The schedule and self-sabotage

I’ve dedicated myself to working with my schedule this week. Staying focused is hard for me. But this week, I’m going to push myself to write during my scheduled writing time. It’s 10:26 and I definitely let myself get distracted from my schedule this morning.

I have to be careful of distractions because I often forget what I was doing before I became distracted. This morning I got up a little late, showered a little long, and then still had to have breakfast even though as I was preparing it I was fully aware of the fact that I should be planning to eat at my computer. I chose not to because I had started reading an article I wanted to finish (big mistake) and then that article had several linked articles that I really wanted to read that I was afraid I’d forget to read later, so I kept pushing off my writing start time.

I have a decision to make right now: finish the articles or start writing, and I’ll be honest, I’m leaning toward finishing the articles and I don’t even know why. They’re about being prolific and maybe that’s it, maybe there’s a part of me that thinks I’ll learn something new and exciting that will suddenly make me break through the wall that keeps me writing slowly most of the time and I’ll totally make up for the wasted writing time just by writing faster.

Isn’t it wonderful to be able to see one’s self-sabotaging behaviors and yet still not be able to do anything about them?

Anyway, it’s 10:21 now and I’m going to skim through these articles and account for the time here just so I can face how much time I am wasting.

I’m back! I did that in record time, because it’s now 10:29 and I read three articles (found nothing new or exciting there at all!), deleted them from Evernote, and am back to this post.

Now, it’s time to get serious here. I have writing to do and I shouldn’t have let myself off the hook today to get started on time. I’m left with 1.5 hours until my break. I want to make them count.

My daily word count has increased since I began following a schedule

I had a theory that my daily word count hadn’t increased with my schedule because of how often I seem to be missing the mark when it comes to actually sticking to it.

I was wrong. :)

I wanted the numbers to back up my theory and they didn’t. I then found myself wanting to adjust the parameters of my analysis but realized almost immediately that this would be an attempt to make the numbers prove what I wanted them to prove. So I stepped back to give this some more thought.

I realized I was probably just looking for justification to abandon my schedule. I’ve since moved on (that post yesterday was written after I started this one). I’m glad I resisted!

Although my overall daily average is still down from 2012 and 2013, it’s better than 2014 and even the all time average up until the date I began following the 9–12 & 1–4 schedule.

Since I began the 9–12 & 1–4 schedule: 744 words a day average
All time before the schedule: 658 words a day average

It’s enough of a difference that I can’t ignore it. I wasn’t very productive in 2014 or the early part of 2015 and the schedule has clearly saved me from more of the same.

The only other thing of note is that my daily average for the time period during which I used the 5 minute sessions was just over 1,400 words a day. I was trying to hit a deadline during that time and I was scheduling my 5 minute sessions in one hour blocks and scheduling 5 or 6 of those hour long blocks every day. I take this to mean that if I can stick my current schedule more often and get in the 5 to 6 hours of writing, I can hope to approach or exceed these same numbers without the stress of the timed writing. :) I would still like to see myself reach a daily average of 2,000 words because that would fit with the life I want. :)

 

Writing on a schedule (Restart—day 4)

Today I wrote 1,709 words in about 3.5 hours (one story). I have 4 novels and 1 short story I’m trying to finish as soon as I can. 4 for one pen name, 1 for another. I really wish I could write faster. I want to get all the ideas down for these stories while they’re fresh in my mind and my slow speed makes it so hard to do.

The bad news is that I really didn’t do anything any different today, so it’s not reasonable for me to expect to have made any improvements in my speed. I’m going to try to think of some ways to change that for tomorrow.

I could—

  • use a timer (I really don’t want to!)
  • spend a few minutes writing a short line or two about where I think each of my stories should/could go next (I need to remember to try this tomorrow)
  • find some way to keep reminding myself to write new words instead of playing with what’s already there (I really have been overdoing this)
  • I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s something else I could do! I’m going to give it more thought tonight.

I want to have 2 of these stories done by the end of August because I have a public “tentative” deadline for those two. Meaning of course I can change the date, but I’d really rather not. :o

I tried to stay on schedule both days, but the truth is I’m having a lot of trouble getting started on time in the morning and after lunch. If I weren’t having so much trouble, I’d be much closer to 3000 words a day.

I’m just going to keep trying.

If I ever crack this speed thing, I’d love to be writing closer to 3000 words a day in about 3 to 4 hours and I’d write from 9 to 1 every day instead of having to have 2 sessions (9 to 12 and 1 to 4) to even get close. I think I’d love it anyway. Won’t know for sure until I get there. ;)

Time for some honestly here. I would write much slower if my income didn’t depend on it because although writing is fun for me, I don’t feel compelled to do it all that often and the work to get it down into text is not my favorite thing in the world. I love having written and rereading my stories much more than I love the actual writing of them. :)

The good news is that I’m doing it anyway, and I’m really happy that I’ve been able to make this my career. I don’t think I’d enjoy any other half as much.

Fri, 7/10/15 746,353 2,321
Sat, 7/11/15 747,726 1,373
Sun, 7/12/15 749,681 1,955
Mon, 7/13/15 751,390 1,709

Writing on a schedule (Restart—day 3)

Yesterday I wrote 1,955 words (working on two stories). I meant to make that 2,000 before I went to bed, but television distracted me. I ended up watching a movie.

The fact is, although I would have liked to have written 2,000, I did stick to the schedule and stopped at 4 pm. I should have just kept going for a few more minutes and wrote the next 45 words before I stopped, because I don’t have an obligation to write anything after 4 and I should have suspected I might not get back to it. :) Lesson learned. Maybe I’ll remember it next time.

Fri, 7/10/15 746,353 2,321
Sat, 7/11/15 747,726 1,373
Sun, 7/12/15 749,681 1,955

I’m struggling with the change in routine

I’ve had a really bad couple of weeks when it comes to my schedule. I think it’s because of the change in routine that comes around this time of year but it might be the book, or me. Right now I’m about to make lunch, after a very unsuccessful attempt this morning to stick to my writing schedule. I failed. In fact, I never even got started.

I want to have a few successful days. I know that’s all it would take to finish this book, and that’s something I desperately want. I want to finish this book so I can start my next one. It’s a book I really, really want to write. I don’t know if I can do the idea justice, but I’m going to have fun trying. ;)

I did read a great book while I’ve been struggling so hard. That’s good, right?

The Martian by Andy Weir is fantastic and utterly compelling and if you’ve been thinking about reading that book but haven’t gotten to it yet, let me tell you—stop waiting! It’s a great book.

My current read is nonfiction. I started Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives this morning. Yep. Another habit book. I’m hoping it’ll give me something to use to help me get back on track with my schedule, because I’m not giving it up. This schedule has been a great boon to my productivity, even counting the terrible days this week and last.

Well, on to lunch, so I don’t end up starting my 1–4 session late. I need to try to stay on schedule at least half the day. :)

Another successful day with the schedule

I fall down sometimes with my start times, and I did that today, starting almost half an hour later than 9 am, and then an interruption knocked out about 45 minutes of the 1–4 session. And yet… my word count came in at 1,806 today and I still find myself writing more than I’ve been writing in a long, long time.

This schedule is an outright success. The attitude change is the #1 reason it’s been successful, but I absolutely do believe the timing of the sessions has also played an important role.

I might write more later, but I do want to do some more formatting too. But first, a break. I think I’m going to watch a movie I added to my Amazon watchlist last week. Sadly, I’m missing something I need to finish my potted garden so that’s going to have to wait. :)

Trying to work around the schedule

It’s my biggest wish to be able to keep to the writing schedule while I go through the motions of preparing to publish a book. I can’t say that I’m winning the first round in that fight.

I’ve just finished a cover that literally took me the longest it’s ever taken me to make a cover. I broke down at one point and drafted an email to the designers of a cover I had made for a book for a different pen name, because this experience was just so bad that I couldn’t imagine trying to do another one. I hate designing covers. Honestly, I just hate it. I think I know why. I really don’t like doing stuff I’m not good at, and I can’t seem to get good at making covers. They’re all just passable. Adequate. And tbh, I’m so tired of that.

Because of that cover taking three days instead of the 5 to 6 hours I expected, I’ve written much less than I wanted to write over the last three days. I stuck to my schedule half the day Friday. None on Saturday. Half again, today. I’ve racked up just under 2,000 words for those days total. If not for the schedule, I know in my heart I wouldn’t even have that.

So yay! Another win for the schedule.

Tomorrow (kids will be in school) I attempt to stick the schedule again, while making time before and after to edit the book I’m preparing to publish and maybe even get to the formatting. Boy am I going to be busy…

A great first week of the schedule

The first full week of the schedule has gone great. I didn’t have any of the problems I expected and I wrote more than I thought I would. I also had my first tough day today, although only because I had such a terrible night’s sleep last night after I woke up with a headache before one and couldn’t get back to sleep until nearly four-thirty. I still managed to work for the majority of my time and ended the day with a better word count than my lowest day this week.

Gotta say, I’m thrilled at the success I had this week. I wrote 14,400 words and ended the first full week of the schedule with a daily average of 2,057 words.

This change in attitude has really made a difference in my work habits and given me back my enthusiasm for writing. I’m absolutely brimming over with the desire to write. :D

I think that change in attitude has been just as important as the lucky break I had when I picked my work times, not realizing I was choosing work times that were just different enough from those I’d tried in the past to make a difference. I’m so glad I didn’t let myself overthink that decision.

Having a good run with the schedule

This schedule is working wonders for me right now. I feel different about this one in a way I wasn’t expecting but am thrilled with. My word counts are better than I hoped for and I’ve set no quotas at all. My only plan is to stick to the schedule as closely as I can as often as I can. That meant stopping half an hour early today because of a family obligation. I still ended the day with my best word count since I started following the schedule.

I knew when setting the schedule that no schedule can work for every day all the time. But I gotta say, this one is working so much better than I expected. I mean, I hoped, but I really wasn’t expecting it!

This might be my best schedule ever

I enjoyed another day of writing on a schedule today. The easy success of the last few days has made me think, wondering what the difference is between this schedule and those that came before. I finally think I’ve come up with several reasons to explain why it might be the best one ever.

  • I start later. 9 am is quite late for me. I’m usually up at 6 on weekdays but I sometimes sleep later on weekends. 9 am means the schedule works no matter which day it is without adjustment. Usually, I set up schedules that start really early and I’m always making adjustments.
  • The break between 12 and 1 is only an hour. Meaning I have less time to prepare food and less time to get sucked into watching TV or reading a book once I sit down to eat. Because I’m eating less at mid-day, I don’t get so sleepy afterward. Usually, I set up schedules with big breaks so I’m more rested when I get back to it. Unfortunately, I’m usually too rested and don’t want to!
  • I don’t have a quota or run the timers so the only pressure I have is the pressure to stick to the schedule. Usually, I have competing pressures because I usually do set word count goals and I run the timer and keep track of how much I produce. That’s a lot of added pressure. It’s nice being able to just focus on sticking to the schedule.

Anyway, I thought I had another reason but I can’t remember it just yet. If I do, I’ll add it. :)

Survived day one of the schedule

I’m quite proud of myself. I wrote almost the entire six hours scheduled and I started on time at 9 and then at 1, although I admit to two interruptions and one almost nap that lasted about five minutes. All in all, I’d guess that I actually wrote for about 5 hours total.

My word count for that time amount of time sucks. Two reasons: I’m at the end of the book and endings always trip me up, and I’ve been stuck here for days so I’m not surprised it’s been a bitch trying to write my way out of this mess.

I have 1,011 words more than I started with and all of it was added to what I already had in the scene (which is now so long that it’s been split across two chapters). Anyway, it’s coming along and I’m pretty sure this is the climax, to be followed by a fun twist in the wrap up section that will leave a thread for the next books in the series. This series could go on for a long while. I really like writing it when I’m not pulling out my hair because of it. ;)

I’ll be writing more this evening because I’m at the point where I just need to get this book done, but I am taking a break before I get back to it. 3 hours is long enough for one sitting!

My final schedule

I didn’t waste any time sitting down and sketching out a schedule after I wrote my little essay today. It was actually a bit of an eye-opener for me. I had no idea how strongly I believed that doing something you love means it should be easy to make yourself do it.

I really feel like I’ve had something of a breakthrough with that one. I’m almost always excited by whatever I’m writing once I actually get started. That’s a big deal because I find getting started insanely difficult even on the best of days. I’m like a rock that won’t roll when I have something I need to do, and that applies to so many areas of my life that you can take it as a general rule for my behavior. You can count on it. If I’m consistent in nothing else in my life, I’m consistent there.

Anyway, without wasting time optimizing the schedule or anything because it really doesn’t matter if I do—there’ll always be days where it just won’t work out well—I set my writing times: 9–12 and 1–4.

I’m going to try to get into a habit of turning off my WIFI at 9 and 1 sharp.

Any day that I don’t have obligations or outside interruptions, I plan to hold myself accountable for using that time for writing: I can write at other times throughout the day if I want, but I have to try to write during those times specifically, even if that means I just end up sitting with my computer and staring at my document.

I’m not setting a word count goal or quota for any of this, but I’m still interested in where I’ll even out with my daily average. Whatever it turns out to be, I’ll be satisfied as long as I’m putting in effort to actually write on my schedule.

The plan is to avoid shifting my writing times even if it means I end up not writing some days because I procrastinated my way through my scheduled writing times. I really hope that doesn’t backfire, but I feel like it’s a necessary step to keep me from messing with my schedule too often. I’m counting on it being easier to start and sustain a habit if I stick as close to the schedule as possible as often as possible.

If I were trying to squeeze writing in after a job or as a part time venture, I’d do things a lot differently. It would make more sense to just try to write as much as possible and go from there. But I’m not, and frankly, I’ve tried that and it worked when I had a job, but it doesn’t work now. I have so much more time available now that I procrastinate too much. Also, I just don’t need to do that anymore. I love writing, and I might be a little obsessed with it sometimes, but I actually don’t want to spend every spare moment I have doing it. I want free time that I can enjoy guilt free. I want to read and watch TV and keep up with my family and get together with my friends once in a while.

I hadn’t realized how much pressure not having a schedule puts on you to work all the time—and how that weighty feeling can lead to so much procrastinating.

Anyway, that’s the schedule. Wish me luck. I see good things in my future. :)

Scheduling shouldn’t take longer than the work being scheduled

Here’s the thing. I’ve spent more time working on my schedule the last few days than I’ve spent writing. So I’m calling that experiment a complete and total failure. It didn’t work at all the way I’d hoped and there’s nothing to do now but move on.

So, time to try something different.

  1. I’ll be using a timer to count up my writing time throughout the day. (I usually set blocks of time and count down.)
  2. I’ll be taking a day off writing here and there to work on getting some publishing stuff done that I need to have finished ages ago. (I just can’t seem to fit anything else in when I’m wallowing in the feeling that I must write every day.)
  3. I’ll be aiming for about 6 hours of writing a day through the end of January. (It’s not a quota, but I’d really like to write that much each day so I can finish the books I want to finish when I want to finish them.)

I’m unlikely to ever become a speed-demon who can write thousands of words an hour, but hey, fast is relative. ;) If I stick to writing about 500 words an hour, those six hours could translate into about 3,000 words a day, which is well above the number I need to end up with a 2,000 a day average at the end of the year.

So there it is. Now, I’m going to go do some more writing before this day is completely gone.

Oh, and the reading hiatus (except fiction, except on Saturday) is going really well. Today I discovered that even though I hadn’t read certain forums and blogs for days, once a week might still be more often than I need to visit, because I had missed nothing at all. :o

I made a production schedule for 2015 (and screwed up my morning’s writing)

Boo. I started to write this morning and got distracted and created a production schedule for 2015. It’s no big deal, except for the fact that it completely threw off my morning writing and really, that was the main goal I had today, to get my writing started early and finished by lunch.

Crud.

Anyway, I’m resetting myself and I’m about to start my sessions and I still plan to get 3 in before lunch. :) Then I’ll finish the other 2 right after and move on to other stuff I need to do, like prep those paperbacks I keep putting off. At this point, I actually need to finish them ASAP.

I like my production schedule though and I added those books to my list of WIPs in my spreadsheet (series notation, no titles yet for the majority of them) in the order I want to finish them. :)

If I can maintain a 2,000 word a day average and don’t go long on most of my books, I’ll complete 18 books this year, most of them novels. :D

Here’s to a happy and productive writing year in 2015.

Conundrum

Conundrum. Give up on the experiment or keep trying?

My experiment hasn’t had one successful moment yet. I see the beauty of the possible results, but so far, those results are as elusive as the perfect lipstick color.

Some days I cannot believe some of the stuff I write. This is one of those days. I keep reading this sentence in my current work in progress and laughing and I can’t decide if I’m laughing because it’s funny or because it’s so outrageous that I have no choice but to laugh or I’ll freak out about how stupid it is.

In light of my results so far, I’ve tweaked my experiment.

I set my timer for a full 4 hours. (Revised down from the 4.5 hours I would have been writing if you added up the six 45 minute sessions.) I also stuck with setting aside the same 5 hours as before.

If I don’t finish my timed session in the 5 hour block, I’ll schedule an extra block of time to finish later, but still as one single block (to keep the number of breaks down, since that’s kind of the whole point).

At the moment, I’m sitting at 1:59:37.9 left on the timer for today, with 1,155 words completed. Meaning my pace is approximately 578 wph.

I’m not going to finish my 4 hours of writing in my 5 hour block today. It was supposed to go from 9 am to 2 pm (and here I am writing this at 1:08 but I absolutely could not maintain my concentration for another moment) and as I said above, I have almost 2 hours left on my timer. I’ll be getting back to it in just a minute or two but this says I used up my 1 hour of built in time for breaks and then somehow also managed to use another hour. I have no idea how; I haven’t done anything time consuming except drink too much tea.

I admit I’ve had to pee a ridiculous number of times this morning, but that’s not that unusual. I have a bit of a bladder condition that makes this a regular thing. What makes this tough for me is how easily I’m distracted once I’m away from the computer.

I should resolve to drink less tea in the morning, but since I have a rule not to drink tea after 2 pm (or at least not my green tea because it does have a minor amount of caffeine in it), I hate to skip it. I like my green tea. Still, I think I’m going to have to cut back. I gave up coffee completely about a month ago and made the 2 pm tea rule. My sleep’s been better so I’m not going back on that rule because it’s clearly working.

I just wish I found it as easy to employ my willpower with my writing as I do with these other things.

I quit snacking between meals in late May 2014. I haven’t eaten anything outside of meal time since.

You’d think willpower like that would be easily adapted to work for other things, but nope. I can give up coffee. I can give up snacking. I can give up tea after 2. I can’t make myself write when I don’t want to or stick to a writing schedule to save my life.

Sigh.

Tomorrow I begin a schedule

I know I said I was done with schedules. I was wrong. I feel a burning desire to give this another try as I start into the new year so instead of fighting the urge, I gave in.

I have a reason for this. I’ve decided that since I have so much trouble with not getting distracted once I start taking breaks that I should try lumping my writing into one big block of time. For that to work, I pretty much have to have a schedule. Without one, I don’t see any way to create that big block of time.

So starting tomorrow, I’m going to give this a test run.

As soon as I finish breakfast, I’m going to sit down and start writing in 45 minute blocks and write straight through for 5 hours (the breaks at 45 minutes are simply to make sure I get up and stretch my legs, nothing more). That should give me six 45 minute blocks and about 30 minutes for breaks. If I take short breaks the way I plan, I’ll be finished writing by lunch and if I don’t… I’ll probably put off lunch until I get that last session done.

My goal for each of these 45 minute sessions is 500 words. That’s a bit faster than my average pace, but just enough to stretch me a bit. And despite the math that says I could reach 3,000 words a day with this schedule, my goal is still to average 2,000 a day, which means I’m building in some extra words so slow days won’t be as likely to throw me off my average or demoralize me.

Demoralizing is bad. Extra words are good. :)

Daily Writing Streak—The End

Oops … if I have a 100 word minimum, I broke my streak yesterday. However, I did write. Only I wrote 58 words, not 100.

Then today, I just haven’t done it. The change in routine with the school year ending is throwing me off, but really, I just didn’t want to write. Sigh.

This just isn’t working.

I should clarify. My new routine is working quite well. I’m exercising. I’m no longer snacking between meals. I’m not feeling as fatigued as I was. So that’s great. I’m just not writing during the times I have set aside for writing. That’s … problematic.

As for the money thing, well, that’s easy. Apparently money has no motivational power over me at all. I mean, maybe if I was starving or something, but since I’m not… Yeah.

I just don’t understand why I keep trying the same things over and over, except … I kind of do. I forget. I forget why it didn’t work, or I think something’s different this time so I won’t have the same outcome—but then I do. And I shouldn’t be surprised, but I always am.

I don’t know how to overcome that. I don’t know how to make myself remember that I’ve tried the “hours thing” before and couldn’t get it to work for me. Although basing my writing goals around the time I spend writing seems rational and doable, when I put it into action, I end up feeling like I’m trapped, and I avoid writing as if I hate it. As if—ah…

I think I get it now. As if it’s a job.

I just can’t keep doing this to myself. I know better. Treating writing as a job in the sense that most people think of “job” just doesn’t work for me.

I have to take the time scheduling off the table, completely, forever, else I’m just going to try this again in a few months and have this happen all over again.

I sincerely hope this is the last “schedule” post I ever write.

Here’s my plan for the rest of the year: enjoy my writing life and give myself a break.

This doesn’t mean I can’t have goals and dreams and continue attempting to improve as a writer. I will write—I don’t doubt that. I will try to reach a weekly word count goal, and I will continue to try to write every day, because that’s what I do.

Frankly, I don’t have a choice if I want to keep earning a living with my writing. But that doesn’t mean I should spend so much time driving myself crazy with perfectionism—not with the writing itself (I seem to have that under control), but with how much writing I do and how often, because I’m never satisfied. It’s never enough. It will never be enough for the perfectionist in me.

So here’s how much I’d like to write each week—a realistic number that’s going to get me to the number of books I would like to publish each year. 13,535. It’s not my lowest recorded word count for a week and it’s not my highest, so it’s realistic for me. It’s a modest number, and if I don’t make it each week, so be it.

I’d like to do this in conjunction with continuing to write on multiple stories each day, because that’s working for me, and it’s refreshing to be able to switch stories when things get all tangled up in my head. The breaks always seem to do me good.

But it’s just something to keep me focused.

And that’s it.

I will still probably have days where I’ll want to challenge myself—because it can be fun to do that sometimes, but my days will be devoted to enjoying the writing life as much as possible and learning how to let go of the perfectionistic ideals of what my writing life should be like.

Schedules

I came across a great quote today, one that surprised and pleased me and seemed to come at just the right time since I’ve been mulling over the why and why nots of having a schedule and why it might be time for me to get back to mine.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.

This quote, from The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, which I came across at Brain Pickings in “How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Presence Over Productivity,” resonated. I haven’t thought of a schedule in quite this way before, and I like the idea that a schedule isn’t so much a prison as it is a scaffolding and a haven.

I could use a haven; frankly, I could use some scaffolding.

I love the idea of looking back and seeing “a blurred and powerful pattern” in my days past.

I’m going to build my scaffolding from my old schedule, and following another piece of advice from someone else, I’m going to start the day with creative work first.

Failure is always an option, but I don’t mind. Gotta (re)start somewhere. :)

Love the New Schedule; Of Course There’s a Problem

I’m still not getting started most mornings like I should and I’m consistently missing my 8–9 session.

High impulsiveness is a big part of this problem, I think. I always intend to get started right away in the mornings, but when it’s actually time, there’s just one more thing I need to finish up first before I can sit down and get to it.

I bailed on yesterday’s writing, and I skipped today deliberately. My kids were home from school again because of school admin days or some such thing, but I already know I can write with them around at least well enough to finish a book so I’m not sure why I took the time off. I shouldn’t have, but I did anyway.

It’s 8:41 pm and I’m writing this instead of writing fiction. Yeah. Not sure what I was thinking when I started this considering it was almost exactly 8 at the time. I can’t even believe it’s been 41 minutes and yet, objectively, I know it has been. Just how many paragraphs have I written and deleted to have only gotten a word count for this post of 189 in 41 minutes?!

Way too many!

I’m thinking of how I can mitigate these issues so I don’t start feeling like my schedule isn’t working for me. Just because I like it doesn’t mean it works and that would be a terrible shame considering exactly how much I do like it!

Tomorrow I need to make every effort to stick to the schedule and squeeze all the writing time out of it I can. It’ll be good for morale. ;) Maybe I can start a success spiral—and show some grit. Practice focusing.

Sounds like a plan!