Today, we’re looking at how important it is to make sure you’re properly timing your productivity. I’ll get into it all below, but self-management is so important to achieve your goals. We’ve talked about this in various forms throughout this blog, but this is looking precisely at time of day.
In mundane news, I spent the last several days sick so I’ve made progress on essentially nothing this week. I’ll cover specifics later, but it’s pretty disheartening to have a “nothing week.” Sometimes your body needs it, but it doesn’t lessen the sting of zero productivity, especially this close to the end of the year. Just remember, as I have to remind myself right now, to give yourself grace. Plans are great, but life doesn’t conform to your plans. Some of my biggest deviations led me to my biggest joys and achievements. The same is likely true now; I just can’t see where the road leads.
Drawing from the Well
As I said, I got basically nothing done here. I wrote a couple of paragraphs for another chapter insert, but I didn’t finish it, so I don’t count the words yet. That means the numbers below remain the same. I don’t like it. I’m itching to move forward with this edit. It’s taking FOREVER! Soon, it’ll get better.
Pages 312
160,976/175,422 Words
Filling the Well
Although technically I made progress here by finishing two books, I’m only keeping up with how far behind I am. When I wrote the newsletter that shipped today, I realized that I need to finish a book every other day from now to the end of the year to reach my goal. So… I’d better get reading. Pen and Des continue to delight. I’m almost at the end of the series so I’ll have to jump onto something else after this. I’m also chewing through Fragile Threads of Power again and it is such an incredible ride. Plot-wise, it’s all over the place, but I just don’t care. I love learning all the back stories of all the new characters and seeing how they fold into the current narrative. Having all that information is going to make the rest of the trilogy really move. I can’t wait to see how it comes together.
92/105 for #ProjectBookworm2023
Well Chat
In our second edition of my Revisited series, we jump forward in time a bit. After over a two-year break, I came back to my blog. I tried blogging every day and, let me tell you, those blogs were awfully thin. They were mostly NaNo updates. There was one thing that popped up of interest, though. In my Another Day blog on March 23, 2018, I mentioned that writing in the morning was just not for me. That has certainly changed! Let’s talk about why and how.
Circadian rhythms fascinate me. When people derive their energy makes such a difference in what gets done. My sister-in-law, for example, basically operates under a sleep-wake inversion. She’s not just a night owl; she can’t sleep at night. This tends to create a situation where she’s up all night working and then sleeps through the morning. For years, I was very much a night owl (I still enjoy a late night now and then too). When my wife got sick, though, all that changed.
I took over a lot of responsibilities that my wife used to do and take joy in because her body was fighting so hard to heal and fight. Where I used to be the later to rise, I started getting up very early in the morning to get ready to start my day in time to take the kids to school. I developed a new routine where I would rise, prep, take my son to school, come home, wake my daughter, make coffee for my wife, take my daughter to school, and then start my work day at home. As I got more efficient with that process, I carved out time to write.
Next thing I know, I’m a morning person. I started finding my greatest energy and creativity for writing before dawn. The house was quiet. No one needed anything from me yet. My brain was empty of the noise that the normal day poured into it. That was how I discovered the power of sprinting in my writing habit.
At this point, as I stated in my newsletter, a lot of this structure has broken down. I want to get back into it. It’s when I feel the most productive, especially since I’m drafting new chapters. I just haven’t put enough focus on it lately. The time has long since come to fix this.
The real point of all this is that my assumption that I did my best writing at night back in 2018 is no longer true. I’m a different person now (almost completely since five of the seven years of full cell replacement have occurred, but I digress). I’ll be interested to see what I learn on this topic in the next five years.
When do you have the greatest energy and creativity? When is it easiest for you to work? What have you learned in finding this out? Let me know in the comments and on social media.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG