In Search of Routine

Yesterday’s words were hard. I didn’t even open my file until 7:30 last night.  It was just one of those super busy days where I was DOING from the moment I got to work.  I’m working on a deadline for a big website overhaul at work and spent a huge chunk of yesterday designing a new header (I did finally settle on something and now that I’ve got the real stock photos instead of just the comps, I’ve got to merge them together again for real).  Then there was assorted emails to follow up with, stuff to mail off, articles to find, tech support to provide (because God forbid my boss actually go request a class on Word 2007 from the IT people).  And then of course I was behind on grading discussion boards, so I had to do those after supper (which was takeout because I was feeling lousy).  And really, I still need to grade midterms, which I am absolutely not looking forward to.  And I need to get a lecture written on Freud for my Theories of Personality class this week.  Technically I was supposed to get him done LAST week, but it took the rest of the week to catch up from our trip and recover.  And of course, I’m leading this round of the Novel Push Initiative, and I’ve signed myself up for 500 words a day, so I have to meet that because I feel like a colossal failure if I don’t.  And I’ve fallen off the exercise wagon in a big way (though I’ve managed to hold steady at the weight I’ve lost–thank goodness–the established good eating habits stuck regardless). Oh, and don’t get me started on the projects we need to get done at home and haven’t touched.

Life is just at that point where I’m BUSY.  It will ebb and flow a bit over the course of the rest of the semester, but mostly I’m just really overloaded.  And it’s now when I reach the point where I’m scheduling my day in tiny increments.  I must get back to my ministepper workouts with weights.  And given how yesterday went, I think it would be prudent to get back to my 5 minute microbursts of writing.  I simply don’t produce anything worth anything after a long work day, while watching TV, when I feel crappy (that would be last night’s debaucle–but I got 501 words at least).  And I need to take a big project like researching and writing a lecture and break it into smaller chunks to work on every day.  Today I really have to read the chapter in the book I’ll be using to know what all is covered.  All between conducting interviews for website content, finishing the new header, and formatting a paper to be submitted to a journal.

Maybe I’ll start a hashtag for microbursts on Twitter.  There were a number of people who seemed vaguely interested when I posted on the subject earlier in the summer.  I seem to do better with stuff when there’s more than just me on the bandwagon.  So how bout it?  Anybody up for joining me as I get back into the microburst writing habit?  I even made an icon for it.

6 thoughts on “In Search of Routine

  1. I was intrigued with the idea back then, and now that I’ve a few running days writing under my belt, perhaps it would be worth a try. Course, I don’t Tweet, so that wouldn’t help that end much . . . Life has been crazy this week, and I know it’s a conspiracy to get me to stop. I had to stay up till 11:15 last night to get the writing done after the homework, but having the NPI looming over me has worked to make me do it before I go to bed, whether it is crap the next day or not. But I so sympathize with your struggles. Work is busting out with a faculty search going live in a week, all that paperwork, homework, and all the other life stuff. We’ll get through.

  2. Kait, I actually read your blog on microbursts and starting doing it on a regular basis. Because of the way my work is set up, I have five minute breaks about twice an hour, so I’ve been using those to write as much as possible, though I wasn’t doing it everyday (hence the need for NPI!). I actually thought it would make it harder for me to keep track of where I was in the story and what the scene was for, but it didn’t. I could follow fairly easily, and my brain seemed to use that “down” time to work on the details while I was busy elsewhere. My main problem was not wanting to stop when the five minutes was over!

    I did fairly well today, I think, actually adding in a scene where I didn’t think I would have one but had no idea what to do in this area. I’m over halfway done with this story, almost two-thirds, actually. Yay, me! (I think I’ve been watching too much Zach and Coty with the kids.)
    Word count for today: 1132.

    1. Okay what does it say that I immediately heard “London Tipton’s really great. Really great. London Tipton’s really great…” and :looks around: I don’t have kids.

      Yeah I seem to have problems not wanting to stop at the end of the 5 minutes too. I usually let myself at least keep going to finish whatever thought I was in the middle of.

  3. Microbursts is a great idea, if I could just stop getting caught up in what I’m doing at the time. 🙂 Love the icon, BTW.

    Overwhelm and busy must be going around at the moment. I know I’ve been facing it for a few weeks now and so have quite a few of my friends. What’s up with that?

    NPI today: 800 words

  4. 249 words on 6 October – I didn’t plan it that way, I swear! I thought of inserting one more adjective, after I’d counted, but then left it the way it was 🙂

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