Time Management Tuesday: Writing On Weekends, Flow, And The Impact Of Networking On Managing Time

Today's post from the past deals with a couple of things we've been discussing on Time Managment Tuesdays this year: 1. Finding time to write every day and 2. Writing in a flow state. I also think this post suggests that finding time to network with other writers might have a positive impact on how we use our time.

The writer friend referred to in this post has to be Lynda Mullaly Hunt, whose first book, One for the Murphys, will be published in May.

October 4, 2010 The Flow Thing

I can't make any big claims about writing in a flow state. However, I do think that when I'm...shall we say...flowing?...I continue to work after I leave my work station. Thoughts come unbidden while I'm making dinner and cleaning toilets. Problems are resolved while I'm driving or mowing the lawn. I have more breakout experiences.

I've had problems getting to that point this past year because I'm most likely to get into a flowish-like state when I'm working regularly. I have to stay involved with the work. As in every day. With the schedule I'm living with now of work work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and family work on Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends, it's hard for me to stay involved enough to keep my mind working away while the rest of me is doing something else.

I had something interesting happen this weekend related to this. Out of the blue a writer friend I haven't spoken to since maybe March called me Saturday evening. A family member claims we talked for an hour and a half, though I wouldn't know. (Hmmm. Perhaps I was in flow.) I found the experience stimulating enough that I couldn't wait until Monday to get back to work.

So yesterday afternoon, while sitting next to a fire to tend a pot on some coals (I'll spare you the details about how I got started on that) instead of reading a magazine I brought my workbook with me and worked out what I needed to do today to, essentially, deep-six a chapter and replace it with something else that would incorporate some of the same material and yet be totally different.

As a result, today's work went really well, in spite of having a plumber sharing the house with me for the better part of the day.

So I'm thinking that I really need to do something--even something small--every day.

Yeah, another desperate plan. We'll see how that goes.