I had a free day today, which almost never happens. My husband is away, my kids are away. Other than an annoying kitten attacking me as I type, I actually have some time to dedicate to my writing. I had it last night too, but instead of writing I ended up watching about 4 hours of Real Housewives of Orange County. So this morning I woke up with fire in my belly and shame in my heart.
I started with a plan. Today I would use the Pomodoro method to do at least an hour and a half of solid writing. For those of you who don't know, the Pomodoro method breaks a work block into smaller chunks with breaks. The normal Pomodoro is 25 minutes focus the 5 minutes of rest - do that four times and then a longer 15 minute rest. I (sadly) can't currently do a full 25 minutes of focused writing. Honestly, I have about 12 minutes in me before I get distracted, tired, unfocused. So I used this handy
online pomodoro timer which allows you to choose how long each focussed period is. I went with 3 rounds of 12 minutes and did that 3 times (walking the dogs or resting in between rounds). So all in all I wrote for 108 minutes - it was very productive, getting me through two scenes I've wanted to write for awhile. By the last round (round 9) I felt physically tired and I had to psych myself out like an athlete.
You can do this! and
just make it through these 12 minutes and you can veg out in front of the tv!
It felt great to set a goal and follow through on it. Now I just have to go back and edit what I wrote -- groan.
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