I’m at an odd point in my work routine, and thought I’d reflect on why.
On Wednesday, March 1st, I finished Draft 3 of my Secret New Novel, which I started in January and have been working on four days a week (give or take) ever since. This development came after finishing Draft 1 in August and Draft 2 in December, which means I’ve been working continuously on this novel for almost a full year.
I want to let Draft 3 sit a bit before diving back in, so part of my work plan for March involves pausing active novel revisions so I can type up the revisions I’ve already made on to the computer, which I estimate to be a 30-35 hour job. Most of the heavy revisions were in the opening chapters (which thus take longer to retype), and now that those are over with, I’ve settled into a routine of typing out two chapters a day with the goal of finishing by March 17th.
However, typing is different from revising: I like to do it at the end of the workday while listening to music, and it requires a LOT less mental energy than sitting down to actively edit a draft. This means that while I still have a big typing project to work on (in addition to all the other things on my backlog list!), the type of work I’m doing has changed significantly, along with how long it takes and when I want to do it (mornings for novel editing vs. afternoons for typing up edits).
This adjustment hasn’t been as smooth as I’d like, so I wanted to talk about why this happened and what I plan on doing differently.
Interruptions to Your Routine Can Make You Less Productive
After 10+ months of novel writing and editing, I’ve got that shit down: wake up in the morning at roughly the same time, plan my day, and use the morning hours when I’m most alert to devote myself to writing, with no cell phone distractions.
All told, both my body and mind got into the rhythm of starting my day out with writing (or at least some sort of big, focused project) and working on everything else in the afternoons. This begs the question: What happens when I don’t have that writing to work on in the mornings anymore?
Well, as it turns out, I kind of suck.
The first day after finishing the draft didn’t go well at all: It had snowed the night before, so I spent some of the morning shoveling, then decided to run some errands. The errands took longer than I expected, and I got back with an awkward amount of time before lunch that I wasn’t sure how to use productively. I also got distracted with texting, along with some other tasks that seemed a lot more urgent than they actually were. In between all this, I found myself spending more time on a lot of little tasks that usually don’t take long at all, like writing emails or prepping for my class.
Worst of all, though, was that I wasn’t sure the best order to do these different tasks in, so I found myself faltering and second-guessing myself as I planned my day, which took up a LOT of time and focus.
While none of the days since then have been as bad as that first one, my productivity still hasn’t been great, since I’m just not used to structuring my days without a bigger project to work on in the morning.
So, How Am I Handling This?
One option would be to restructure my days so I can get more comfortable with doing smaller tasks or client meetings in the mornings. While being more flexible is probably a better solution for the long-term, I don’t want to try that now because I plan on diving into more writing and revising at the end of March after my break. So, any habits I build up over the next two weeks are just going to vanish when I go back to writing again.
Another potential solution would be to start a new writing project so I can continue to keep up my writing chops and focus on that in the mornings instead. However, I don’t want to start a new writing project because I have enough on my plate as it is, so adding something new into the mix doesn’t seem like a good idea.
The compromise, then, seems to be to find a more intensive project that I can focus on during my mornings. This will help me start the day by working on something larger, keeping me on track and following the habits I’ve built up over the last year.
Typing up the novel edits, actually, suits the bill quite well: It’s a big job (30-35 hours, as I mentioned) that takes a lot of focus (even though it doesn’t take a lot of mental energy) and it’s something I can do consistently for the next few mornings until it’s finished. So, planning to start each day with novel typing, the same way I would with novel revising, seems like a good way to keep on track.
However, what should I do when the typing’s done, but I’m still on break? Some of my larger paid editing projects also seem to fit my ideal morning quite nicely: they can be done at my computer, require a lot of concentration, don’t involve checking email or phone, and I can do them for multiple mornings.
In choosing both projects, my goal is clear: Find something to work on that fits my ideal morning and stick to it.
Final Thoughts
I spent so much time trying to master my ideal writing routine that I didn’t stop to think that I’d need to master a different way of organizing my time without that writing work in it. Granted, this is just a three-week break, but I want it to count and I want to be as productive as I can during these three weeks.
I believe resting and breaks are really important for your work routine, so if you’re looking at taking a break from your creative work but still need to be productive in other ways, you might look at how you can organize that break in such a way that matches the way you usually work. That way, regardless of what you’re doing, you can do it as productively and efficiently as possible.