Making it Through the Week

Oh dear, it's only Wednesday. This is going to be a long week. But I shouldn't have to leave the house or deal with people on Friday, so I'm hanging on.

But I am making progress this week. I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon writing, and new words, not revising. I also stumbled upon an idea that sent at least part of the story off in a new direction. Just imagine what I might be able to accomplish next week when I don't have to be at a rehearsal every night at 6:30.

And I got my first "review" on the upcoming steampunk book, as someone who got an advance copy tweeted about loving it -- and they tagged the publisher, which is nice. It's good that buzz is starting this far out from release. Let's just hope people don't forget before July.

I anticipate getting a lot less done today because I have children's choir, choir, and then whatever's left of musical rehearsal after choir, and I have to do a lesson plan for children's choir and practice some music for choir, and I'm just really tired and rather sleepy, so I'm cutting myself some slack. But it feels really great to be making forward progress again.

I must say that so far I seem to have found the right combination of time management techniques for me. I'm setting an appointment to write, which helps me get started, and then the "pomodoro" technique, somewhat modified, is also working. That's where you spend 25 minutes working on something, then 5 minute break, then another 25 minute work session, and after three blocks you get a half-hour break. There's another theory/study that apparently people get the most impact out of doing two 90-minute intense sessions of something like music practice or creative work, and that ties into this. The trick is that the five-minute break really has to be just five minutes (or less), only enough time to walk around a little, stretch, and refill the tea cup, and the work sessions have to be actual work time, not setting up the workspace, checking e-mail, etc. I'm not quite making it to the two 90-minute sessions because my afternoons are cut short, but I'm doing closer to one 90-minute session, then another hour-long session, and then maybe some thinking/plotting time. I did some of my plotting last night during a long stretch in the show rehearsal between scenes where I have to sing.

I look forward to seeing how much progress I can make next week when I don't have so much going on. I have so many things I want to get written, and to do that, I need to write.