The First Moment of Your Day: Is It Time to Write?

What did you do this morning when you first sat down at your desk? C. Hope Clark bets you checked your email. Is she right?
Clark's post, The First Thing You Do At Your Computer . . . or the Last?, got me thinking about the order in which I do things. If I open my email account right away, what are the chances I'll actually start writing my next chapter within the hour?

Nil.

 Have you ever said it? "I'm just jumping on to check my email." Yeah, right. An hour (or two) later, your manuscript folder has not even been touched. You've replied to "important" emails. Newsletters have gotten you clicking onto dozens of webpages. There are cute emails to forward, blogs to keep up with, because we need to add to our knowledge of the industry.

But we won't need much industry knowledge if we never have a novel to sell.

Not everyone will write best first thing in the morning. Clark writes in the middle of the night, when distractions are low. Same with author Camy Tang. One of my critique partners writes from 9 to 11pm, when her small children are in bed. 

The trick is to find your best time, and then use it for writing, not cruising the internet. I purposely do not have wireless internet in my house. That way I can take my laptop to a comfortable chair, and there's no distraction from the world wide web. Of course, this means I need to disconnect and walk to another room. You could turn off your modem. Or use a software that temporarily disables your internet (it's free) for the time you set.

How do you separate your writing tasks from research and daily business? Do you have any tips or tricks to share?

13 comments:

  1. This is a process that I am still refining, and while I am improving on my current time management skills, I still have a long way to go. I work full-time at home as a web designer, so as you can imagine, it can get very difficult to juggle everything. They are all creative projects, all different in scope, so then to move onto my writing, another creative endeavour, can be straining on my mental capacity, LOL. I have an idea as to how I would "like" my routine to go, and I am trying very hard for it each day. My other problem is I'm still trying to figure out what my peak time to write is.

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  2. Krissy, I'm amazed you write at all! I think having a creative-type job would zap my energy for writing. One thing that helps me is meeting with a crit partner each week. I to have something new for her to look at!

    ~Debbie

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  3. This is the kick in the pants I needed. First, I check my blog. Then email. Then write for my blog. Then write for other peoples' blogs. Then comment on blogs. Then I settle in to write, and what do you know? My time is all used up!

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  4. Yes, I checked my email first thing...when I got to work. But it wasn't my work email ;)

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  5. I do check my e-mail and comment on blogs first thing, but that's because I know I only have a short while before breakfast duty and taking the kids to school. After I come back, that stuff is out of the way and my writing time begins.

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  6. Checking my email first thing is part of my routine. I am, of course, much more fortunate than most as I have plenty of time to write.

    I write for however long it takes me to reach my word count goal (or until I have to stop or go cross-eyed).

    That software to disable the internet for a while is a good idea, though. I'm keeping that in mind for when my available time shifts!

    Thanks for the links, Debbie.

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  7. I'm guilty, too. I check the email, but I try to only respond to blog comments, and leave the other correspondence for later. Then I do the blog post, and check other blogs. If I could be disciplined to write my blog at night, or *gasp!*, write a week's worth in advance, I'd probably be a lot more productive in my word count.

    ~Debbie

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  8. That's a great idea to turn off your internet during your writing time. I use a laptop, so there's a little switch if you want to turn the internet on or off... I may have to try this during my writing time. =)

    Thanks for the suggestions!

    Tessa

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  9. It's great to have a switch like that. I hope it works for you--the lure of checking Facebook and Twitter is pretty strong!

    ~Debbie

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  10. This is so true about a lot of things. I hired an organizational coach last year who told me I should turn off my 'auto-receive' on my Outlook function and should spend at least an hour being productive on my computer before hitting send/receive in the morning. I am not awesome about actually doing this, but I HAVE left my auto receive off. It helps. :D

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  11. That's great to hear, Elizabeth. I guess our generation has spent so much time being more and more "connected", that it's healthy to go in the opposite direction.

    ~Debbie

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  12. There are many days where I can't believe I ended up writing a word, lol! But I've been finding lately that if I, for example, work on projects for two clients, then switch to writing, then switch back to my client projects, it's a great way for me to multitask. It would be virtually impossible for me to completely finish my work and THEN write--I would just be too drained creatively, especially with how varying my projects are. My goal is to setup my schedule so that I can work part-time, and write and blog part-time. I have a solid enough client list now to begin making the transition, *whew. It's been a LONG road!

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  13. That's a great point, Krissy. It's like you get your creative juices flowing, then take advantage of that for your manuscript. Hope your transition goes well!

    ~Debbie

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