Tag: procrastination

September update: mostly moving

Ruth Livingstone, writer, author and bloggerBad Month for Writing

Oh, no! It’s time for the 5 Year Project monthly update.

Sadly, I’ve not achieved much over the past two months, from the point of view of writing. Family and life events have taken all my attention. Continue reading “September update: mostly moving”

FIVE good reasons to make time for writing.

Photo of pink spotted notepad, notes on writing - Ruth LivingstoneA couple of months ago I had a short piece published on the Self Publishing Magazine‘s website. It describes:

  •  the kick that started me writing seriously,
  • my strategies for defeating procrastination,
  • why I used deadlines to my advantage,
  • how blogging helped me improve,
  • and how I learned to value feedback.

Continue reading “FIVE good reasons to make time for writing.”

Morning distractions

Photo of pink spotted notepad, notes on writing - Ruth LivingstoneThe pile of notebooks holds the delicious promise of empty pages – waiting to be filled. Pink with white spots – this is the notebook that catches my eye. ‘Open me!’ it shouts, joyfully. ‘Open me and write.’

But wait. What else must I do before I begin? I write a ‘to do’ list. Number one, top of the list, must be my latest Open University assignment. Be quiet, pink notebook with white spots. Wait your turn. I will get to you soon.

The Art of Procrastination …

After six hours, you might expect the story to be magnificent, the best thing ever written! Sadly. No. It’s not bad. But it’s not particularly good either. Not six hours worth of ‘good’.

Open University work and notebook.Yesterday, I spent a considerable length of time finishing off my latest Open University assignment. It took around 6 hours, from start to finish.

What was this mammoth task?
A simple 250 word story.

After six hours, you might expect the story to be magnificent, the best thing ever written! Sadly. No. It’s not bad. But it’s not particularly good either. Not six hours worth of ‘good’.

Here is a list of things I did between starting the story and finishing it:
1. I checked Facebook to see what my kids have been up to.
2. I played a few games of Zuma Blitz. (OK, to be honest, I played till I ran out of lives.)
3. I checked Twitter. Maybe I was missing something exciting happening in the world.
4. I checked my email account because, it is just possible, somebody had sent me something of vital importance in the half hour since I last checked it.
5. I visited my blogs (and I have three, so that took me some time) to check the stats and see if anybody had left any comments.
6. I remembered a recent article in E-Health Insider about a service I am responsible for and decided to spend some time replying to it. This required some research on my part to assemble the data I needed.
7. I saw a paper on my desk with a deadline of two weeks to respond and decided to respond straight away.

By this time, I was hungry and required lunch, coffee and a catch-up with Neighbours on the tele.

Finally, before the end of the afternoon, I managed to finish the story.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have just remembered I have some urgent ironing to do ….