Monday, January 3, 2011

The Time Suck Revolution/Resolution

One of my favorite pieces of advice from Write On Con was given in this vlog. Author Lindsey Leavitt spoke about an assignment her jr. high band teacher gave students as a way of tracking where/how they wasted spent their time. The technique comes from the book, Psycho-Cybernetics. I recommend watching Lindsey's vlog to learn more, but in a nutshell, spend a week writing down how you spend your time and voilá! You might be horrified at where the minutes and hours go (sucked 30 seconds of my time to find the correct spelling of the word, voilá. ).

I have yet to track my time in such a manner, but I can say that four days spent in a snowy corner of Utah with slow internet service, and, kabam, I'm 170 pages into my first revision of the "Love Potion" novel draft. Also managed to have time to ski, cook, read a novel, play with the kiddos, watch a movie and . . . FIFTY more pages to go, Beta Reader Friends!!! So, yep this means, immediately after hitting "publish post" I'll be going into INTERNET LOCKDOWN slash HIBERNATION mode. Facebook, I'll miss you so. Blogging friends, I promise to catch up on your posts next week. I've missed you more.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, and resolve to put a stopper in your time drain sink. Love, love, cheer and joy in 2011!

6 comments:

Melissa Sarno said...

Argh, I would be horrified to learn where the time goes. I had the day off today (my last before going back to the office, waaaah) and I think I spent 7 hours on the internet. I did write and some of the internet 'work' was productive, but most of it was wasted. Good luck with your internet break. I think it's a lovely idea!

Pen and Ink said...

If I was staying in a snowy corner of Utah, I wouldn't get any writing done. I'd be outside goofing off.
Sincerely,
Snow Envy

Megan Frances said...

Bravo on your revision, and I agree about wasting time. The Internet has a hypnotic hold on me too. Have you heard of Freedom? I'm going to try it.

Best wishes for a productive and inspiring 2011! I'm off to write my New Year resolutions. Okay, I realize it's a few days behind schedule but there are still 361 days to go...

Heather Kelly said...

I love the idea of charting where the time is spent, and I'm so impressed with your progress! Go you!!

www.maryhicksmcreynolds.com said...

The Tapeworm Emails and The Gloria Airmails by Mary McReynolds, an apocalyptic tale of temptation and redemption told through a devil's emails and an angel's airmails as they battle for the soul of a young girl. Edgy, dark humor, a modern day take off of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis with female characters.

Lori W. said...

Thanks for the comments you all! It was a great break.

Mary, I'm getting in touch with you now finally. Great to hear from you and congrats on your book!