Over the past few days, with my new focus on matching my actions to my goals of finishing books and moving toward an independent income, I have been doing much better in the mornings. Even on the days that it takes me a little more time than usual to get down to the writing, I have been keeping my motivation up and getting more words on the page.
I’ve also been trying to keep my attention on enjoying the work as well as the progress and reminding myself that I am looking forward to doing this every day.
Of course, it helps that I’m on my winter break now and don’t have to stop just when I get into the flow in order to go to work. And that’s the problem.
I’m still only writing in the mornings before the family gets up. Once they’re awake, I have a lot harder time getting myself to go back to work and get something done. That’s where I need to focus next: strategies to get myself to return back to the desk later in the day when I have time and to be able to write.
I have a ton of excuses I tell myself:
– I have a duty to be with my family.
– Once I’ve been dealing with the kids (or work) for a few hours, I’m too mentally tired to get back into writing.
– Mornings are my writing time and I’ve done my work, so I deserve a break.
– I can’t work with the noise and chaos in the house.
But I can overcome each of these. I just need to focus on the problem and resolution!
As for this morning’s writing, I got 1000 new words added to my total, and that’s after deleting several hundred from the mess I’d made on the first attempt, so I’m happy with that progress! Chapter 1 is done and much cleaner than it was the first time around.