This last week was a series of procrastination and focus issues. I got Second Sight revised and sent to my writers’ group for review – eventually – and got the plan made for Earth Bound. It took far longer to do both than I would have liked, and I ended up with almost no free time outside doing these by the end of the weekend (rounding Monday into this because it ran over).
If it had just been this week where I had focus issues it might have been OK. I’ve spoken about it here before, more than once. Be it COVID-19, working from home, spring hay fever kicking it, or the frigging moon alignment, who knows – Something had to be done.
Over the past week or so these are the things I have found and put to use to try and help.
- Found Freeter (Free) – This allows me to create a full-screen space where I have links to the software I need, the files I need, and a timer to help me focus. It also has a task list and a few cool other things. I have created links to my work in progress so I can now see what needs to be done.
- Found Grammarly (Free) – not specifically related to focus but it’s my new favorite tool. It helps me with the grammar and spelling in a way that Microsoft doesn’t seem to. It can do more with the paid version, but I will see how it goes with the free one first.
- Found Hootsuite (Free) – Allows me to post to multiple Socials at once, time saver, and less faffing about. This is something I have wanted to do for a while and couldn’t see how others could post to all socials at once.
- Found the focus mode on my phone (Android)– How did I not know this is built-in? It soft disables all the apps. If you click on an app it tells you you’re in-focus mode, and while you can disable it easily it is quite good at reminding you that you’re not supposed to be on Facebook… that I need that reminder makes me sad… I have spoken about doing this before during my Ride the Rainbow Revision, but I think it needs to become part of my regular process.
- I dusted off my abandoned Bullet journal, after Simi broke her paw and the lockdown started to kick into high gear it got a little lost in the chaos. I have updated the gap with a summary of all the things I did during that time and started fresh with a new week.
- 10-minute timer – This is something I have used before and it comes from the holly Lisle writing classes and forums. I have used it spottily, having found it works for when writing, but not used it for revisions before. Most of what I have been doing has been revision, so using a 20/30m version of this.
More than anything else the process of acknowledging that I was having issues and looking at ways to help have made the biggest difference. Once I decided that I found Freeter, and with it was able to get that overview of everything I needed to do. Looking at that, making a plan, and then updating the Bullet Journal has gone a long way to helping.
I now have my plan for the week, a plan for the order of the project I’m working on, and – hopefully – the tools I need to do it.
This weeks writing focus will be the following-
- Outstanding Writers group Beta reads
- Edit a short Flash for the upcoming blog hop
- Earth Bound Revision