The Snail Tales, Day 5 (you know there’s a contest)

As most other people find to be true, my to-do list runs for miles. Each and every day, without fail. It likes to stay energetic, you see. And like most other people, on any typical day, I can tell you how long it goes, right to the last unchecked item.

But how much I accomplished in a given day? Well, I don’t usually keep track.

Christine says I should. In her book, she asks readers to create two columns in a spreadsheet: to do and done. At the end of each day, she recommends looking at the “done” list and seeing, truly seeing, how much was accomplished. Christine says you’ll be surprised, and while she means pleasantly surprised, I was more surprised by how little I was getting done. I didn’t realize that all that Facebooking, Twittering, e-mailing, etc, was actually taking away from work time. Once I realized how little, and eventually, how much I was getting done, the to-do list didn’t matter any more.

On some days, I got only two things done but they were two major things. On others I got twelve minor things done. But as long as I knew that I was being productive and was on track, how many things remained on the to-do list ceased to matter. Now, I’ve been making both a to-do list and things done today list and I have to say, at the end of the day, I feel remarkably better.

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I’m working with The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. Check out Christine’s blog at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com/

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One more copy of Christine’s book for you today. To win, post your biggest accomplishment of the day in the comments below. Deadline is 24th June, 6 p.m. GMT and I’ll announce the winner on the 25th.

The Snail Tales, Day 4

How long is your to-do list? Christine suggests you make it longer.

“Write down every single thing you’re worried about,” she says. “It can be phrases, words, even pictures. You’ll uncover what may seem like silly things, such as taking out the trash on time or paying the electric bill, but life is in the details. And much of our life is spent worrying about them.”

I took Christine’s advice and wrote down a list of everything I had to do this week, both work things and personal things. I’ve got everything on the list, and I do mean everything– from rearranging books on my bookshelf to shopping for kitty litter. I didn’t realize how all these little details were adding up and bogging me down.

Now when I need to worry, I look at the list (and sometimes even cross things off it!), but for the most part, I can go about my day, doing what I need to do, knowing that I haven’t accidentally forgotten something.

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I’m working with The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. Check out Christine’s blog at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com/

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Now for the contest:

Whoever wins today gets a free critique of two of their query letters. You send me your queries and the market you hope to pitch, and I’ll look at them and tell you if there’s something I’d do to make them more salable for the market you’re targeting.

To win, tell me about the silliest thing on your to-do list. Write it in the comments section of this post by 23rd June, 6 p.m. GMT. I’ll announce the winner on the 24th.

The Snail Tales, Day 3 (and yet another contest!)

One of the things you should know about me is that I never take a day off work. I rarely took days off work when I was working at a 9-5 job (and when I did, I ended up working from home), and I don’t do so now. Even when I’m sick and in bed, I manage to check my e-mail, look at the news, read a few blogs, write a few lines, make a to-do list, strike some things off the to-do list, and somehow still feel like I got nothing done.

There’s a large amount of flexibility that comes with being freelance, but to me that’s always meant I can choose what times I get up and go to bed and how much work I can do. That means I can take two hours in the middle of the day to watch a movie or read a book. It hasn’t, so far, meant that I can take a day off in the middle of the week, leave the office and the home, and just do what I like.

But I read the idea in Christine’s book and I thought, why not?

On Wednesday last week, I got up at my usual 8 a.m., spent an hour fumbling and bumbling around the house, made tea, kissed the husband goodbye, got dressed, watched a couple of episodes of Sex and the City, and then left the house. Left the office, left the house, and went and ran some errands. Then, because it was a day of spoiling myself and not running errands (and also because Delhi is hot hot hot and I’m melting), I went shopping for skirts.

Then, I came home, read my novel, played with the kitten, and watched a movie. In the evening, I paid two bills, updated my website, cooked some food, had a nice dinner with the husband, read more of my novel, and called it a day. And what a relaxing day it had been.

It’s not that I didn’t have the guilt of not being at work. I did. The two major projects were constantly at the back of my mind, and I hated that I was thinking about them even while I was trying to enjoy a day off. They weren’t due for another two and four days– why was I constantly obsessing over them?

Anyway, I came home and decided that because my little half-day-out had been fun and I kind of liked going off and doing my thing in the middle of the day (plus, I needed more practice in being guilt-free), I asked another freelancer friend of mine if she’d like to join me for lunch, so we got a group of us together on Sunday.

This Friday, I’m meeting another friend. I could get used to this.

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I’m working with The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. Check out Christine’s blog at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com/

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Now for the contest:

One more lucky winner gets a copy of Christine’s book today. Leave a comment below before June 19, 2010, 6 pm GMT, and on the 20th, I’ll select a random winner.

To win, tell me what I’d find you doing if you took a day off and went off to play for a while.

The Snail Tales, Day 2 (and another contest!)

I’m having one of those weeks when I have two big projects that need doing and some tiny little ones that can get done quickly and easily. Guess which ones I’m focusing on.

If you guessed the big ones, you guessed wrong. Because of course, that would be the sane and smart thing to do, and as human beings, it’s our prerogative to do the stupid, inefficient thing.

It’s almost 11.30 in the morning, and as I look at the list of things I did yesterday, I realize that the important big projects remain undone. I could pull all-nighters over the weekend (something I really don’t want to do), or get them over bit by bit during the week. It’s so simple, really, and yet when we’re at work in front of our desks, we want to tackle the smaller things, the ones that gives us more satisfaction in the short term, the ones that once ticked off the list give us the feeling of achievement, however small.

“Work through blockage by committing the first part of your day to getting one ‘hard’ thing done,” says Christine. “Many people have found that what seemed hard before they started wasn’t nearly as hard as the self-flagellation they engaged in before attempting the project in the first place.”

She’s got a point there, that smart woman. I’ve been beating myself about these two big projects for weeks, yet I still haven’t gotten around to making any progress on them. Christine talks about kids and how they save the best for last. Once they get the damn homework done, they can go play. Once they’ve eaten the sort of good candy, they can work on devouring the super tasty candy.

Instead of looking at my two big projects and wondering how I’m going to climb over that mountain, today, I’m going to tackle little parts of them. If I can get some of the grunt work out of the way now, tomorrow it might be my time to play.

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I’m working with The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. Check out Christine’s blog at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com/

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Now for the contest:

Today, I’m offering a free 15-minute phone consultation with me. If you win, I’ll call you and you have 15 minutes to ask me anything– advice, tips, struggles you have in your own career, etc. If you’re Delhi, I’d be happy to take you out to lunch.

All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me the name of your dream publication. Do it before June 17, 2010, 6 pm GMT, and on the 18th, I’ll announce a random winner.

The Snail Tales, Day 1 (and a Contest!)

I’m inflicted with the disease of toggling. You know, when you’re in the middle of reading a perfectly good article on some website, and your fingers suddenly change the window to Twitter or Facebook. When you’re working on an article, and you stop mid-paragraph to check e-mail. When you’re watching the news on iTunes and you think of doing some research as it plays in the background. I do this frequently, obsessively, and seeing as I have about 20-30 windows open at any point in time, it’s a wonder I get any work done.

My name is Mridu and I’m a toggler.

On Day 1 of the Snail Tales, I decided it would be a good challenge to try and stop my toggling. It takes away from my productivity, it’s always a drag getting back into something when you’ve toggled away from it, and it’s one of the prime reasons for my procrastination. I get distracted easily– ooh shiny– and I’m off to cyberland, completely having forgotten about the assignment I was working on.

Christine says that when you’re on a deadline, you should “close your other programs altogether, including e-mail, and concentrate on your work.” As journalists, I’m not sure we can do this without affecting workflow and assignments (I do have editors contacting me through the day, after all, sometimes for breaking news), but that doesn’t mean I have to be a slave to e-mail.

So today I decided to close all the applications other than my mail client and whatever it is I’m working on. Can I just say, it’s bloody hard!

As I write this, I now only have about four applications running– my word processor (I use WriteRoom), my desktop Post-it notes (lists of things and random notes to self), my e-mail client (which is set up for manual checking of e-mail), and my browser (because I’m researching on and off all day and it’s silly to have to open up the application fifty times a day). This is the least number of applications I’ve had open in months. I’m not on Facebook, I’ve shut down Twitter, I don’t have IM clients running, and even though I’m tempted, I’m not logging on to my favorite writers’ message board for a quick chat.

I knew I was distracted by something or the other during my work day, but I have to say, I didn’t realize how much. Even during the writing of this blog entry, because I’ve been conscious of it, I’ve noticed how many times I’ve toggled. How many times I’ve looked up seeking a one-minute break. How trapped I’ve felt to be focusing on only this one thing. I’m a slave to my windows. Who knew?

I’m still finding it extremely difficult to be completely focused on one thing, so instead of switching windows every few minutes, I’m going to do what Christine suggests and reach for a glass of water, get up and move around, or walk away from my desk and stretch my legs.

Accepting you have a problem is the first step.

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I’m working with The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum. Check out Christine’s blog at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com/

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Now for the contest:

To one lucky winner, Christine is offering a free copy of her book. Leave a comment below before June 16, 2010, 6 pm GMT, and on the 17th, I’ll select a random winner.

To win, all you have to do is post in the comments below your biggest distraction when you’re trying to write.

The Snail Tales

Lately, I’ve been feeling as if I’m just flipping through. I read something, and two days later, I’ve forgotten about it entirely. I’ll go back and read something on my blog or in my journal months later and think, “Hey, wait, I KNEW that?”

This is not necessarily how I want to live my life. I want to absorb different ideas, yes, but I don’t want to hop from one to the other so quickly that I haven’t even had time to take in the message. Yet, that’s exactly how we’re living our lives. That’s exactly how I’m living MY life.

It’s important for me, as a journalist, to stay on top of things as they’re happening, because it directly impacts my work. But I have to say, it’s not something I’m enjoying much lately. I took a self-imposed media break the other week and when I got back, I’d already missed three stories. What’s more, there was no trace to be found of them. People, the media, television reporters, they’d all moved on. On to the next story. Every day, there’s a new story.

I’ve been finding lately that any article that’s more than 500 words can’t keep my attention. I start getting distracted– I move to check e-mail, I look at another blog, switch around windows on my computer. Anything to break up a 1,000 word read. And the last two books I’ve read have been for work.

I’m ready to slow down a little. Thankfully, I have fantastic writer friends, one of whom happens to be Christine Louise Hohlbaum, the author of “The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World.” I interviewed Christine a couple of years ago, we had a lovely conversation, and since then we’ve remained in touch. Anyway, her publisher sent me a copy of her book, and I’ve been meaning to put it to the test for a while. Now I’m ready.

Over the next seven days, I’m going to take tips from Christine’s book and see how they work for me in real life, and how easy or difficult it is for me to implement them in my day to day functioning.

I’m calling them my Snail Tales. Stay tuned for a daily update and a daily contest for the next seven days.