 |
| Go out and get busy or I'll sic Daisy on you! |
Anybody here not busy? I thought I was busy before, but this week leading up to JCB'S pub date is INSANELY BUSY! I keep reminding myself of two bits of wisdom I've incorporated into my life. Both are helping me keep my sanity right now.
Bit of wisdom #1 comes from the Gospel of Luke:
"If, therefore, you cannot do the least thing, why be anxious about the remaining things?" (Luke 12:26)
Bit of wisdom #2 comes from Tiny Little Baby Steps By SARK:
"Micromovements are tiny, tiny little steps you can take towards completions of
your life. I'm a recovering procrastinator and perfectionist and I have a short attention span,
so I invented Micromovements as a method of completing projects in time spans of 5
minutes or less. I always feel like I can handle almost anything for 5 minutes!"
So, dear ones, what do you do when you feel insanely busy?
I'm first!
ReplyDeleteMe? I'm a list maker. On scraps, old envelopes, index cards. I cross and cross until the scrap gets too hard to read then I make a new list transferring the things not yet crossed off. Particularly during the school year, this is total necessity.
So excited for you and your launch!
I'm about to be deep back in the revision cave. Probably starting Wed. or Thursday.
There's something special about marking things off a list. . . Best wishes with the revisions!
DeleteBusy is good :)
ReplyDeleteFor the first time ever, I've decided to try and work on two projects at once - a rewrite of an old WIP and a new first draft. We shall see how that goes!
I've done that many times. It's refreshing for me. Hope it works well for you! ^_^
DeleteYAY, Angelina!
ReplyDeleteAh...busy...I usually find something else to throw on the pile just to punish myself! What can I say...I'm a masochist! Actually, I'm in the midst of helping my children learn how to ease anxiety and just break things into small chunks. Imagine a telescope and focus on that one thing for 5 minutes and see how much you can get done. Of course, it's often harder to chase all that other stuff out of view, but the imagination is a wondrous thing...
Now...where did I put those notecards...
Great suggestion. ^_^
DeleteI need to be taking more baby steps right now! Thanks for the reminder. I've definitely been a bit paralyzed lately. All this inaction has definitely been breeding more inaction. Time to get moving!!!
ReplyDelete****sweeps Kate forward*** ^_^
DeleteI weep.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding, though I may cry a little on the inside.
I've taken tiny steps for a few years. Now, they've graduated to toddler steps along with The Keysmashing Tots. During the week, I'm with them over at my brother's place. When I can't write as much, I go hunting for pockets of time:
1) Bathroom--you'd be surprised what business you can get done when there's 'business' to get done.
2) Nap time: though it's a rarity anymore. And if it's just one of the two, I occupy the other with an activity and stay to one side using anything from scraps bits of paper to my phone for jotting down this, that, and the other.
3) Nighttime: This is my most productive time of day. Not sure if it worked out that way but I ended up being the most creative then, too. Perhaps it's the looming midnight deadline for updating word counts with WriMos. Maybe it's my nocturnal nature. While I work just fine in a busy coffeeshop and have done so in the past, there's something about the calm serenity with nothing but the ticking of a clock and the buzz of the refrigerator to sound thrum in time to the clicking of my digits against the keyboard.
Progress Report:
- I wrote just under 18K last week. Pleased as punch--though I don't think that makes sense.
- read five more books and am currently reading two new ones.
I'm happy with the output considering the entire household was sick. We're in the tail-end of sniffles and coughs now. Fortunately, all the fevers and chills are gone. Good thing TKT were pretty energetic the entire time--maybe not for me, but for them--and they kept their appetites.
The little one, however, never got her chubbiness back from the last time she got sick. Glad she didn't lose weight this time around. She lost the fullness in her cheeks and you can see it in her neck. I know she's grown taller and she's always been in the lower range of the normal birth weight for a baby her age, but I just want to put a little more meat on her bones. That's why I've upped my game and taken over the cuisine for the tykes. I'm make as much homemade and filling food for them as I can to keep them energized and working on the cute-plumpness. I want them to be healthy, of course, which they are, but just a little fuller would be fantastic. Yeah. Cute-plump, not the OMG what are they feeding that kid plump.
Hope everyone's doing well as we bust into Week Two!
Busy, you say? What's that? ;)
Cheers,
Tonette
You crack me up and amaze me. Congrats on the 18K!
DeleteAt first I was going to say that it was three words shy of 18K but writing 18K is more impressive than 17,997. Then I realized I gave the wrong total. That was my Saturday total. At seven days: 20,129 words. I suppose it's even better to post that I wrote over 20K last week.
DeleteMy point is, I've been mixing my days up for weeks now and it seems I'm rubbish at numbers. Words are truly my only saving grace.
*ahem*
But thanks all the same. :)
It seems my life is always busy. Had company from Utah just 'pop' up this weekend. **This happens a lot considering that we live in Southern Ca. Then found out nephew that is taking care of mother-in-law probably will be moving to Idaho in August which means that we'll have to check in on her every day until she gets into assistant living. Not sure how I'm going to homeschool, write, and now check in on elderly mother-in-law who isn't the nicest person to be around. **Ayy, need to take a deep breath here.
ReplyDeleteRight now I write lists and check off what needs to be done. But with recent development, not sure...
Deep breath. You will manage. ^_^ One thing I always remind myself. Everything is temporary. ^_^
DeleteThanks! I need that!
DeleteI hope this last bit before the launch gives you at least a few moments to gather yourself. Insanity is no fun. Sark's micromovements sound like a good thing. It's always easier to focus on one doable thing at a time rather than be overwhelmed by the entire picture. I'm a list maker, although lately I seem to have ventured quite a distance from my list. I think it's that "summertime mañana" attitude taking over.
ReplyDeleteThis week I've been writing whenever I feel like it... and fortunately, I feel like it quite often and am making reasonable progress while still finding time to relax.
Excellent! Love it when a writer feels like writing. ^_^
DeleteI seem to be so busy with life lately that I'm barely able to find time to write AT ALL. If I get 1K down in a week, I'm blissfully happy.
ReplyDeleteI like Workflowy for work lists.
Angelina, I know your book is going to be AWESOME. I'm super-excited for you :)
Now, how to get the motivation back? Could it be that I'm going to too many (2/wk) writing groups and therefore not having enough time for writing?
Hugs, all!
You may be on to something. Maybe cut down to 1/wk writing group and you'll have writing to share. ^_^
DeleteI'm another list-maker...first thing I do when I'm on the verge of feeling swamped is make a nice, organized, tidy list. Then I can see things in manageable chunks. However, every once in a while I just need to take a step back and assess WHY I'm so busy, because for me personally, busy is not a good thing. It often seems like an inevitable thing, but really, in my case, it only becomes inevitable when my priorities are forgotten and/or I'm spending too much time online!
ReplyDeleteToo much time online? Surely you jest. . .
DeleteLOL, oh...um...I was speaking hypothetically...ha!
DeleteSorry for the late update, but it is soooo worth it: last night I FINISHED my revisions!
ReplyDeleteI still have to get the seal of approval from my critique partner, but after that, it's onto querying. For now, I'm going to work on two things: 1) my Camp NaNo piece, which is a category romance and a load of fun, and 2) my query letters. Time to send this baby out! (soon)
Yay, you! Be of good courage querier. ^_^
DeleteAh, list-maker. It's a must. Otherwise I'd go insane, running around in circles and getting nothing accomplished. I actually prefer to be busy. Not crazy busy, just busy. Constant business gives me purpose.
ReplyDeleteTonette, you crack me up. Inspire me. And motivate me!! You go, girl. :)
Ang, so excited for you. Getting my ?'s ready. I'll email them to you!
Oh and me. Well, I'm still revising the PB. Wanna guess how many times a PB writer can rewrite 500 words? About 500 freaking times. :)
That's so funny, but true. I believe writing PBs is the hardest! Best wishes. ^_^
DeleteLove all these list makers! I feel completely out of balance when my life is out of order, so I have a tradition of physically decluttering my life when I feel mentally overburdened. I actually kinda works--and my house gets insanely clean. Two birds. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I am working on a brand-new project. It's overwhelming and intimidating, but it's also so exciting and liberating. Can't wait to tell you guys more about it as it gets rolling. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)
How exciting! Can't wait to hear more. ^_^
DeleteAs you can tell by my late arrival here, I'm also insanely busy. I tend to multitask (badly) when I'm over busy. I've stopped trying to return emails while driving, at least, but there are other things I do when I'm busy that I often look back on and shake my head at the stupidity.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I win the award for being so busy I couldn't even check in till Wednesday.... craziness! Lists make me more anxious, other than a grocery list, so I just run run run. This week hasn't been a good writing week, but last week I got 3K in, getting me up to the 11.5K range. It felt so great to make daily progress that I'm blue about how this week needed so much outside attention. Oh well. Today I am back at the keyboard. =)
ReplyDeleteI try to attack one project at a time remembering how you eat an elephant. Just one bite at a time. In other words, don't get overwhelmed with all of the work. Sit down and start, one bite at a time.
ReplyDelete