Since I returned from London, I've suffered a productivity crisis the likes of which I haven't seen since the days when I dreamed of writing a novel but never did anything about it. Kind of ironic since that trip was meant to be inspirational, don't you think? It was frustrating being in a place where I desperately wanted to write (or edit in this case) but did everything I could possibly think of to distract myself from actually doing it.

I've talked about using a timer as a productivity tool but I'd gotten out of the habit of using one to keep me working. When I simply could not stand my inability to write even one sentence in a given day (or even open up Word to look at my manuscript) any longer, I went back to my trusty timer and set it for 30 minutes. Yup. For 30 minutes I could do nothing but work on my manuscript, but at the end of that time I could do whatever I wanted–make the bed, surf the net, eat a sandwich, whatever. After sufficient time wasting, I set the timer for 30 more minutes and the cycle begins again, then again, and so forth.

It might sound silly, but I get solid work done this way. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to stop playing games with myself in order to be productive, but until then it's ready, set, write.

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