Many things can get in the way of meeting my personal writing goals. I certainly don't lack intrinsic motivation. I enjoy writing. My problem is distractions. I can write casually with some distractions. For example, I can compose a blog with the baby playing on the floor beside me. I can write a facebook post in the store on my phone. If I'm writing casually, and something breaks my train of thought it's not a big deal for me to go back to the writing later.
Other types of writing, however, requires of me a certain focus level. And I find it difficult to achieve distraction free work time at home. I can't write a paper for grad school or work seriously on my novel when the other things are going on in the house. Which is why I set my goal for 30 minutes / 5 days a week of serious writing. Ideally, I'd like to spend an hour ever day, but we don't live in an ideal world.
Two full days in, and my ROW80 goals are off to a good start! On Monday the baby took a nice, long nap in the afternoon and I got in a solid hour of revising.
Tuesday I worked on a short story for two hours.
Today is Wednesday, and it's still early. I'll update this post if I do any writing this evening.
See how other ROW80 friends are doing:
I know what you mean about focus, Emily. For me, if I'm going to work on anything significant - writing or otherwise - I have to have coffee.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me...I haven't had any today. Off to brew some...
Have a wonderfully productive day.
I love good strong coffee.
DeleteCongrats on your progress so far, you're doing great! I read your ROW80 Goal post. I love when you said "If I can get writing time every day, I get bonus points! (disclaimer: points are redeemable no where.)" It made me chuckle but then I got to thinking...a reward system would be so cool, something like, "if I get my goals done for the week I will reward myself with...". I might have to try and incorporate that into my goals this Round-I need all the motivation I can get!
ReplyDeleteOh and just wanted to let you know that, if you're on Twitter, some ROWers do a 2pm EST writing/editing/revising/blogging/etc sprint. The hashtag is #row80. (Not everyone is there every day, nor does everyone stay for the full hour all the time, but usually there are several sprinting and cheering each other on.) Join in anytime if you'd like. :) Hope you have a great rest of the week!
I've seen the sprint on the #ROW80 hashtag, but I didn't know what it was about. Thanks for the info!
DeleteI'm with Kat on our writing sprints, they are loads of fun and sometimes more people are knitting or reading or grading papers than actually writing, but the community is incredible...
ReplyDeleteAs I read your post I felt a pang of envy about the baby napping. My youngest is eleven and I am feeling the missing baby big time!
Congrats on what you are doing - and who you are being - as a writer. Nice to "meet" you!
My Midweek Check in may be seen here.
I know they grow up fast.
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