A Great Day!

You don't often hear me talking here about a good writing day, perhaps because they are so few and far between. But a number of things came together today that led me to be more productive.

First off, yesterday's post about writing rituals got me to thinking. Perhaps all the Internet wandering I do prior to starting work is only a writing ritual because I call it a writing ritual. Perhaps I could call something else my writing ritual--the so-called "writing meditation" I do in my workbook, for instance. Any kind of meditation sounds more meaningful than checking out some of the slimy newstories that I am too ashamed to admit I read. So, I did that and...Wow! I didn't check out any news sites until 4:00! Seriously, I didn't expect that to happen.

I was able to do that, in part, because I happened to finally read the creativity article in Newsweek from a few weeks ago. It indicated that while multi-tasking isn't that useful (something I've heard before) moving from one creative task to another is. So I made one Primary Daily Goal to work on (during the writing meditation mentioned above) and several Secondary Daily Goals. This meant that when the Primary Daily Goal became too difficult, instead of running to the Internet, I went to work on one of the secondary goals.

Finally, that Newsweek article also said that some serious exercise can also be good for creativity. Now, I exercise every day, and I have for years. While I do cross-train, sort of, after all this time my body isn't surprised by much that I do to it. However, the last two weekends I went biking. (I'd post a picture, but I really don't look that good in biking mode.) I did thirty miles over two days the weekend before last and twenty-one miles this past Saturday, which is a bit of a push for me because we haven't been able to bike much the last two years. So my mind may still have been experiencing the burn today.

Unfortunately, I know all too well that one good day doesn't mean much. I've read that it takes six weeks to create a habit, and I've got to tell you, I've held out that long and still had everything go to pieces later. Nonetheless, I was greatly encouraged today. We'll see what Wednesday brings.