Managing Time and Interruptions
Distractions
come in all shapes and sizes from a paper cut to a teenager who needs to talk
right now. Learn when to allow distractions and when to close the door. Learning how to effectively channel the countless interruptions and
distractions into something positive is a critical skill for a writer to
master.
Writers come from every walk of life
and work in various ways to get their jobs done. There are some significant
boundaries that all writers need to have in place whether they work in Capetown
or Cape Cod, in a high rise office or a back bedroom.
Prerequisite to Writing
Being unfocused isn't a bad thing as
long as it is controllable. It is usually a prerequisite to writing, a period
of time in which the mind floats, searching for a place to land.
That unfocused, intentional drift is an
incredibly important time in which to gather ideas and choose a topic or a
poem's direction. Thornton Wilder (1897 - 1975, author of Our Town) touches on this sensory ride in his quote, "The
stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be
clothed in words."
Find Your Focus
Clarity is that place where all writers
suddenly feel as though a veil has been lifted and pure intention is harnessed.
This is where ideas are lined up like horses at the track, ready to blaze
straight out of the gates.
Once focus takes hold, the writing
journey begins in earnest. George Lucas said it so succinctly, "Your focus
determines your reality."
What's Distracting You?
Most writers suffer from the same group
of everyday, common distractions:
- phones ringing
- email overload
- home and yard work
- pets and child care
- exercise for health
- time for friends and family
If writing is what you love to do, what
is the problem? Most likely, the problem comes from not setting boundaries for
yourself.
Get Organized and Set Boundaries
When setting boundaries this includes
where and when to write. Writing from a central room in a house with pets and
children running around is asking for trouble. Turning off a phone does not
make you a bad person.
Simple steps to create order :
- set up a writing space where
interruptions will be minimal
- turn off the phone (let voice
mail take over)
- allow yourself a set amount of
time to read emails, check the news
- make lunch time a special time
for eating, talking, being playful
- allow yourself a 30 minute time
to exercise every day (walk, do yoga, pilates, zumba).
Once you take yourself seriously as a
writer, so will everyone else. Creating order is simply creating a space in
each day for writing to come first. Elizabeth Barrett Browning once said,
"At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not
enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction." Now
there's a way to regain focus!
Use Everything as Inspiration for Writing
Viewing distractions as inspiration in
some way can help alleviate the feelings of annoyance and impatience. Stephen
King said it best when he wrote, "In truth, I've found that any day's
routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and
may actually help it in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps
into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl." Exactly!
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