After taking an extra-long weekend for R&R and travel, I find myself playing catch up this week... and tempted to blow off my own writing to tend to the mountain of O.O. (other obligations) in my way. But the trouble is, O.O.s, like the detritus taking over my office, have a way of expanding to overwhelm all available space. Should I allow them to take precedence over my writing, I'll see more and more and still more things that need doing. And before I know it, the habit of writing will be lost.
It's a fragile thing, this habit, and no matter how many years you've stoked its flames, the writer must remember it takes only a little inattention to see them snuffed out by the demands of living. When I've worked for others, my supervisors never would have tolerated my putting their business last on my priority list. It's important that I'm at least as work-oriented a boss to myself.
So instead, I plan to give over the best hours of my week to what's most important to me: my own writing. Instead of shunting it aside, I'll ditch TV, DVD movies, and (this one really hurts) reading for pleasure in the evenings until I get caught up.
In doing so, I will feed the fire of my work, one twig at a time.
What are your work priorities this week? How to you plan to keep your focus on them?
Comments
Deadlines, even self-imposed, keep me moving forward. I'm working on the "figuring out" stage of revisions where the thinkin' part has to be done before the writin' part. Although I'm always thinking about the tricky bits, scheduling concentrated thinking time is very hard. The curious husband asks, "What are you doing just sitting there? Is something wrong?" Can't wait to get to the 20, 50 or whatever number pages a day goal where I can see my progress toward my deadline!