Friday, January 03, 2014

Writing and going online

   




I take New Years Resolutions very seriously:  think about them and talk about them and write them down --and, I admit, sometimes forget about them completely after all that.

But not always.

One I'm thinking of for this year is not to do ANYTHING online --even look at email -- until after I've done my morning writing.

In Scotland, I usually started the day by making a fire and heating water -- I had an electric kettle, but if wanted hot water, I had to heat it myself so the day ALWAYS started with that even if it wasn't cold enough for a fire. During that I would just sort of naturally think about what I was going to write and when I was washed, I'd start writing. 

Here, I often begin the day by checking email.....and I got so much more written in Scotland!

Just that little pause to make the fire and boil the water is enough to start the day in a focused way. Going online first means jumping into emails and other distractions -- and I'm easily distracted.  On a bad day, my whole morning can vanish online! That is not good.

So this year I resolve to only go online later in the day, AFTER I've done my writing -- or (on days when I won't be writing, and there will be some), yoga and meditating.

1 comment:

Tiny Robot Books said...

This is a great tip, I too am falling into this checking email trap! I'm going to try this tomorrow! Thanks :)