No parenting stories in this post
Aug 1, 2004 Writing
I’ve been very focused lately. We moved our office down to the basement because Ohio law stipulates that Madison needs a room. So a room she has, with not a thing in there but her diaper pail, two bookshelves and a basket full of soft toys. We’re planning on painting next weekend and then putting a full-size bed in there so we can broaden our musical bed possibilities. You know, one child wakes, comes to big bed, one parent leaves to get some sleep. Or sleeping infant in big bed pees through diaper, one parent leaves so that other parent can move to the dry spot.
But enough about parenting!
Having my office in the basement has ended up being a boon to my productivity. Why? Because I’m hard-pressed to get down here so must focus my energies when I do.
I’m come down here during Madison’s long nap (Noah often joins me) and then again in the evenings when Brett is home. And then on weekends I focus on bigger projects, which will need more time.
I’m querying like mad all of a sudden, having been inspired by Meagan’s good hearted encouragement. The key to querying, I have discovered, is not caring about the query once I hit send. I used to get way too emotionally invested in each and every lovingly crafted, doomed-to-failure query and then when the rejection arrived, it would ruin my day. If I have a lot out there, I feel less concerned about them individually and if I keep querying, sooner or later I’ll get a hit.
Since I’ve been querying so much, I need a system to keep track and of course my dear Macintosh comes well equipped. I have a neat little color coded calendar (iCal) so I can track things under six categories:
–Home (for playdates, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)
–Homeschool (for activities)
–Work (for deadlines)
–Writing (for articles due, interviews scheduled)
–Submissions (to track queries)
–Kids (for milestones reached)
When I get online, I have a list of things to do (also color coded in iCal) and I have to hit as many of those as I can (as well as answer email) before I can do fun stuff, such as surf blogs, read up on Hollywood gossip, etc. Suddenly all of my time is productive — what bliss!
I actually try to avoid blogs a bit though. It makes me miss writing regularly in mine to the point of getting fairly blue about it. There are a few that I make sure to check every week but too much and I start feeling like the girl picked last for kickball. And since I often was that girl, it’s a familiar feeling that I like to avoid.
August 1st, 2004 at 10:51 pm
You are making me SERIOUSLY jealous of that Mac what with its iCal program. Sounds like something that could whip me into some serious color-coded shape! (help, I’m drowning in too many folders and files and papers and documents!)
August 4th, 2004 at 9:09 pm
As far as I’m concerned, you’re the captain of the kickball team. I never knew what a blog was until your wide fame reached me and I decided I wanted to be you when I grew up!
It’s good you’re getting so much done. I’ve more or less ignored ical. I guess you have inspired me to check that out too…