Time and Limits

You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide.
– Tony Morgan

You must vie with time’s swiftness in the speed of using it, and, as from a torrent that rushes by and will not always flow, you must drink quickly.
— Seneca

Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!
— Tony Robbins

So . . . a few weeks ago I talked about the importance of setting deadlines, or goals, and coming up with an action plan to reach those goals. I also mentioned that I work better with a deadline, and what is a deadline if not a time limit?

The reason I mention this is because last week I found my writing time extremely limited and you know what? Not only did I not fall behind like I fully expected to, I was able to get my blog posts done on time, if not ahead of time.

Thursday especially was a good writing day. Knowing I had a limited amount of time to work on my serial installment, I was able to get it done (mostly) within the allotted time. Unfortunately, yesterday I had no such constraints on my time and I got nothing done (which is why this post is so late). And this is my problem. I am more productive with a time limit, but I suck at self-imposed time limits.

Take NaNo for instance. Every year I write 50,000 words (or more) in 30 days. Easy peasy. But it’s something I can only do in November. I’ve tried doing it at other times of the year, but I just can’t seem to work to a deadline I set myself. So what can I do about this?

Seriously, I’m asking you. I have no clue.

This is going to sound a little crazy, but part of my problem isn’t that I have too much to do in a given day, it’s that I don’t have enough. The less you have to do, the easier it is to put it off. Another part of the problem is that I’m a champion procrastinator. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? And when you combine the two . . . yeah, I think you see where I’m going with this.

Hmmm. Maybe I should be looking at ways to overcome my procrastination instead.

My old friend Google has been no help on this. I’ve searched variations on the theme of setting self-imposed time limits, and mostly what it came up with was how to over-come self-imposed time limits. Not what I wanted at all. And a search for setting a deadline just gave me various ways of breaking down a task into smaller components to get it done. Also not helpful.

I did find one helpful tool. It’s a website called Writing Timer. It is supposed to help you set and complete goals, and even gives you feedback and helps you create estimates on how long you should be taking.

Couldn’t hurt to try, right?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is busy.

My son-in-law’s work schedule changed, which meant my babysitting schedule changed. My granddaughter is a pretty easy-going kid, but she’s only eight, and she’s pretty active (except when she’s being a couch potato).

We have an above-ground pool, and she swims like a fish, but the weather turned on us last week. There were a lot of raining/gloomy days and without the sun the pool was a little too cool for swimming.

Fortunately the granddaughter is good at entertaining herself (she gets her imagination from her Gramie) and she loves crafts. Sometimes, if she was doing her own thing or watching TV, I was able to get some stitchery done, but not any writing. You need to focus when you’re writing, and it’s just not possible when someone is talking a mile a minute, and expects responses. Did I mention the granddaughter was a chatterbox? :-D

So lots of crafts last week, but I still managed to keep my head above water when it came to writing, which surprised the heck out of me, let me tell you.

NEW WORDS:
1976+787+273+849=3,885
UP 81 – words from last week

I guess I had better focus last week, because not only did I manage to get my posts done, they were all finished early. Even my installment for the serial. And when I say early for the serial installment, I mean I wasn’t up late finishing it like I normally am. Last week I got the bulk of it done before lunch and only had to do some touching up later in the day.

But the extra time with the granddaughter meant no extra time to write other things, not that other things have been clamoring in my head to get written. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, when it comes to my writing, and I’m closing in on a time when some decisions have to be made.

I’m a writer, not just a blogger, but the last couple of years pretty much all I’ve been doing is blogging. Okay, yeah. I do poetry, too, but you know what I mean. So I’m going to have to do a little more thinking about this, and then make some changes.

When all is said and done, I’m pretty pleased with my words from last week, especially when you take into consideration my laptop had to spend some time at the computer doctor. The daughter gave me a list of websites (from the teacher) that were supposed to help the kids keep up with their French over the summer. One of them had a virus that required a professional to get rid of.

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written, maybe consult one of my writing books for exercises to do.

EDITING:
0 hours

I did get so far as to printing out what I have of Elemental Spirit, and I even remembered to number the pages first. I don’t normally put pages numbers on my manuscripts (although I probably should) and you have no idea what a pain in the butt it is if one of the pages end up out of place.

But that’s as far as I got. Now it’s sitting in the pile on top of my typewriter. :-)

I know I said I could probably work on it with the granddaughter around, but I worked on stitchery instead. Maybe this week.

Goal For Next Week:
Start marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
Last week’s form, the Waltmarie, was kind of fun. And because it was fun, and only ten lines, I did two examples. I was talking earlier about how I’m supposed to be a writer but all I’ve been writing is blog posts, but though I’ve been writing poetry too, it’s part of the same deal.

While I’ve been writing lots of poetry, but I don’t feel like a poet because all I’ve been writing are examples of various forms. They don’t really feel like my poems. I guess my once a month poemwork counts as extra, but still . . .

I can’t remember when I last wrote a poem spontaneously. I’ve written snatches of poems, one or two lines, but not an entire poem. Except as an example of a form. There’s got to be more to life than forms!

And I gave no thought to the poetry anthology last week. Guess that’ll be a project for when school is back in session.

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
The granddaughter is a chip off the old Gramie block, so there was LOTS of crafting last week. I’ll be doing a post about it for the other blog.

Monday we spent the morning making jewelry, including a pair of earrings and necklace for the daughter. In the afternoon we switched to tie-dye. It wasn’t as messy as I thought it would be, but it was done with ice, which was just plain weird.

Tuesday there was a stitch-in at the library. The granddaughter was more than welcome to come with me, but she declined, choosing to stay home and torment her Grappy instead. :-)

Wednesday the granddaughter finally expressed an interest in learning to stitch (I think more because the reward would be a sewing box of her own). She picked out one of the two super easy kits I’d bought her, but her attention wandered so much while I was trying to explain it to her, I realized that wasn’t going to work.

So I let her pick a piece of arctic fleece from my stash, and showed her how to do a blanket stitch around the edge. She was enthusiastic at first, but her stitches were really uneven. She took it home with her (and promptly ran out of thread) and when she brought it back the next day her enthusiasm had waned. *sigh* I’m going to try basting a guide line around the edge and see if that helps.

Thursday we went on a road trip to the big craft store in Peterborough. There are rumors we’re supposed to be getting one here, but . . . One of the things I checked out were things to be tie dyed (should we care to try it again) but they didn’t have a lot of stuff to be dyed, and the kits were super expensive.

I did manage to get a fair bit of the embroidery kit I’ve been working on done. I might even be able to finish it this week. It’s the first time I worked with a kit, and I have to admit, it was kind of fun. I’ll probably end up offering it up for sale in the Christmas craft show – I don’t know what else to do with it. LOL

Did nothing on the zentangle sampler, nor did I work on the bathing suit.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; organize jewelry supplies better.

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These are more gothic horror than vampire tales, but it’s still interesting reading.

On the Kindle, I finished Puck’s Property, and Whistle’s War, part of the Demon Squad MC Club series by Monique Moreau, and I’ve just started Dragon Betrayed, by Ophelia Bell.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the good reading habits.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Still babysitting next week. I don’t know whether to hope that the weather warms up for swimming or not. The granddaugher is happy to do many things by herself but playing in the pool isn’t one of them. Still, it would keep her from getting too bored.

I’m not a big fan of pool time. Maybe I drowned in my last life. I don’t even care for baths. I like to be near the water, on the water (in a boat), and listening to the water. I just don’t like being in the water.

But I have more crafts lined up for us, and she’s pretty good at coming up with ideas herself. Maybe we can take a walk down to the lake to look for rocks to paint.

I think Winter’s Child the serial is longer now than the original short story was. I’m actually enjoying writing it – I’ve been finding out more things about the main character, James, which makes it more interesting. And I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of influence his father’s journals have on him.

With An Elemental Spirit printed out now, there’s no reason I can’t be working away at it during the day (before and after babysitting) and in the evenings. I read a bit of the ending, and it surprised me, how good I found it. LOL Time to get this puppy finished!

Again, my reading kind of came in spurts, on the Kindle at least. I’d start a book and it would take me a while to start getting into it, but once I did I’d hate to put it down. The Arthur Conan Doyle book, however . . . I’ll stick with it, but it’s written in a classic, gothic style and to be honest it’s not really my thing. And so far, there’s only been one mention of a vampire, so that’s a little disappointing.

I’m not even trying to get back on track while I have the extra babysitting. But I am kinda pleased that I’ve been making better use of my time.

Maybe there’s hope for me yet.