I had the following email exchange with a colleague this
morning.
8:59 am Friend: I am locked in a library all weekend doing research and writing. Text or email if you need anything. I can be in the office in 15 minutes if anything big arises.
9:01 am Me: Happy Writing!
9:09 am Friend: writer's block sucks! looming deadlines suck more!!
9:55 am Me: Be willing to write crap. Then you can mold the crap into something useful during the editing process. “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”—Margaret Attwood.
9:59 am Friend: true, wise words. i always have to remind myself that the search for brilliance is the enemy of finishing! thanks for the support!
10:01 am Me: The other bit of advice I give writers--shut off your email and internet unless you need it for research during your writing time. This is my last response to you today!
We easily could have kept the banter going. More emails would have seemed like short breaks from our work, but the truth is it would have been non-productive interruptions for both of us. As writer, how many times do we sit down at the
computer and the first thing we do is open our email and check social
media. If you start your writing session
by checking emails or commenting on Facebook, an hour or more can slip away
before you write one word. This pre-writing routine can seriously decrease your writing productivity.
Blogger Michael Stelzner suggests tracking how you
use your time to increase your productivity. One way to do that is use productivity tracker software. RescueTime offers apps and software to help track your computer use. A free 14 day free trial service is available on their website.
Knowing how you spend your computer time will help you make changes and increase your writing productivity.
How do you maximize your writing time? I love to hear what's worked for you.
Oh and one more thing..I might send just one email tomorrow morning to check on my friend locked up in the library with her computer.
Oh and one more thing..I might send just one email tomorrow morning to check on my friend locked up in the library with her computer.
Mary Jo Guglielmo is writer and intuitive life coach. For more information check out:
http://DoNorth.biz
http://facebook.com/DoNorth.biz
