Weight is going down, if I can trust the scale after only two days.

The schedule is working well. Sort of. I worked all day yesterday during my work time and during some make up time for the day before. HOWEVER, almost none of that time was writing. What time I did spend writing was spent editing a few bits of the story that weren’t going right and all I did was lose words.

Today I need to prioritize writing over other work.

I did come to a decision on one of my series book cover redesigns. I’ve been unable to make a commitment to a style for the typography—every time I do, I second guess myself. This has taught me one thing: writing isn’t the only place where I let perfectionism hold me back. So yesterday, after an entire day of trying changes that just didn’t work, I decided to stick with what I have and move forward with it.

Because of that decision, I now have two covers complete, one almost complete, and a draft version of two more. I’m going to load the covers as soon as possible, to stop myself from more of this waffling.

Until the covers and files are done and loaded everywhere, I’m making this my focus for the “after writing” time I’m hoping to have soon.

Anyway, I started writing this post with a 15 minute timer running and I’m down to less than two minutes. Time to get writing some fiction. :)

Fuzzy feeling but no headache—yet

Lynn

I’ve kept to my plan to take ibuprofen today in advance of the headache I’m worried about, and so far, it’s paid off. I had a really fuzzy feeling just before, during, and after lunch, but I tried to nap at 12:30, but I never drifted off, got back to work, stared at the screen for a while, then gave up to try again on the nap. This time I think I drifted off for a few moments, and I do feel better than I did.

Progress today? I’ve written 107 words. I have no motivation to write at all. I just don’t want to do it. Boo. :(

End of day update (a day later)

I finished with 424 words about half each between two stories.

Other than 1 teaspoon or so of honey with some yogurt, I successfully stayed away from added sugar. I’ll be honest, there were several times yesterday that I just knew I’d write better if I just had a single cup of hot chocolate. It was quite hard to talk myself out of it.

It was eggs, fruit, homemade chili, chicken and vegetables yesterday, all cooked the way I liked.

Of course, I dreamed of sweets last night. Sweets and death, oddly enough. I was at the home of a beloved aunt and apparently someone had just murdered her children and we were all eating. I was wondering if anyone would notice that I wanted a piece of every kind of pie present. Then the dream morphed and I was eating chocolate covered cherries. There were other weird bits to the dreams but those are the bits that stood out most. The pies played a prominent role.

Obviously this sweets abstinence thing is weighing heavy on my mind. I’m pretty convinced at this point that the sweets are an addiction I need to leave behind. I’ll be blunt: I’ve never been successful with anything that depended on moderation. Abstinence is probably the only way I’ll ever be successful at this.

I have the same issue with reading forums and blogs. The moment I allow myself any leeway there at all, I’m using them for a distraction when I should be working. It always seems to be all or nothing with me. :o

So… I’ve just decided I’m going to kick that habit too. No more Writers’ Cafe at Kboards and no more The Passive Voice. The reason these two are so much a problem for me is because they have new posts at irregular intervals all day long and very active communities who post replies and comments. It’s easy to find myself checking to see if anything’s changed throughout the day. There’s a reward for constant checking. I do worry a bit about falling behind on industry news, but to tell the truth, podcasts and author blogs will probably keep me plenty up to date with nary a visit to Kboards or TPV.

Starting well

Lynn

I had a bit of a late night, so I adjusted today’s schedule to 9–11 & 1–5. If I feel like it later, I’m going to make up a bit of the 4 hours I missed yesterday. If not, the plan is to make them up tomorrow, because I should be fully back on my early morning schedule by then.

Otherwise, the plans I made yesterday are off to a good start. I feel better after a good night’s sleep. I had scrambled eggs and a small can of V-8 (original) for breakfast. Now it’s time to avoid thinking about food again until lunch. Also, I took an ibuprofen this morning and I’ll take another at lunch time, in an attempt to hold off the headache I expect will show up when I don’t have coffee today. Relapses happen, but I’m taking charge of this one right now; there’ll be no more coffee for the foreseeable future.

Time to get to work. I want to write 3,233 words, preferably in 4 hours. That way I’ll have time to start on those covers I want to finish.

July 11: follow up & the decision to go all in

Lynn

I’m really disappointed in myself right now. A couple of things happened that stopped me from returning to my work at 1 pm today, one of those being a  headache. That’s a legitimate issue, but in all truth, I should have worked through it. I needed to work through it.

I know what was to blame for the headache. Four days ago I drank a cup of coffee. The next day and the day after I drank another. Yesterday, I continued the pattern.

Today I didn’t. And I got a headache.

Just to prove the point to myself, I finally gave in and drank a cup of coffee at about 5 pm. Yep, a half hour later the headache started to get better.

It’s gone now. But my day ended up completely off-kilter and I just never recovered. Also, I started to obsess over the fact that I’ve been regaining some weight I lost last year. I can’t write, I’m having trouble controlling my eating, my time, my attention—it all seems to point quite clearly to me toward the fact that something’s got to change.

Moderation isn’t working for me, in anything.

Tomorrow I begin a new plan. I’m going all in, moderation be damned.

I will follow the schedule, even if I’m just staring at the damn laptop screen and doing nothing.

Meals will be meat, vegetables, and fruit, and nothing else for two weeks. I eat a varied diet—but I eat too much!—and I eat way too many sweets. I am completely addicted. I don’t say this to make light of addiction. Alcoholism runs rampant on one side of my family tree. Obesity runs rampant on the other. I think it’s pretty obvious addiction issues plague both.

There’s a reason I’m very, very careful about how much and when I drink anything alcoholic. I’ve never been drunk. Ever. And I never plan to be.

It’s time I started treating certain foods as if they were alcoholic beverages. Frankly, I think my body already does. I’ll just make it a conscious choice now to do the same mentally.

(Just a quick note: I’m not banning grains, but honestly, I generally only like them when they’re part of cakes, desserts, or smothered with sugar so what’s the point of trying to fit them in? Toast? Only if there’s sugar and cinnamon on it. Rolls? Only if I add honey to the butter. Oatmeal? Only with sugar and maple syrup. Rice? I add sugar!!! Usually a tablespoon per cooked cup or I can’t eat it. I can’t stand cornbread. I don’t even like wheat bread that much.)

So that’s it. Tomorrow I’m taking control of a few areas of my life that feel completely and totally out of my control.

Wish me luck getting over this hump.

July 11: Plan and results

Lynn

Plan is first, results will be in parenthesis after.

Work from 9–11
Fix Word style set issue (done)
Write (deleted more than I wrote, ended at -287 words)
Work from 1–5
Write
Experiment with Photoshop Elements
Export GIMP file to PSD format (with flat background) and see if typography is easier/better/quicker with Photoshop Elements

The experiment begins: rules of adjustment

Lynn

So today I’ve already had to make an adjustment to the schedule (but only for today) because I rose late and I’m not getting started at 7 am.

The first thing I decided was that I’m going to have to have some rules for adjustments. :)

Rules for adjustments to the schedule

  1. Lost time should be made up in the same day.
  2. Lost time should be added to the end of the 1–3 time block.
  3. The 11 am to 1 pm break should stay the same no matter what time I get started.
  4. Assume there’s an “if possible” tacked on to the end of every rule above. :)

Benefits of the rules

  1. Sticking to the planned number of hours of work gives me plenty of time to meet my writing goals: 3,233 words a day, 98,333 words a month, 1,180,000 words a year. If it’s ever going to happen, I’ve got to guard the time I need for it.
  2. Even if I skip my entire morning, I’ll still only have to work until 7 pm to make it up! Meaning I don’t even have to take a break for supper because although I don’t like eating late, 7 pm isn’t too late. ;)
  3. A simple, recurring lunch schedule throughout the summer means my children can plan to have lunch with me if they want without having to wait to see what kind of work day I’m having. At their ages, they don’t always want, but sometimes they do.
  4. Having some leeway in the application of the rules always makes me feel better.

I’m feeling hopeful about this schedule. I’m also not feeling pressured the way I usually feel, even though I’ve already messed up with today’s late start, so I’m hoping that’s a sign of good things to come from this experiment!

Experimenting with a schedule again

Lynn

I know it’s crazy. I know I’ve done this before. I know it didn’t work. I kind of don’t care. I need something to get me out of this black hole my writing productivity has fallen into and I’m thinking a schedule might be what I need.

It’s a move born of desperation, I promise. My last resort, if you will.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to a 40 hour a week schedule (okay, technically 42, but I like working with whole numbers and I want to write 7 days a week). This plan came about because of an article I read today called “The Unexpected Freedom of an Eight-Hour Workday.” It touched a nerve.

So I’m giving it another shot. Anything to save me from myself.

I’m planning to work for 6 hours each day. I’ll write until I reach my 3,233 words a day goal (hopefully in 4–5 hours) and fill the rest of my time with publishing work.

The schedule for almost all days: 7–11 & 1–3.

So that’s it, the sum total of my plan.

Failed experiment: site blocking software to fight distractions

Lynn

Maybe I should give it more time, but I’m not going to. I’m calling this experiment done. Here are a few of the reasons I think this one failed.

  1. I spent a lot of time trying to tweak the block sets, but nothing I came up with fit my work patterns
  2. It pushed me toward browsing the internet and reading the blocked sites on my phone (and I definitely don’t want to develop that habit!)
  3. The out of sight, out of mind approach tends to work best for me and realized this was doing exactly the opposite of that

Time to try something else, and I’ve already got something in mind. But I’ll leave that post for later. :D

It’s not too late; a plan for the rest of July

Lynn

I’d like to finish 3 books in July (or get close to it). I’m off my goals by quite a lot, but after a bit of math, I realized it’s not too late to make July my best month ever. I don’t even have to add extra words to my 3,233 words a day goal to do it. I just have to actually write every day. :)

There are 21 days left in July (not today): 21 x 3,233 = 67,893. My best month ever comes in at 57,249 words. That was only 2 months ago in April.

The books I’d like to finish including estimated word counts and current word counts:

Est WC Actual To write Total Daily
Novel 50000 41,648 8,352
Novel 50000 29,675 20,325
Pen name novel 50000 1,378 48,622 77,299 July 3,681

If I want to actually finish all three books, I do need to write a bit more every day, but even that doesn’t seem out of reach. I’m going to go for it.

Distracted today by an anti-distraction add-on for my browser

Lynn

This morning I installed Leechblock, an anti-distraction, anti-procrastination site blocker add-on for my web browser. So far, I really like it, even though I lost edits to this post TWICE because I couldn’t stick to the time limits I set for myself and got blocked before I saved my edits. Totally my fault, because I turned on the menu item in the browser that tells me exactly how much time I have left on a site and I knew I was letting myself get too close to the limits each time it happened. :o

I set up some fairly complex blocks and delays, and I’ve spent a lot more time on it than I’d planned. I’m a little unsure if it’s going to turn out to be worth the time I’ve spent, but I’m hopeful. Unfortunately, there are still some tweaks to be made, but I think I’ve mostly got it how I want it.

[removed for edits and pasted below with changes]

Well, that’s it. I gotta go or I’m going to find myself blocked! :D.

Update

That lasted about 30 minutes. And it’s obvious I’m going to be doing most of my work outside my ideal time span, so the time blocks I set up aren’t going to work to help me at all.

Time to do a little rethinking on this. I’ll update when I settle on something.

All right. I’ve made some tweaks.

I’ve set up 5 block sets.

  1. Distractions – blocked outright from 0700-1400 (7am to 2pm), with a 20 minute limit for the rest of the day
  2. Sales reports – blocked after 15 minutes between 0700-1400 (7am to 2pm) – on publishing days, I’ll deactivate the add-on because I’ll need unfettered internet access, and there’s no easy way to account for that
  3. Internet limits – limited everything except weather.gov and Google calendar between 0700-1400 (7am to 2pm) to 60 minutes total – if I’m spending that long browsing websites, I’m probably just procrastinating, which can wait until after 2pm :)
  4. Strict limits  blocked outright from 0700-1400 (7am to 2pm), with a 10 minute limit for the rest of the day
  5. Blogging – blocked after 30 minutes between 0700-1400 (7am to 2pm) – this is me trying to make Parkinson’s Law work in my favor – I don’t want to cut off my blogging on days when I need the accountability, but I also don’t want to spend too much of my writing time updating a blog post

What this comes to each day is that in total I’ll spend no more than 60 minutes of my day between 7am and 2pm doing things in my browser. There’s still email, since I don’t use my browser to check, but I really am hoping this will cut down on how much time I spend online distracting myself from writing. :)

It’s a bit late now and I want to get up before noon tomorrow, so I’m going to go. But I’m excited to see how this works tomorrow. First goal: not to override the add-on and see how it works. It’ll be a fun experiment!

Oh, and yeah, I can totally get online with my phone or a tablet, but I believe there’s still benefit to this: I can try to break some bad habits; morning time is my best writing time and I’ve been spending lots of it jumping around online on the computer.

I need a plan for tomorrow

Lynn

I feel so completely out of sorts because I haven’t been writing. I don’t feel like I’m going to get out of this funk without a plan of some kind. My mind is so far from my stories that it feels impossible to move forward.

I asked my son what kind of plan I should make and he said: “Work. Your plan needs to be to work.”

I think he might be right. :o