People (meaning myself at the very least) have all kinds of excuses not to write (and exercise can be substituted for write, too).<\/p>\n
One of the biggest-“I don’t have time.” I think Rob’s heard this one more than any other. \u00a0But it’s really not even that valid because my daily routine is quite, well, routine.<\/p>\n
I wake up at 7:30 to get ready for work-get dressed, check websites and email, brush my teeth, make coffee, eat cereal, drive to work. \u00a0I work from 8:30 to 4:30, with an hour for lunch. \u00a0Aside from lunch, I have no downtime. When I’m in the office, there’s no reason for me to not be working. Even when there’s no power for a couple hours, like happened Friday morning, I can still do my job without interruption. I do try to use part of my lunchtime to write-half hour to eat and read, and a half hour to write. \u00a0Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. \u00a0After work, I exercise and then have about a half hour-ish until dinner-usually around 6:30. \u00a0Then there’s dishes, shower, and tv until 11. \u00a0And sleep. \u00a0Rinse, repeat every weekday.<\/p>\n
One of the suggestions floating around to make use of time is to wake up earlier to get writing in before work. I flat out refuse to do that for writing or exercise. I’m naturally a night person and have a hard time falling asleep-anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours, so I take every minute I can in the morning. Including going back to sleep for 3 minutes between Skittles wanting to come in\/go out and my alarm going off. Plus I’m a horrible morning person, and I’m rarely awake enough to even think about writing that early.<\/p>\n
So right now, my writing times are about a half hour at lunch and about a half hour before dinner. I can manage around 250 to 500 words in that amount of time, more if I know where I’m going. But if I’ve no clue, I’m lucky if I get a sentence. \u00a0More often than not, I have a case of “Oh! Shiny!” And time disappears.<\/p>\n
What I end up doing after my shower is clicking around websites, checking Twitter, and watching TV. \u00a0What I should be doing is writing. \u00a0Especially because, if my mind’s in the right mode, I use shower time to hash out stuff and start mentally writing scenes. I really should get one of those diver slate thingies for the shower.<\/p>\n
So the “No time” excuse? \u00a0Really doesn’t work. \u00a0I’ve made the time to exercise. I have plenty of times I could write. I just have to actually do it.<\/p>\n
And I hate it being an excuse, but the reason I don’t write in that time I can’t sleep is that Rob has to be up at 5:15 to go to work. If I stay awake in the bedroom, I’m too loud, and the light bothers him. If I stay in my writing room, I’m too loud and wake him when I open or shut the bedroom door. Really not much that can be done about that.<\/p>\n
The other excuse I tend to use-“I have _____ to do”-is trickier. \u00a0Usually, it is something that has to be done-exercise, cleaning, dishes, dinner, sleep, etc. Sometimes, it’s more something I feel needs to be done-scanning my photos\/negatives, updating my website, and so forth. The reason this gets tricky is because, ideally, these are things I could delegate. In the past, I have. Several times. What happens next is that something gets done, but badly, so I spend time fixing it. Or, nothing gets done, and I spend time doing it. And lately it’s nothing gets done because I don’t have the patience.<\/p>\n
In other words, it’s a case of “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” This feeds my unwillingness to ask for help, because when I have asked, I get promises and good intentions. So, until I get actions instead of words, I don’t bother asking for help anymore.<\/p>\n
At least, not with the website. \u00a0Other stuff, sure. In fact, I want to move a white board to hang beside the bed so that I’ll see my goals before I go to sleep and when I wake up. I hope that’ll be motivation to move past the excuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People (meaning myself at the very least) have all kinds of excuses not to write (and exercise can be substituted for write, too). One of the biggest-“I don’t have time.” I think Rob’s heard this one more than any other. … Continue reading