So here's a typical "day in the life."
I got up bright and early thanks to beloved foster-dog Henry, who whuffs and huffs loudly in my ear when he's ready to start the day. I sat down at the computer promptly after our walk. I checked email, as I always do.
And that's where it all started to go wrong.
I get blog posts from my friend and collaborator cj Madigan by email. In my email in-box was a new post from her, mentioning our monthly book-browsing forys in a piece about handmade books. This got me thinking about how nice it would be not to be "just" a writer but a writer who layers visuals with words. This got me thinking about Nick Bantock, and Gordon MacKenzie, and Barbara Hodgson, among others, all of whom I wanted to link to and all of whose work led me to others of their ilk...and so it went. (I'm not going to redo the links here, but you can see the fruits of all this unintended labor at my Working Writer Wonders blog.)
By the time I finished the post, with all its links, I was a good hour and ten minutes behind schedule.
Leading me to decide that except on the days when blogging is part of my actual schedule, I had better not do it in the morning, before the stuff that is actually on the schedule gets done.
It strikes me that for each of us there are things that are so innately absorbing that they automatically detour us from whatever it is we're really trying to focus on. Blogging is one of these for me. So is stopping at a thrift store or flea market. So is deciding to organize my fridge or my laundry room or my desk drawers. Email is one of these for some people, but not for me; it sometimes takes time, but I don't love it enough to go for a giant wallow. Facebook, too, is a temptation for some. I've consciously chosen not to join until later this summer, so I wouldn't know.
What are your detours, things you start without truly meaning to and then get swallowed up in?
*craniums? crania?
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I completely relate to this post. To be a person driven by creativity means that you are someone that "sees" meaning and associations in things that others overlook. Because of this we are bombarded by those connections all the time and can be fascinated by them. It's so easy to get caught up in something that shouldn't be the priority at the moment just because it is so compelling.
ReplyDeleteMy solution is similar to yours. I have very structured work processes, environment and schedules or else I get lost in all the fun that is following one thought to the next. I allow myself to frolic within the confines of strict planning.
I tell my staff that I am the most anal retentive messy person that they'll ever meet. Not one of them has argued that point with me yet.