Working from home is everyone's dream, right? Mine included - it always has been - so when I was commissioned to write this book, I almost wet myself in anticipation of a couple of months meandering about the house, tapping the occasional piece of genius into the keyboard.
It has not, thus far, turned out to be quite so idyllic as I always expected. A number of things have happened:
1) I have completely lost the ability to turn myself out of bed before 9.30am and, when I DO manage to get up at that dawn-cracking time, I feel like I haven't slept a wink. Hooded eyes, constant yawns, the whole shebang. If I allow myself to sleep 'naturally', on the other hand, you're not likely to see me before 1pm for absolutely no reason.
2) I have developed an insane compulsion to constantly check Plurk for new updates and share absolutely everything in my head with the poor souls on my contact list. I have typed considerably more words into that little window than the Word one.
3) I procrastinate to the extent that I very seldom manage more than 50 words an hour. Plus the requisite research, of course, but that's by the by.
4) I get randomly lonely, crave human company and begin to panic if I don't manage to get out of the house at least once a day. Which means I'm going out an awful lot more than usual... mostly to the cinema, as previously discussed at length.
But I really shouldn't complain - I get to lounge around in silly trousers all day with unbrushed hair and The Deftones (or MGMT these days, thanks to that pesky Lorna) at intolerably loud volumes (when Jeremy Kyle isn't on). I can keep my own times (though that's not actually a good idea) and have breaks when I want them, what's not to love?
p.s. Please excuse the usual flimsily linked title chosen for purposes of showing off this fabulous picture of me made by the delectable Kitty.
p.p.s. Here is the song that I cannot get enough of - curse you Lorna!
11 comments:
Read http://lifehacker.com/ on tips on how to get things done....
I have heard really good things from writers about Writeroom.
http://hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
It's for a Mac, but I'm sure there is somethings similar for a PC.
You probably need to get distraction free and focus on what you need to do. Try giving yourself rewards for doing small goals. Like Plurk for 15 minutes after doing 1 hour of productive work or something similar.
-Veyron
You should try to regiment your day - get up at certain times, go to lunch at certain times. Read the times. Turn back time. Let's do the time warp again?
I'm growing to like MGMT too. They're like, jaunty!
Thank you Veyron, I'm open to all ideas on adding discipline to this nonsense of a situation! I shall have a read, most appreciated :)
Tim - I do all that, I have a very strict routine, but I'll be buggered if I can stick to it! All in good time, I hope...
so far from what I heard everyone gets the same way if they work from home. me included. we become lazy depressed sacks of potatoes who crave any sort of outing. Like going to the supermarket cos you need milk becomes the highlight of your day..
I say drop it.. it's not all it's cracked up to be & it gets harder to stop.
In any case, regardless of what you decide & how things progress: take solace in the fact that your pic in a cat suit is freaking hawt.
And what more do you need, frankly?
I think you're right, I already got excited about going out for stamps, it's all downhill from here...
If there is one thing I couldn't do properly, or seriously... it's work from home, unless you stole my internet, took away all forms of entertainment and cleared my kitchen cupboards.
I've often looked into it, just shitty little jobs to make it possible to stay at home with the kids, but dude... I would stuff 1 envelope a day or paint one gnomes penis a week, and you know what would happen? Jake would either a) eat it or b) sit on it.
Staying at home for me does not include any work whatsoEVER, apart from mom/wifey stuff, and I don't get paid for that shit either. HMPH.
I work from home (lately tho the work has been very few and far between). A couple of key things here are to know WHEN you like to work best and then force yourself to that system. For me, I get most effective work done at night, so I piddle and waste the day part away and then get crackin when it's all quiet and dark and less things to disturb me. Except when I'm all into a project or near the deadline I think about it 24/7 and work waaay too much, from the moment I get up until I go to bed, with little breaks but mostly working. But I can get very involved in something if it excites me.
And although I've worked from home successfully doing video editing/motion graphics or photoshoppy type stuff, when I tried to just WRITE as work I had a worse time avoiding procrastination. Perhaps because the act of writing is so similar to the other things I want to do (blather on in people's comments, for example).
One thing you could try writing wise would be if you have a laptop (wait...do you have a laptop?) and go to a local coffee shop or whatever you have there across the pond but one WITHOUT internet. Leave the house with specific task of writing xx pages and don't leave until you do it.
I've read a few blogs of successful screenwriters and most of them set aside a few hours of the day for writing only. Like Hemingway, but the "get drunk afterward" part is not required. Unless it is, somedays.
You need to do Rimmer from Red Dwarf's timetable with the colour-coding of deadlines. Which was no longer relevant by the time he'd finished colouring so he had to redesign it with the new timescales and so on and so on. That will occupy you!
@Willis - Yep, you were quite right, it's MUCH too easy to faff about and do nothing. Look, I've been doing it for two hours now, without a problem!
@QueenKellee - You know, I've been trying to justify buying a laptop for months...this would be the perfect justification! I completely agree it's the fact I'm writing and don't have to switch modes to have a faff. I need discipline!
@Sylvie - Erm...I did actually do that for my GCSE revision...don't tell anyone...
I know exactly what you mean! It is amazing how many much more pressing things you can find to do when you should be working. My flat has never been cleaner and the iron has actually seen the outside of the cupboard it lives in.
Please teach me how to leave the house though, i am having real trouble with that, i am only leaving to forage for food at the moment, what is that all about?
Oh and MGMT rock!
You try and listen to it through headphones in an office full of people and not be able to sing badly or dance like a mad thing. See there are advantages to working at home.
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