Best advice I ever got as a writer was a few years ago from New York Times bestselling author, Ally Carter (she didn’t tell just me, she posted on it on Backspace) and it has stuck with me.
Ally says that to get more done (prolific writing, to-do list, etc.) that you have to be ALL there when you’re doing a task.
If you’re writing, you’re writing, not on the phone, not watching Scrubs reruns, not half-listening to a conference call.
If you’re editing, you’re editing, not also surfing the Internet, shopping iTunes, and jumping up to answer the phone every time it rings.
If you’re doing laundry, you’re not also trying to vacuum. Ahem.
(Yes, I’ve done all of this as CEO of my corporation. This is my true confession.)
It’s what I’m struggling with this week the most. Now that I work for myself, I tend to fly furiously through a to-do list and get upset when a piece of writing takes longer than it should. Last night I got an incredible critique on a chapter of my novel (I mean INCREDIBLE; it was chopped to pieces) and driving home from West Seattle, I realized that my default drive as a hyper-driven CEO of my teeny corporation was harming me in the long run.
Running my own business requires that I slow down and focus. It requires that I reconfigure my office space, my work day, and my responsibilities to make sure that what I have to do each day doesn’t look anything like my last day job (me working for someone else). Sure, some days may still feel like I just work for someone else, but a CEO has to do a lot more in a day.
Thank you, Ally Carter. Thanks for saying it, simple as it is, and for saying it so well that it stuck in my head all these years. And that it may finally pay off in my work regimen in the rest of 2009 and into 2010.
Are you moving too fast? Do you multitask too much?
S-L-O-W. Down.
{ 2 comments }
Amen!
Wonderful reminder!!!
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