I’m normally very good at reading my own signals and knowing when it’s time for the work day to end. However, there are always those days when there is more work than you can get done before your writing light burns out. If you’re not tuned into what’s going on with yourself, you can cause yourself to get exhausted and to tap out your creativity. This results in poor work and a sense of frustration.
Here are some signs that it’s time to stop writing for the day even if there is more work that needs to be done:
- You’re making typos that you don’t normally make. If your fingers are tripping over the keyboard, you might want to think about whether you’re really maximizing your time.
- You’ve decided to stop proofreading your own work. I’m normally highly conscientious of proofreading all work before sending it to a client or posting it on a blog. If I find that I’m not inclined to care so much about the quality of my finished product, then I know that it’s time to be done for the day. I really do only want to put my best writing work out there for others to see.
- You hate your job. Most freelancers love their jobs. However, they have days when they start to hate the work that they’re doing. Unless this is a symptom of ongoing discontent requiring a true job shift (which you’ll know internally) it’s probably a sign that you just need to take a break.
- You’re snapping at the people around, you’re crying or you’re otherwise emotionally expressing frustration. Sometimes we do this and don’t even blame it on the job. If you’re not normally this kind of person, ask yourself if the work is the real problem.
- You can’t pull yourself away from the computer even though you know you’re done. If you’ve already conceded somewhere inside that you’re tapped out, you might find yourself trying to convince your body to keep on working. If you’re already having that internal conversation then you should probably be thinking about hitting that shutdown key.
When the writing work is getting too tough, it’s okay to throw in the towel. Sometimes it’s better to let our brains rest and to do better work the following day than to try and get too much done within the deadline. Of course, it’s ideal to pace your week properly so that you don’t face this kind of exhaustion. But it’s important to realize that sometimes you’re going to have these kinds of days and that you need to deal with them properly. Be kind to yourself; the rest of the world might not be but you can always make the effort.
Question of the Day: How do you know that it’s time to stop writing for the day?
Related links: 3 Things I Learned From My Girlfriend This Week, 5 Signs It’s Time to Stop Writing, When to Take a Break
Recommended books: Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
[Tags] writing, freelance, tired, exhausted, work, employment, habits, rituals, work at home [/Tags]
I’m halfway through my week of reporting on MacWorld for Mac-Forums. It’s been a great week so far but it’s also been a really tiring one. I’d forgotten how exhausting it can be to be out and about doing the 9-5 thing! It’s funny, because I generally put in more than an eight hour day. But there’s something about doing it from the comfort of home, without a commute or the sensory overload of a shared office, that makes it a much more relaxing experience.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m thrilled to be at MacWorld this week. I’ve had a chance to learn about all sorts of different gadgets and applications. I’ve met people associated with EFF and people putting out cool magazines that I didn’t know about until now. And today I got the chance to hear some really awesome guest speakers talk about some topics that interested me. I am enjoying every minute.
But I’m also coming home at the end of the day totally ready to just veg out! Of course, in addition to the MacWorld Expo, I’ve to the rest of my fulltime work to keep me busy. So I don’t truly have the opportunity to just relax when I get home. But I’m trying to keep that always important life-work balance in mind to make sure that all of my work is as good as it should be.
Perhaps you’ve wondered why I didn’t bother to post anything in December. It’s because I took the month of December off. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I did my normal jobs and kept on working at the projects that I had already started. But I also took a big chunk of December to myself, to sort out what my writing goals are and to figure out what was and wasn’t working for me in my work. I think it’s important to take the time to do this every now and then so that you can move forward with the work that’s good for you and let go of the work that’s not quite working. December seemed like a perfect month for this because there’s very little new work coming through during the holiday season.
This blog was one of the things that I opted to let slide while sorting through my work because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought that taking the time to figure out what it meant to me and what I wanted to share here was a better use of my time than throwing up some random posts. So it was quiet here - not because there was no news but because the news was still in the making. And now it’s January, and I’m ready to ramp it up again.
So why wasn’t I around for the past couple of days? Well, one of the things that I learned in December is that I really do need days off. I’ve been going full force for a long time, rarely taking any days at all off of work. That’s not healthy for anyone, even when you love what you do. In early December, I took the first laptop-free vacation that I’d taken in years. And it was wonderful. It rejuvenated me. It made me feel creative again. And I realized that I need some no-technology days in my life if I’m going to be able to really give my work my best. So Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my offical days off for 2008.
As you can see now, it’s Thursday and I’m back to work. You can even see some of my stuff online today at the usual sites including a post that I’m quite proud of over at PureBlogging on the topic of blog etiquette and the basic rules of respect that commenters should follow on blogs. A few of the other posts that are live today are about CT scan advances, a tattoo removal book, an infertility movie and the use of viral videos for getting dates online.
This blog will be updated regularly now (at least weekly) with links to other posts, updates about big projects, and random thoughts about writing. I hope you’ll come back and share your thoughts with me!
I was one of those people who joined MySpace when it was first launched. Ten years ago, I actively wrote handwritten letters to a bunch of pen pals that I had collected over the years. Those people were some of my best friends throughout high school and I remain in touch with a handful of them today. But for the most part, our correspondence has moved on to the Internet. It was one of those people who first introduced me to MySpace and I signed up as a way to stay in touch with her. I was active on the site for a few weeks and then my interest in it tapered off. I just wasn’t interested in what it had to offer and I promptly proceeded to remain inactive on the site for a couple of years.
Then, when I made the move from Arizona to San Francisco a few years back, I discovered that everyone here had a MySpace profile. And not only that, but it seemed to be the easiest way to get to know new people. We’d meet online or through friends but we’d really get to know each other through the comments and conversations we shared on MySpace. So, I dusted off the old profile and began to use the site almost daily. It wasn’t long before I began to realize that MySpace could help me make professional contacts in the area as well. So I adjusted my profile and set to work using it in that capacity.
And then, the floodgates were opened. The more work that I began doing online, the more I found that people wanted to connect with me through some social networking site or another. I began to get requests to join people on sites like LinkedIn. And the world of social bookmarking began to become increasingly important as I was asked to support the work of friends and associates with my votes on sites like Digg. I became an avid fan for a few short months and then, once again, my use of the sites tapered off. I found that it was difficult to actually make use of the sites on a regular basis and still have time for my other work.
Now, I use a few of the sites. And I’m trying to streamline my use to just those few because I feel that gives me the best chance to actually get to know people on the sites. If I’m going to bother being connected to people there, I want to be able to get to know them and to share the new news that’s going on. Otherwise, it seems like a waste of my time and theirs to say that we are “friends” there. But this doesn’t discount the important power of these sites. I still think that they’re a great place for making new friends, staying in touch with people and letting others who might be interested know what you’re up to. I just think that for my own use, it requires that I limit the sites I’m on to really be able to develop the connections that I’m making there.
The sites that currently interest me the most for social networking are MySpace (although I only use my work profile now, not my old personal profile), LinkedIn (which I’ve been on for awhile and am just starting to develop use of) and Bitchy Betty (a new site that allows people to support each other’s non-profit and good cause efforts). I use more bookmarking sites than I do networking sites (Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble, Sk-rt, Hugg, Propeller … to name a few) although I’m working on curtailing my use of those, as well (with the first three on my list there being my preferred sites). So, I suppose that I haven’t quite decided if I love social networking or not. I do think it’s important and I think it can be fun. That said, you can feel free to contact me through those sites if you’d like; links are available on my contact page.
The last thing that I wanted to do this morning when I woke up was to sit down at my desk and start writing. That’s not normally how I feel. Normally, I enjoy writing. I really do. But today was one of those days when I wanted to do anything but write. I wanted to be creative, I just didn’t want to write. I wanted to make mixed CDs for friends, create a new photo collage for my apartment, figure out how to sew the shirt that I’ve been meaning to sew for … um, like two years. The creative urge was there, but writing was not what I wanted to do.
I made myself sit down and write anyway. I set a writing goal this week of fifteen pages per day on one specific project. And I’ll be damned if I was going to set a goal and not achieve it. I don’t usually make clear goals like that and I wasn’t about to sabotage the entire week by throwing in the towel today. So, I sat down. I forced myself to start typing. I told myself that it didn’t even matter if I didn’t use a single word because it was the act of meeting the writing goal that mattered.
The work was done before noon.
Not all days are that easy. Not most of those sentences are good. But I did what I had set out to do with my writing today and that means something. It means that I took my own self-imposed requirements seriously enough to accomplish them. I think that speaks directly to why I am able to manage my life as a freelancer. And I think it also speaks to the potential for future projects to go more smoothly than some of the ones in the past did.
My day isn’t exactly free now. I have other work that I’m going to do, other commitments to my writing that I have to keep. I’m putting in a full day at the desk. But if nothing else gets done, at least I met my writing goals.
It’s obvious that if you want to get writing work done, you need to minimize the distractions that take you away from the writing. It’s obvious; but it’s not easy. I have offered writing consultation advice to a number of people through one-on-one interaction as well as published articles and I always include ways to minimize writing distractions. But the truth is that the tricks don’t matter. What it really boils down to is having self-control and self-discipline. It’s about committing to your work. Once you’ve made that commitment, cutting down on the writing distractions is really fairly easy.
I was reminded of this today because I feel like I overcommitted myself a little bit to a new project. But I’m excited about it, so I’m happy to do it. It just means that I need to drastically reduce the distractions and increase the focus. So this morning, I woke up at the usual time. (I wake up early but without an alarm clock; I need enough sleep and waking up naturally in order to work well.) I got my normal cup of coffee and eased into the day. I read part of a book from the library because that’s what I do most mornings. But instead of lingering over the pages, considering dipping into a new book or otherwise making reading a reason not to work … I put the book away after a few pages and committed to writing.
The distractions were there if I wanted to entertain them. I’d been working on making a mixed CD for a gift and I hadn’t finished it so I could’ve easily started listening to music to try and complete that project. I wanted to finish the DVD of shows that I’d gotten so I could return it to Blockbuster. But I didn’t turn it on. I didn’t stop to go to breakfast with the friend who asked. I didn’t answer the text messages that came through. These are things that I normally have the luxury of doing during the day. And that’s part of what I like about the writer’s life. Some days are free for indulging in distractions. But some days are not those days and the committed writer knows the difference.
You can get advice from professionals about minimizing distractions. They’ll tell you to only check email once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to turn off IM programs, to set goals. They’ll tell you that if you’re a WAHM, you need to turn a video on for the kids or get a mommy’s helper for the day. They’ll tell you that you need to eat breakfast and lunch and not wander into the kitchen five times in between. But you don’t need them to tell you these things. You know what distracts you. And you know that if you make the conscious decision that you’re not going to let it distract you, it won’t (barring emergencies, of course).
Minimizing writing distractions is about committing to your work. It’s about taking yourself seriously. And it’s about doing what you’re supposed to do instead of what you want to do. But ultimately, if your career in writing is what you want to do, it all serves the same purpose.
[Tags] writing, time management, distraction, writing tips, writing advice [/Tags]
photo link - The image, which I was happy to find easily through an online search related to juggling books and balancing writing, is the work of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. My topic doesn’t relate to the one he was using the image to portray; his topics are indigenous, socio-political works. Definitely worth checking out - see the site and blog.
Being a freelance writer means always looking for new work. The ebb and flow is exactly that - swells of work that threaten to overwhelm and drown you and then stretches of drought that are a welcome reprieve until they go on too long. In the midst of those swells, the writer always has to work to regain footing and balance out all of the projects which are going on. The downtimes serve to assist with this because they can be used for planning, organization, and catching up on the little things.
I’ve worked hard in the last few years to garner myself some steady jobs. These are jobs that I am committed to doing well and consistently because I enjoy them and think they’re good jobs. However, I also do them well and consistently because the benefits of steady work from clients who pay when they are supposed to are innumerable. These steady jobs have allowed me to be a little bit pickier about which additional projects I take on, which has made it easier to maintain the balance of a steady work life.
However, there are always those old ebbs and flows. I’d predicted that the end of the year was going to be slow. I try to keep December fairly stress-free in terms of work so that I can enjoy the holidays and trips with friends and family. I also try to use the end of the year to assess what’s been happening in the months before and to make plans and goals for the year ahead. That was what I thought the end of this year was going to look like. Alas, this is not the case.
I’ve been fortunate enough to get some great writing opportunities that will carry me through the end of the year. I’m happy about this. But it also means that I have far more work than I’d planned on. I’ll have to resume that shuffling dance of re-working a new schedule for myself and figuring out what hours I can reasonably plan on being at the office. And I’ll have to take a look at whether there are certain commitments that I’m just not reasonably going to be able to keep up. We’ll see.
But you know what I realized today? I realized that I love the ebb and flow. Sure, it makes me a little nutty sometimes. But it’s what keeps me fresh. It keeps the work from getting stale. New jobs bring excitment and enthusiasm for topics that have gone unexplored for too long. Changes in hours free up different days to explore different aspects of the city that I live in. Balancing writing jobs is part of what a writer’s life is all about. And I happen to love the life of being a writer.
[Tags] writing, writer, balance, projects, time management, freelance, jobs [/Tags]
