Empress Procrastination Tries to Manage Her Time

Every human being has exactly the same amount of time, and yet consider the output of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Peabody Harrington, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Goldman, Neil Simon, Joyce Carol Oates, Agatha Christie, and John Gardner. How did they accomplish what they have? They weren't deflected from their priorities by activities of lesser importance. The work continues, even though everything else may have to give. They know that their greatest resource is themselves. Wasting time is wasting themselves. When people ask them, "Where do you find the time?" they wonder, "Where do you lose it?"~ Kenneth Atchity

Time management is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Frankly, I suck at it. I'm a very organized person in theory, but the execution of it lacks a bit at times. I really work best under a deadline. When I have a deadline, I have no excuse to put things off (I am the EMPRESS of Procrastination). When I have a deadline, I let nothing get in my way. I stay up late, wake up early, spend every waking minute working on my project to get it done. Without a deadline...I sort of end up like this:




So, I've set up a schedule for myself. We'll see how it goes. I tend to not stick to these things very long. But I have eternal hope :DI am a stay-at-home mom with two kids who are now both in school full time. I know I have the hours in the day to do everything I want (most of the time). So I should be accomplishing a lot, right? I mean, I should be churning out a new novel every other month and my house should always be spotless, shouldn't it?So why is everything, including my novels, laying around half done?

Honestly, I have no idea. It's like spending $100 out shopping and having nothing to show for it. I will admit, that despite my best intentions, I often find myself during my child free hours, simply staring off into space, or cruising the blogs and tweets, or cuddled up on the couch with some hot coco and one of the many shows I've recorded over the week but haven't gotten around to watching. Often, even writing just sounds like too much work and all I want to do is vegetate.

And I really need to stop beating myself up over that. Heck, everyone needs a break...especially stay at home moms :D But, I could be managing my time better. And since I have several projects that I really REALLY want to get done in the next month or so, I have put myself on a schedule that should, if I follow it, allow me to accomplish what I want to in my personal endeavors, and still enable me to take care of my home and family in the way that I want.

I write best when I am alone and it is quiet, usually in the mornings...but I have also discovered that if I get all the house chores done first thing in the morning, my day goes much smoother. I seem to have more time to do everything else, and I am much less stressed going about the rest of my day. So I have decided to sacrifice a bit of my "me" time every morning to get the things done around the house that need doing. If I can stay on top of things, the chores should only take an hour or so a day...which leaves me plenty of time to squeeze in a few miles at the track, run all my errands and still have time to write or watch tv or just stare off into space until my children come home.

So, that is my game plan :D I will manage my time wisely so that I can fit everything into my day that I need, and want, to do.

Does anyone else have a hard time managing their time? Do you find yourself playing online or doing something else when you should be applying those fingers to the keyboard?

Post Title

→

Empress Procrastination Tries to Manage Her Time

Post URL

→

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/04/empress-procrastination-tries-to-manage.html

Visit short emo haircuts for Daily Updated Wedding Dresses Collection

How Being on a Diet is Like Writing a Book

One of my goals this year (like many people out there) was to lose weight. Starting in January, I hit the diet trail...and I'm doing pretty well. While doing dishes yesterday, I got to thinking (as I often do...I really should do dishes more often - great epiphany zone)...

Being on a diet is a lot like writing a book.

Why? Well, I'll tell you :)

1. There are a lot of ups and downs

Some days you are going to get on that scale and see an awesome weight loss. And other days, you might see nothing...you might even gain. Even if you did everything absolutely, perfectly right, sometimes the scale just doesn't reflect all your hard work.

Same with writing. Sometimes everything just falls into place. Your prose is perfect, every scene is turning out exactly how you wanted, your manuscript is polished and gorgeous and requests are overloading your inbox. And other times, all that may be true but you still hear nothing but crickets. Even though you put in all the hard work, even though everything is perfect and there is nothing more you can do to help your manuscript improve, sometimes you still don't get the results you deserve.

So, should you quit? No! Because if you quit, you negate all the hard work you've put into it. No matter what your results are that day, you have to just keep at it.

2. Everything in moderation

I love me some chocolate. LOVE IT. To the point of obsession, seriously. Is it bad for me? No. Not in moderation. Are french fries, chocolate shakes, ice cream, brownies, donuts, chips, dips, pies, cakes (getting carried away here :D ) bad for me? No, they aren't. Well maybe if I eat them all in one day....every day :D But in moderation? No. These things are just fine.

Well, when it comes to my writing, adverbs are my brownies. Sentence fragments are my pizza. Long, rambling, complex sentences are my Doritos. Are these things bad? No. As long as I use them in moderation. A few here and there are great, a treat for my readers. Too many and I'm in danger of giving my readers an overload that will cause nausea and cavities. :)

3. Do what you don't want to do and get what you want to get

Do I want to exercise every day? No. Do I want to eat chicken and celery soup for lunch instead of the leftover pizza or Mexican that everyone else is eating? Heck no!

Will I get better results and feel better if I do? Yes. *le sigh*

Do I want to write every single day? Not always. Do I want to rewrite a scene for the 1000th time? Not usually.

Will I get better results and feel better about my manuscript if I do. Yes *le sigh* :)

Does this mean that you have to exercise (or write) every day, or pass up every single piece of pizza (or ignore the rewrite)? Of course not.

But...it's better for me, and the results I'm after, if I do these things at least a few times a week. Don't feel like writing today - fine. But write tomorrow, or at least the next day. Don't want to rewrite that scene right now? So don't. But if you want results, be sure to come back to it in a few days.

Stay tuned on Thursday for more ways diets and writing are the same :) Now if you'll excuse me, there's a nice steaming bowl of chicken and celery soup with my name on it :D

Post Title

→

How Being on a Diet is Like Writing a Book

Post URL

→

https://shortemohaircuts2011.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-being-on-diet-is-like-writing-book.html

Visit short emo haircuts for Daily Updated Wedding Dresses Collection