Cautiously Optimistic

Well, Day Three of applying the new plan, which is to say, two hours of set apart time with 100% concentration on the writing. It worked. I did it, even though it seemed like our house was some sort of call desk this morning. There were something like eight or nine phone calls in the two hours I'd set aside (several of them were hangups, where they call and activate the answering machine message but hang up before the tone sounds). Half of them were those phone solicitations we’re not supposed to be getting anymore. Three of them I had to pick up and answer…

Usually we don’t get that many calls, so that was kind of weird. Didn’t get any after the two hours was over, either, but I’d already decided that I would turn down the ringer and silence the answering machine for those two hours in the morning, then turn stuff back on for the second stint (and I am planning to incorporate a regular second stint, though maybe just make that optional. Set apart, yes, when it comes to concentration, but only the first two hours HAVE to be done.)


Another thing that’s helped is that I’ve put away a lot of stuff that was formerly lying around being distracting. And no email until I get in those two hours of concentrated writing. Then 15 minutes of answering email before I can “send/receive”.

So. This is cool. But I'm only cautiously optimistic. I know I'm going to crash and burn because I always do. When that happens, I can rebound and resume the plan. Meantime, though, it's one day at a time.

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