Time Management Tuesday: Summer Reading--Work In Order To Work

I usually manage at least one blog post, sometimes two, on weekends. For that matter, I blog nearly day. So it could be said that I write every day. It's not the kind of writing I wish I was doing every day, but I like to think it at least keeps the joints in my fingers from stiffening up due to lack of use.

Yes, that's right, we're getting back to the write-every-day issue. Since I can't manage it except for those blog posts I was just mentioning, I'm not getting all judgmental about it. Relax. What I am going to do is discuss Gretchen Rubin's essay, Harnessing the Power of Frequency, in Manage Your Day-to-Day.

Rubin does write every day. But we're not going to hate her for that because desire, including desiring the work habits of others, can only lead to unhappiness. (I mention that even though Rubin is the go-to person for happiness, pas moi.) Rubin has some interesting things to say about the value of writing every day, none of which involve the fact that writing every day should result in getting a lot of work done.

Reasons To Write Every Day

 

Writing regularly makes it easier to keep writing. It's easier to continue with a writing project if you were just working on it yesterday versus a couple of weeks ago or even longer. Monday is one of my better writing days because I tend not to have family obligations on Monday. But getting started Monday morning after just a weekend break can be a b-- can be hard. Especially now that I've organized my week around doing marketing on Fridays (Yes, you do know about this. You know about everything.) instead of letting it slowly take over my week. On top of that, Thursdays are caregiver/life maintenance days here. So by Monday morning, I may not have worked on a serious writing project for four days. It's a lifetime. Hmm. Once again, I've got to try to squeeze in a unit of work, at least, on a Saturday or Sunday.

Writing regularly keeps your mind on your project. As Rubin points out, if you can stay in your work, you often see connections between your writing project and things that are going on around you. Connections you can use. But you have to be immersed for that to happen.We're probably talking a variation on breakout experiences with this.

Writing regularly encourages creativity. The more creative work you do, the more creative ideas you come up with for more work. If you create, you create. If you don't create, then you don't create.

There's a saying in tai chi that seems related to all this: "When one part of the body moves, the whole body moves. When one part of the body stops, the whole body stops." If we're writing, we will keep writing. If we're not writing, we won't.