Reading Time: 6 Mins
You see, I have these thoughts. Creative thoughts. Ideas. Books, stories, characters, all swirling around in competition for space on the blank page in front of me whenever I make the time to sit down and write.
Then there are the things that happen to me in real life; those moments I want to capture before they get lost in the air around them. I want them only for myself so that I can look back on them and have a true idea of the life I’ve lived, but I am happy to share them as well.
The problem with all of these thoughts and ideas and moments is that they make it incredibly hard for me to focus because each one, to me, is important enough to have its own purpose. This character must live out their story. This idea must be turned into a short story and should fit into the short story collection I am forever curating. This photograph tells a story of the moment all by itself but I feel compelled to caption it with 1000 words anyway.
It has been a busy few weeks. Life is returning to normal and everyone wants to go everywhere with all the people all the time and I feel we’ve rushed back out into the world and picked right up where we left off from the Time Before and it’s all been a bit overwhelming.
“A bit overwhelming”… a funny phrase I use all the time. Overwhelming means “very great in amount” and so, I’m not being very honest with myself when I say that I am feeling only a small part of that very great amount, am I?
Things are either overwhelming or they are not. I’ll look to self edit on that point moving forward.
Woolgathering: “indulgence in idle daydreaming“.
In order to have focus during the workweek, it’s important to have a plan and a home for the things that take that focus away from you.
Whenever the brain gets too busy and I cannot find the focus I need, that’s what these posts will be for; a decluttering of the mind, if you will.
I have not completed a 400 word short story in each of the last two weeks. I found I could not focus enough even on a daily #vss365 word prompt on twitter to keep those stories going. I’m approaching this week with a lot more clarity so we’ll see how this new story goes.
That being said, I had an incredible hour last Wednesday where an idea for a short piece struck me, I wrote it out in 700 words, edited it the next day and sent it out into the world for possible publication. Another tab on the “Queries and Subs” spreadsheet.
There is something to be said about asking yourself the question, “Why not right now?” when inspiration strikes.
I remember reading that Jerry Seinfeld had a big calendar on the wall of his office and his goal was to write one joke a day. It didn’t have to be good, but he had to do it every day and when he’d written his joke he’d put a big X on that day in the calendar.
It took discipline at first to be self motivated, but soon that string of X’s became the motivation. The longer the streak went on, the less he was likely to break it. After all, it was just one little joke to keep it going.
For the last six months I’ve been using an app called Streaks and this past weekend I decided to stop.
I highly recommend this app because it has done it’s job. (I am not affiliated with the app in any way and receive zero compensation for any mentions).
The app is incredibly simple to use and you can set yourself up with a couple dozen habits you want to build and maintain.
The process is easy from there: check off whenever you do the thing you’ve set yourself up to do (either daily or hitting a certain number of times a week as a goal) and the app will track your streaks.
The longer your streaks become, the less likely you are to break them.
In the past six months I have read more, exercised more, watched my calorie count better and meditated more.
I was even able to go to my dentist and tell her that I had only missed three days of flossing since my last appointment.
So why stop using it now?
Because the habits have been built and I found that the act of trying to keep the various streaks alive was taking way more brainspace than it should have and actually starting to cause a bit of anxiety.
I don’t want to work out today because that time could be used for writing but I have a 42 day streak going, so, you know, I don’t want to lose that.
The streak was becoming more important than the activity.
And when you add this to the idea that we are now suddenly back out there in the world and seeing everyone and doing everything and there is not as much time in a day as we had before, this past weekend I decided this was the thing that had to go.
And guess what? I flossed this morning. I ate breakfast. I did a short workout. I started the new short story for this week.
All good things and I don’t need to tell myself that they are somehow better because I did them X many days in a row.
I HIGHLY recommend this app for anyone who has a habit they want to get started on. It works.
Just know when to turn it off.
Last night I looked at my screen time report on my phone for the past week and, for the first time ever, I’ve imposed daily limits on the couple of games that I play as well as facebook and instagram. I am also trying to be conscious of how many times I pick up my phone.
If I have time to pick up my phone, I have time to open the laptop and write.
Everybody needs a brain break every now and then so I’m not militant about it, but a gentle reminder at the 15 minute mark of scrolling through stories helps me make a better decision about how to use the next 15 minutes of my time vs. losing track of time altogether and suddenly it’s dark out and why am I alone in the room and where did everybody go?
Lastly, this weekend was wonderful. I got spoiled for Father’s Day and we had such a lovely time all together.
We went out to see the new Jurassic World movie on Saturday night and took complete advantage on both Saturday and Sunday of living steps away from the Taste Of Little Italy.
Street Festivals are back and it was so good to get out to enjoy the day and celebrate the neighbourhood.
I didn’t work out yesterday – in fact I don’t think I even flossed yesterday – but it was the best day I’ve had in the last month.
And as for today, the brain is now decluttered and this post has done its job.
It’s time to tackle writing chapter 24.
