Well my to do list still has most of the same things on it. I set out with the best intentions this morning, making the list the night before, ticking items off as I do them… and it all goes well for the first hour or so until the first interruption. This can be anything from one of the children (ha! both in their twenties) either dropping in or a phone call, friends doing the same, a request from my husband for help with something or other, or the sound of the dog retching outside my door, etc, etc. The slightest thing sends me off track and then I have to get myself motivated all over again. And it’s all my fault because I can’t say NO!
If I worked in an office my family and friends wouldn’t be able to distract me and neither would anything else, no cleaning, washing, checking the weather to see if I should put the washing out – or bring it in. I’ve spent most of my adult life self employed. I wanted to have the freedom to work around the kids so have always worked around the kids but it’s a habit that really is long overdue to be broken. As is the housework, as is almost everything else I have worked around. Before it was always a joint business project, working flexibility and adding my writing in around the edges but now things have to change. Times have changed and so must working practices. I can’t complain I have no time to write it’s just that I’m not giving it priority at the moment.
And the way to get round it? Set a target and a deadline, one is no good without the other. A target is a good thing but if you leave it open ended it will take forever to achieve it because it has no sense of urgency. Give it a completion date though and everything changes.
So rather then complain that you have no time to write set yourself a target of 200 words each day, preferable at a fixed time or for example: I will write 200 words before 8.00pm. Set yourself a target for your lunch hour, your journey home, while the kettle boils. You choose. 200 words can be achieved in 10 minutes but those ten minutes need to have a deadline.