![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Thursday, December 8th
Dec. 8th, 2011 12:05 pmTHE DAILY REPORT
The idea of using mornings to work on something that doesn't immediately matter is a winner. I went to sleep last night thinking that I should wake up and finish the next chapter of Tales of MU so I can get it posted early on during the day, but it would have been a disaster if I'd tried to do that, and the benefits would have been scant... the majority of my readers are students or day-job-havers in the continental U.S., so only a small proportion of them would have read it any earlier if I got it posted in the early afternoon vs. the evening, and the quality would have suffered.
So, my morning task was to work on Dangerous Instrumentality. Some of my writing time this morning was used up locating/collecting material I wrote offline on my netbook during my Maryland trip and putting it together in the cloud... something that's necessary, but that I lacked a lot of motivation to do. This doing things with a timer is making me realize how the things that feel like they'll be the most tedious... we're talking epic ennui-levels of tedium... are often the easiest things.
I think I'm going to have to start adding challenges. Instead of setting a goal of "Do X for Y minutes" or "Do Y of X", I need to start telling myself "Do X in under Y minutes" and "See how fast you can do Y of X."
Not all the time, because no one's in a mood to be challenged all the time... but when the obstacle is motivation rather than stress, this seems like a good way to get things done.
STATE OF THE ME
Slipped on the wood floor in the kitchen yesterday after taking garbage out. (Solution implemented: rug/mat by the side door.) When you're in your teens and early twenties, you really don't understand how a thing like that can ruin your whole day even when there's nothing that would register as an "injury" to your younger self. Nothing's broken. Nothing's sprained. But everything was... rattled. And now it's sore.
Last night was mixed on the sleep front. Had some early insomnia problems, but then had the moment of obvious: it's winter. Two of my heavier blankets were still tacked up to make A/C-retaining curtians for summer. Heavier pile of blankets = better sleep. I got one of them down (didn't think I could get the other down without making a lot of noise) and added it to the pile, and slept better.
Several days of light insomnia in a row are taking their toll on my brain. I'm still foggy and not fully awake.
DREAMS FROM LAST NIGHT
Inconclusive.
PLANS FOR TODAY
Going to keep doing what I've been doing, with a specific goal of finishing chapter 51. I have over 2,000 words on it, though it's riddled with placeholders and skips.
The idea of using mornings to work on something that doesn't immediately matter is a winner. I went to sleep last night thinking that I should wake up and finish the next chapter of Tales of MU so I can get it posted early on during the day, but it would have been a disaster if I'd tried to do that, and the benefits would have been scant... the majority of my readers are students or day-job-havers in the continental U.S., so only a small proportion of them would have read it any earlier if I got it posted in the early afternoon vs. the evening, and the quality would have suffered.
So, my morning task was to work on Dangerous Instrumentality. Some of my writing time this morning was used up locating/collecting material I wrote offline on my netbook during my Maryland trip and putting it together in the cloud... something that's necessary, but that I lacked a lot of motivation to do. This doing things with a timer is making me realize how the things that feel like they'll be the most tedious... we're talking epic ennui-levels of tedium... are often the easiest things.
I think I'm going to have to start adding challenges. Instead of setting a goal of "Do X for Y minutes" or "Do Y of X", I need to start telling myself "Do X in under Y minutes" and "See how fast you can do Y of X."
Not all the time, because no one's in a mood to be challenged all the time... but when the obstacle is motivation rather than stress, this seems like a good way to get things done.
STATE OF THE ME
Slipped on the wood floor in the kitchen yesterday after taking garbage out. (Solution implemented: rug/mat by the side door.) When you're in your teens and early twenties, you really don't understand how a thing like that can ruin your whole day even when there's nothing that would register as an "injury" to your younger self. Nothing's broken. Nothing's sprained. But everything was... rattled. And now it's sore.
Last night was mixed on the sleep front. Had some early insomnia problems, but then had the moment of obvious: it's winter. Two of my heavier blankets were still tacked up to make A/C-retaining curtians for summer. Heavier pile of blankets = better sleep. I got one of them down (didn't think I could get the other down without making a lot of noise) and added it to the pile, and slept better.
Several days of light insomnia in a row are taking their toll on my brain. I'm still foggy and not fully awake.
DREAMS FROM LAST NIGHT
Inconclusive.
PLANS FOR TODAY
Going to keep doing what I've been doing, with a specific goal of finishing chapter 51. I have over 2,000 words on it, though it's riddled with placeholders and skips.