Time flies…
Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about time – where it goes and how I want to invest it. My most recent bout of “Am I using my time the way I *really* want to?” started because of an on-line class I’ve been taking. Our assignment this week was to break away from novel planning to think about the obstacles in our way. Not surprisingly, one of *my* obstacles is time.
Our instructor’s partial response was that becoming serious about writing often means throwing out the tv, getting rid of journal writing and/or morning pages, and accepting the fact that we’re just going to have to sleep less than we’d like.
But, I said to myself, I don’t watch t.v. I don’t keep a journal. I don’t do morning pages. And as happened this particular day – not all that atypical of every other day for the past, say, 10 years - I had awoken at 3:30 am, arrived at work by 7am, returned home over 12 hours later at 7:30 that evening, was back out again at 9:30 pm and home for the night at 10:45 pm.
By the time I had collected my thoughts, settled into bed, read a few pages of the latest book on my nightstand, and finally drifted off for the night, it was close to midnight.
Let’s just say that less sleep is not a realistic option.
What to do? I resolved to dig deeper. Think more seriously. Where was the breakdown?
And so, I went back to my instructor’s comments. Or more accurately, the one comment that applied to ME. The part I didn’t really want to admit to myself. And though his suggestion was more of a catchall “quit doing research instead of writing,” I realized that there was a piece of truth in those words that I best pay attention to: quit “playing at writing” and REALLY WRITE.
Even as I type this, I realize that I actually accomplish a lot of REAL WRITING during a typical week. So in some respects, I have to give myself a break. But, truth be told, I waste a lot of time, too. Sure, I’m sitting at my desk. And while many of the things on my “to do” list ARE getting done, I really could be more strategic. Set incremental deadlines for the writing goals that are of my own making. Those goals I really *do* want to hit, but that often get pushed aside because they’re ones no one pushes me to reach.
As often serendipitously happens with such things, a writing friend mentioned this week that she was at a critical juncture in her writing career and she was jealously guarding her time. Bravo! I thought. That’s exactly what I need to do. Another good friend, Stephanie P., has apparently had some of the same thoughts. Her post today about the no’s and yeses of writing, gets to the issue of taking ourselves and our writing seriously.
So I’m back to the strategy I used while completing my MFA at Vermont College. I’ve printed out a calendar, set realistic writing goals for the next week, and penciled them in. Another small step forward.
