When my 3-year-old goes to playgroup, he is served breakfast,
lunch and snacks at precise times. He eats heartily during each
meal and then runs happily back to the finger paints, not giving
food another thought until the next dining adventure.
But if he's home all day with me, he grazes. A half-eaten apple,
a bite of graham cracker, a bit of yogurt. A handful of raisins,
a plateful of French fries. Pseudo-meals that all blur together
in some kind of nibble netherworld, leaving him full -- but still
unsatisfied -- at the end of the day.
My writing, too, sometimes suffers from home-all-day-itis. If
I'm working without a deadline, the sense of having plenty of
time can easily morph into writer's grazing. I know I've been grazing instead of writing when: - A possible query to a food magazine leads to a recipe search,
a stint at the stove, and consumer research about digital cameras
-- because the magazine prefers photos with articles. - A quick check of my online horoscope becomes a marathon tutorial
on reading the Tarot and casting runes. (Research for some future
article, of course. Or maybe an offbeat interest my fictional
heroine will develop.) - I've spent 90 minutes editing and rewriting a 2-paragraph email.
- I've cropped and resized my picture on my writing site. Again.
- I've been very, very busy all day -- but I don't feel satisfied.
What's the sure-fire cure for grazing? The only thing that works
for me is regularly planned writing, 3 straight hours in the morning,
2 more in the afternoon. If I write diligently during my schedule,
I can then happily graze through 3 different joke sites, 6 personality
quizzes and 9 new email lists. I make my schedule work for me by:
| It is of course not full article. You should login first to show full article. If you have not account, please register. It is FREE!!! |
|
