Since I seem to be stuck getting into gear in the morning before work, I’m trying to brainstorm on what I can do differently that would shock me out of my bad habits and let me start building new ones.
First up is getting off this laptop. Not that I want to be rid of it, but all of my electric toys are on here – the Internet, email, iTunes, newgroups, websites, Facebook, and so on. Many times it’s too hard to concentrate on the work, and when the itch to procastinate hits, it’s too easy to click a button and find another diversion.
I do, however, still have my old laptop. Todd had been trying to rebuild it to sell, but the poor, be-stickered beast resists (no install disks anywhere to remake it clean). But, boyo, is that old laptop ever … what, clunky? awkward? It’s a standard screen, and I hadn’t realized how much I’d come to rely (love) my widescreen monitor, so now as I try to use it, it feels like I’ve got one of those child-safe devices with big rounded corners and friendly buttons. Liquid Story Binder is small and sleek enough to run on a USB stick, so I’m trying to get that set up. My hand-me-down USB is on the small side, 250 megs or so, meaning I have to pick and choose what files to carry over.
Still, when I’m done, I should have a set up where I can’t do anything else BUT write on the damn thing. Maybe after a little self-imposed exile on the kid-computer, I’ll be able to focus when writing on the grown-up computer.
I’m also trying to think about experimenting with writing at different times. The mornings seem to pass too quickly, getting showered and dressed, dealing with what’s accumulated in my readers, checking my regular sites, getting lost in the news or a download. Just as it’s time to make lunch, or pack my things for work, and the sun is starting to stream in gloriously through my office window, bringing this golden glow to everything I get this pull to sit down and create.
Very helpful. *sigh* So, I’m thinking of trying a different room, trying to get up early or stay up late, and do each for a couple of days to see if any one time is more productive than any other.
More than anything, I need to type in handwritten notes the day after they are made. Already I have a back log, which brings with it its own bewildering sense of guilt (instead of being HAPPY that I was so productive at work, I feel GUILTY for not having done anything with it. The fuck?). Now it’s become WORK to type it up. It’s not work, it’s PROGRESS. Hello! Arg. My brain! I swear there are a few synapses that just never learned to fire quite right.
The are two other points related to the kid-laptop:
- Downside is that there is no battery to speak of, meaning I will always have to plug it in.
- Upside is that I can truck it around wherever I like and not worry about it, since it’s just the old laptop.
Anyway, I should stop puttering and do something FUN. Like, yanno, WRITE.
(Yesterday at work, we had two hours of downtime and -fuck me- I couldn’t write a damn thing. My muse needs a bolt of creative fiber, stat! I’ve been listening to Tenacious D to break myself out of my bummer mood.)