Sunday, December 5, 2010

A bit of advice?

That is it. I have come to the realization that I can't spend my holiday moping around.

It's such a damn waste of time.

Not to mention boring.

I have to start doing something, since my recovery state is immobile. If I don't start getting things done, I am going to end up wasting more or less three weeks that could have been spent toward reaching my goal(s). But I'm still planning how I will get everything done.

See, writing is far from the only thing I want to do this holiday. I want to take up the last two artistic pursuits I have never put my hands to: cooking and sewing. If I'm honest, I see cooking as just a notch above alchemy. I really haven't a clue as to how people can take a bunch of raw ingredients, dice them, mix them etc, toss them into a pan et voila... One masterpiece served on a plate. It boggles the mind. Clothes are another thing though. That's just me being far too impatient to practice.

Anyway. Well... maybe I lied, but I can't see a single art other than those two that I have not tried... But if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to enlighten me.

Back to the point. I therefore have to cook, sew in addition to me taking up jogging and exercise again. Then there are my friends and just taking some breaths of fresh air. After all. It's summer and the beach is now 500 meters away...

Oh and picking up that other art again: Languages. In particular, French and Mandarin.

Did I mention that I don't do schedules?

Ever?

Why not? Well... it started when I was in high school. It once occurred to me that I would get more done if I scheduled my time. That way, I could control time, so to speak.

As it turned out, I had committed myself to things of such a permanent nature, that I was left with no openings until after seven in the evenings. And then I had choir practice until nine on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No amount of scheduling was actually going to create time. A fact that left me rather depressed and had me tossing my diary into the bin. I never took up the habit again.

There is no way I'm going to schedule my December. These are the last responsibility free weeks I'll have in my life. I'm not going to work myself into office hours or worse.

So... Here is my question. Who of you set daily writing goals? How do you attain them without it feeling like work?

7 comments:

  1. I've never been good at cooking . . . something usually burns at least a little whenever I've confronted with an unfamiliar dish. :P

    Sometimes I set daily writing goals, sometimes I don't; if I don't feel like writing--as in staring at the computer for half an hour--then I go do something else and go back to it the next day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck with the cooking and sewing. Both can be great fun. Except, the clearing up after cooking.

    I do work out schedules for myself, and then ignore them. Rather like shopping lists; I always leave them at home and see how much I remember. Like a game. Or so I tell myself :)
    The enigmatic, masked blogger

    ReplyDelete
  3. I tried setting daily writing goals last year. It was great for about a month, and it then it became such a burden it crushed me. Late summer I started thinking in broader terms, like monthly goals or project-scale deadlines. That way I still had something to help be stay organized and on-task, but it felt less constricting and there was less self-hatred for falling a little short on one day.

    That said, the daily discipline was nice and I sometimes miss that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm trying out the artistic pursuit of cooking as well! Except, I'm gathering tools in Dec and probably starting in January and I'll be starting with simple things like, you know, toast.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Golden I almost never cook, so I'm expecting to get more than my fair share of burnt bits. You know, to make up for my shortfall... ;-) Your way of dealing with a writing goal makes a lot of sense. Don't know if it will work fo rme though. If I start procrasternating, I'll hit January with no words written...

    Blogger, clearing up is a total drag... I love the schedule game! For a new spin on it, try not writing any of it down. That way you have to test both your mental filing and your recall. :-)

    Nevets, taking a broad view is quite smart. That way you can reach goals without melting down about missing daily goals. Problem with my situation is that I haven't a clue as to how many words I need to finish the book. So I might have to go with daily goals, since 3000 words per day sounds more doable than aiming to write 160k with a 50k allowance to both sides. Or am I showing my insanity again?

    Nia so glad to hear that I'm not alone in my persuit of cooking perfection. Let me know how it goes. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. The thing I like about the NaNo challenge is that there is a specific goal to reach over a 30 day period. If I want to slack off on days when I'm not motivated I can catch up on high motivation days. The key is motivation. If what you're doing starts to feel too much like toil and work, then there might be something lacking in the motivation factor. I have to start evaluating why I want something and then if the reason is strong enough, start working on strengthening the motivation factor.

    But I think I know pretty much how you feel. I'm often in that state of mind as well.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great advice! I must say that I'm really struggling with the motivation part of it. The reason is quite simple.

    Doorways is actually a beast to write. I was hugely ambitious (read: stupid) when I started on it and now have to keep track of a multitude of intrigues and characters and things that need to happen in order for the story to keep going.

    When I'm busy with it and have all the strings in hand, I can be very productive. But I haven't touched it in a month, so I have to pick up all the strings yet again - a task so daunting that I can find amazing things to fill up the time needed.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! I love to read what you think.

Feel free to ignore the check-box saying "Prove you're not a robot." My word verification is off, but I moderate comments to posts older than two weeks.