The Power of Habit

We moved house recently, not a totally unknown occurrence for us as we have nomadic tendencies, but we’d lived in the house for almost six years, which is pretty much a record for us.

The new place is only about 5 km and a couple of bays further up the coast, so I know the general area, and still use most of the same facilities, shopping etc. Because of this, there have been one or two occasions when I’ve got into the car and switched into autopilot mode, only to find myself taking a route back to the old house. Habits are powerful things!

Autopilot mode is useful and we use it in most aspects of our life. When we first learn to do something, like driving, we have to go through each individual movement, possibly even muttering instructions to ourselves as we do. However, once we’ve learned the sequence of movements and practiced them, dozens or possibly hundreds of times, the knowledge moves into a different area of our brain, and we don't think through each individual component or movement.

Habits of themselves aren’t good or bad, they are a part of our learning and development. When you get dressed tomorrow, look at what foot you put into your pants or socks first, and then the following day use the opposite foot first. It’s hard to break the habit because it’s something we do without thinking, but if we had to think through every movement or task we do, we’d be overwhelmed.

The writing work ethic is an interesting one. Some writers wait for the muse to attack, while others write every day.

My day job is non-fiction writing, and if I’ve learned anything it’s that waiting for the muse to attack doesn’t work. It may seem like a very ‘writerly’ thing to say, but in practise it means we’re not going to finish. The only way to finish a book is to write.

It’s certainly not the easiest thing in the world, especially when the sun is shining, but the bottom line is: writers write.

I speak from the experience of both sides. I’ve had periods when I’ve made myself sit down every day and write, and periods that, for various reasons, I haven’t been able to, or not felt like writing.
 
What I do know, is that when you sit down to write on a regular basis, magic happens. 

Now to practice the art of habit and follow the advice of Mary Heaton Vorse.
‘The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.’

Spring Clearing

We've had our annual inorganic collection this week. Every year around this time the local council collects the items that are too large to go out in the usual rubbish collection. A few days before we’re notified of the collection date, and over that weekend the neighbourhood turns into a gigantic jumble sale.  Everyone puts all their junk on the grass verges and the streets are full of vans and small trucks cruising along looking at the piles of stuff. As we put things out people were already picking through it to see if there was anything they wanted or could use. The weather has been lovely, and so it was conducive to a quick chat. 

As it’s Spring all this clearing out motivated me to sort through my bookshelves and cupboards, and the local Op shops have gained out of the exercise.  In England they’re called Charity shops. Here in New Zealand the shops also raise money for various charities, but they’re known as Opportunity Shops, shortened to Op shops. I like the name, it gives a feeling of extended life for books, clothes and other items. 

All this spring clearing – notice I said clearing not cleaning - reminded me of Spring when I was a child. My mother would change the curtains to lighter weight ones and clean all the windows. Very often this also coincided with a rearrangement of the furniture and my father would come home and do a double-take as he walked into a changed living room.

As I've mentioned before it still takes some getting used to having Spring at this time of year, but the urge to tidy out things and begin new projects is still strong. 

I think my mulling over of prospective book projects is beginning to look more like procrastination. Time to get moving!

Matariki

At this time of year in New Zealand it's the celebration of Matariki – the traditional Maori New Year.

Of course we also celebrate New Year on the 31^st December/1^st January, and as there is also a large Chinese population we have festivals to celebrate Chinese New Year, as well as Matariki events.

I’m fascinated with our obsession of changing habits and making goals on a specific date because it’s a New Year. I think having several different dates emphasises the point that we can make goals and change behaviours at any time.

I’ve blogged about making goals before, but it seemed a good time to post about a few of the things I've learned. The major thing has been to make one goal at a time, which is a good reason not to confine them to New Year.

If our goal is about big behavioural changes, then we’re more likely to succeed if we concentrate on one change at a time.

Ask yourself what you really want to change? What skill you really want to improve? Or what skill you’d like to learn? 

Take some time and really think about what you want out of life. Now is a good time as the papers and magazines aren’t full of celebrity goals that can sway our thinking.

When you’ve come up with your goal, write it down. I find the act of committing it to paper makes it more real.

Now break the goal down into smaller more manageable tasks you can measure and set a time period for achieving.

In the past I’ve tended to choose a number of things I want to change or do, and then I get bogged down trying to keep them all. Making one goal at a time and steadily progressing towards it allows me to focus on what I need to do. 

I’ve also found it useful to tell someone about my goal. Usually just one person, again it’s about making it real, but also about choosing someone who recognises why that goal is important to me, and will remind me about it in a supportive way.

Many companies have a program of continuous improvement. I’ll leave aside the fact that many pay lip service to it, but I think about it in respect of my goals. Things aren’t going to change overnight, we will probably find ourselves reverting to old habits, but concentrating on one goal, breaking it down into bite size pieces and giving ourselves the time and space to achieve makes success a lot more certain than a New Year’s Eve scattergun approach.

Start now - get out a piece of paper and think about something you really want to achieve.

If you're interested in finding out a little more about Matariki here are some links: 
http://www.matarikievents.co.nz/
http://www.mch.govt.nz/nz-identity-heritage/matariki

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/media/features/maori-culture/maori-culture_matariki-maori-new-year_feature.cfm

Working Smarter – Action Triggers

A number of years ago I attended an NLP weekend.  One of the things I found  interesting was anchors.  An anchor is a trigger that leads to an emotional response. 

Hearing and smell are senses that link very strongly to memories or emotional states.  Think of the times you’ve heard a record and you're instantly back at an event in your past, or a particular scent recalls an experience.  Anchors are similar, except you are deliberately associating a particular stimulus with a specific feeling or response. 

We can create our own action triggers for writing.

For example: sitting down to write at the same time each day (once you’ve discovered your best writing time), using the same scented candle each time you write, or using the same pen and notebook for your creative writing (and not for anything else). 

Some organisations have dress codes for work.  The rationale behind this is that if people are dressed smartly, they have a more professional attitude at work.  I haven’t seen any research for this, and don’t have any strong feelings either way, but it’s something to take into consideration when discovering what works best for you in being creative and productive.  You may turn out your best writing dressed in pyjamas, or prefer to work after having a shower and being comfortably dressed.

Having goals and a schedule, and finding out where, how and when you are most productive and creative will help you on those days when you don’t feel like writing, and can increase your chance of success – it certainly won’t harm it.

Working smarter links

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Set a schedule

Manage your time

Where and how you work
SMART goals
 

   

Working Smarter - Where and How You Work

In the last few posts we've created some big hairy audacious goals, broken them down into achievable tasks, scheduled the best time to actually work on the tasks, and found the best way for us to be creative and productive.  

So where do you work?  Maybe you have an office at home, or the spare bedroom, or a corner of the living room.  My spot is the dining table, which is the reason we don’t invite people over for dinner very often!

I like the dining table, it’s big enough to spread out my papers when I’m developing training materials, or looking through a draft. Though there are times I’d love it to be a little larger.

While I don’t have a proper desk, I do have a good chair. If you’re going to be spending hours working you need to be comfortable.

The room is light and airy – this is important to me, though it might not be so important to you.  From my seat I can look out onto the deck, and see the birds eating the strawberries they think we grow for them.  There are a lot of trees and beyond that a glimpse of the sea.

There is research that shows we need space around us to have ideas and be creative.  I guess that's why we often find ourselves staring out of the window when we're trying to come up with ideas, after all the sky is a very high ceiling.

I can work with a certain amount of mess around me, my type of mess that is, with my papers in different piles so I can still find what I need quickly.  But I do enjoy the clear out at the end of a project, when I go through all the papers and electronic files and get rid of what isn’t needed.  Too much mess and I just can’t work, the same goes for mess in my head, as in jobs that need to be done. That’s why I find a schedule so useful, if the tasks have been written down and a time scheduled, I can clear them out of my head and not worry about them.

I’ve read a lot about the delights of writing in a café, but it doesn't work for me.  I need quiet.  If it gets too busy or noisy around the house, either the other inhabitants or neighbours, I put on headphones and listen to some music. I have it just loud enough to drown the outside noise, but not so loud it’s intrusive.  Actually music is another interesting thing. A lot of writers swear by creating a specific sound track for their novel or project.  Again it doesn’t work for me unless I’m driven to it because of other noise.

What I’m saying is, try different things. Find out where, when and how you are most creative and productive, and use that knowledge to help your writing.

There isn't a magic solution that works for everyone, or just one way to work.  There is only the one ring rule you need to follow.  

Keep writing.  Regularly.

Working Smarter - Managing Your Time

In the last post I talked about writing regularly and scheduling the tasks that are linked to our goals.  Time is our most precious commodity, so it is something we need to manage.

Let me make a confession here - I’ve never been much good at multi-tasking.  I used to feel a little guilty about admitting this, as most people seem to think of it as a good thing.  Yes, I can multi-task the automatic, easy things, but when it comes to an important project I need to concentrate on it. 

I’ve been encouraged in reading a few research studies that say multi-tasking makes us less efficient than when we focus on one project at a time, and that managing two tasks at the same time reduces the brainpower available for either task.  Apparently multi-tasking also boosts our levels of stress related hormones - not a good thing.

‘An interruption that breaks your concentration can cost you 10-20 minutes of lost focus.’   Imagine how much little you’re going to get done if you keep on flicking onto Facebook or Twitter or (add your own favourite site here!)

We all have lots of different things going on in our lives, and I often find myself flitting from one thing to another.  For simple automatic tasks it probably doesn't matter too much, but when it comes to those goals we've set, like finishing the first draft, or editing it, we need to be stricter with ourselves.  When we stop (for just a minute!) to look at an email or a website, it takes us time to get back into what we were originally doing, and of course that minute is never just one minute.

I used to teach personal efficiency programmes so I know most of the theory - though that doesn't necessarily make me great at actually doing it!  I started timing the little 'breaks'. You know the ones - I'll just look at this email, just have a quick look at Twitter/Facebook etc.  If you've ever timed yourself on these secondary activities you know how long they can take.  You promise yourself it will only be a moment, but it never is, and added to that is the time it takes to get back into your original task.

I mentioned in the last post about the eight weeks I had to finish Lives Interrupted.  At that point I decided to test a different way of working.  I worked for fifty-minute blocks, doing nothing other than write my novel.  I didn’t look at email or websites (not even for research), no phone calls, and I set an alarm so I didn’t have to worry about the time.  My focus was amazing.  I was often surprised when the alarm went off, and was stunned at how much I wrote during each of those fifty-minute periods.

I’d then have ten minutes to look at emails, take a break, get a drink or whatever else I wanted to do.  Then I’d set the alarm again and work for another fifty minutes.  My word count using this method was far better than it had ever been.

Setting these blocks of time worked whether I was writing the first draft, or editing subsequent drafts, and I use it for my contracting project work.  Developing training materials or a technical manual also needs extended periods of focus and concentration.

Now you might be thinking, if an interruption loses you time in focus why do you have a break at all.  The reason for that is we each have a limit on how long we can work without losing our focus anyway.  It will be different for each of us, but generally it’s around an hour.   

Work to your strengths, both in the time of day you write and the length of time.  I can jot down ideas for scenes, or snatches of dialogue in odd five-minute spaces, but I need a longer period of time to get into my writing.  

The next post we'll look at where and how you work.

Take yourself seriously and other people will.  

Working Smarter – Set a Schedule

When I first started as a freelance writer, I worked out I had a window of eight weeks to complete my novel before I needed to look for contract work.  Believe me there’s nothing like that kind of deadline to keep you focussed. 

When I tell people that I work from home they often comment on the discipline needed so you don't waste time. If you're working on something in your spare time, you might think this doesn’t apply to you as you don’t have a deadline, but time is our most precious commodity.   

If you ever intend to publish a novel and make money, or sell short stories or articles, then it’s a business and you can’t start early enough in being professional about it.

Over the years I've worked from home, and before, I’ve learned a number of things about working smarter, and in the run up to the holidays and preparing for the New Year I thought I'd cover some of the things I do.

The first one is to set goals. It’s the old but true, if you don’t know where you’re going… but I’ve already talked about that here, so let's look at some of the others:

• Write regularly - Set a schedule
• Manage your time
• Where and how you work
• Track Progress 

 

Write Regularly - Set a schedule

An important part of working smarter is thinking of yourself as a professional writer.  This can be difficult when the majority of your income doesn’t come from your novel/short stories/articles, and also if you have family or friends who talk about ‘your little hobby’.  But if your ambition is to be a published writer, then you need to start thinking like a professional.

A professional writer writes. Regularly, and not just when the muse attacks!

Think about your dream for a moment. The phone rings, it’s your agent or a publisher offering you a contract.  Once you’ve stopped floating around the room the details start to sink in, it’s a three book deal, with deadlines. You’re going to have to start writing, regularly. Everyday!  You’re going to have to come up with ideas for these other books. Oh, and they want you to build an online presence.  They suggest blogging regularly…

If you don’t take yourself and your writing seriously, then no-one else will. 

 

If you don’t have deadlines to meet, then set some yourself.  An important element of making goals and deadlines is to set yourself up for success rather than failure.

Setting a word count can work, but maybe setting a specific period of time for writing might be better, until you get a feel for what a good writing period looks like in word count.

When I set my goals I also schedule the time to complete them rather than just hoping I’ll find the time.  Believe me, you will never FIND the time, it’s like looking for lost keys.

Once I've set a goal I then outline the tasks needed to reach it, and estimate how long each task will take. You might only have 30 minutes a week for a particular task, but it's in the calendar.

I’m one of those awful people who wake bright and early, and I'm much more creative earlier in the day.  So if at all possible (unless I have a very tight work project deadline), I schedule some writing time early in the day, and leave time in the evening or late afternoon for tasks that don’t require so much creativity.  You might be the opposite.  Work to your strengths. Don’t do what someone else does, unless it suits your best working style.

I wasn’t joking about not waiting until the muse attacks. If I wrote only when I felt inspired I’d never finish an article or blog post let alone a novel.  If I’m developing some training material or a technical manual for a client I sit down every day and work at it.  We need to do the same with our own writing.  I’ve found that by writing regularly I stay in a creative state where ideas come (or I am more aware of them), and I’m a better writer when I write regularly.

Making new habits is difficult to begin with.  Whether it’s an exercise programme, eating healthily, or writing a novel, it feels like climbing a mountain.  That’s why breaking your big goal into smaller chunks, with milestones along the way, makes it more manageable. 

One of the things I did when I started running was to mark on the calendar the days I went for a run. I found I liked seeing the ticks on the calendar.  On the days when I wasn’t so motivated knowing I’d have a blank space on the calendar helped push me.  Just recently I found a couple of posts on the same subject.

Make a schedule, get writing, and don't break the chain.

Next post I'll talk about managing time.

Working From Home

Today is the first of November, and for writers everywhere November means Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), but don’t worry as this post isn’t actually about Nanowrimo. To be honest I’ve never taken part in it, though I do think that writing a first draft as fast as possible is a great idea. The main reason I’ve not yet taken part is that I’ve never been in the right writing place – I’ve either been finishing a first draft, editing, or last year getting to grips with KDP, Smashwords and CreateSpace.  Yes, I agree, pathetic excuses, but I’m just not a multi-tasker when it comes to major writing or work projects.

I’m fortunate in being able to work from home most of the time, with only occasional projects requiring me to work from a customer’s office, and I was interested when I saw this article earlier today.

In my last fulltime job prior to working for myself, I was asked to put together a business case allowing staff to work remotely depending on their job role. In writing the business case I did quite a lot of research, and as part of that I met with staff and managers from several companies that had already implemented flexible working conditions.

The conclusion I came to was pretty much the same as shown in the link and the Stanford Business report mentioned in the article. 

Working from home isn’t possible for all jobs and won’t suit everyone, but it is a great option for some people.

A few years ago I spent a couple of days in another city working with some trainers on a project. We hadn’t met before, and in getting to know each other I mentioned that I usually worked from home. At first they all said how lucky I was and they’d love to do that.  Then after a moment one of them said. ‘Actually I don’t think I would like to work from home. I’d really miss meeting up with everyone in the office.’  Another then said they'd find it hard to get their work completed because of household distractions.

These are valid reasons for people preferring to work in the office environment.  We are all different and need different surroundings and motivation.

Personally I love working from home, but then I’m always amazed at the number of writers who seem to enjoy (and thrive) writing in cafes.  It wouldn’t work for me.  I was away a few weekends ago, and had a lovely breakfast in a very busy and noisy café. It was great for people watching, but writing! 

Wouldn’t it be boring if we were all the same?

Time Goes By...

Little people view time very differently to taller people. 

'Are we nearly there yet? How long will it be?' 

'Half an hour.' 

'How long's half an hour?'

Another conversation.

'Can we get on the plane yet?' 

Once on the plane. 'When it's taking off?' 

Once in the air. 'When will we be there?' 

'An hour.' 

'How long's an hour?'   

And so it goes.

I'm mostly an organised person, and was born with, or acquired at a very early age, an aversion to being late for appointments, meetings, planes, trains or similar. I have no problem turning up late(ish) for informal social gatherings, though my husband has difficulty with even the possibility of lateness for anything *sigh.* 

Time is a very fluid substance - holidays fly by, a job you dislike doing takes ages. The little people think that December goes by soooo slowly, while adults feel the opposite.

Truth is we each have 24 hours in every day, minus the 6-8 hours we spend in bed. It's how we allocate and use our waking hours that makes the difference.

Years ago I used to teach a time management, clean desk/office course so I know all the talk, though that doesn't necessarily correlate to perfect actions. 

I wouldn't win a gold medal for procrastination, but I'd be a good contender for bronze. There are good days when productivity is high, and there are those, let's just call them, not so good days.

What's the difference between them? 

A plan and some goals. They can make the difference between activity and productivity.

Who Changed That...

I'm busy at the moment with various learning and development projects, but one thing that never seems to change is the sudden about-turn that's required when one project goes quiet for whatever reason, and another suddenly becomes vitally important with a deadline of yesterday.

I've often joked about the saying 'the only constant is change', but it's so true.  How many industries and jobs are there now, that didn't exist 10 years ago?

This reminded me of a book I read a number of years ago - Who Moved My Cheese. If you haven't read it, then get a copy.  It's a small book and doesn't take long to read.  

Here are a couple of the points that resonated with me.  

Change happens: Whether we want it to, or dread it.  Whether we go with it or bury our heads, change happens.

The biggest inhibitor to change is you. Oh no it's not, we say, but it is comfortable here, and things are very nice.  Why can't they stay the same? 

When you move beyond your fear you feel free.  This is an interesting one.  I tend to think of fear as terror or horror, but fear is also something that stops us doing things.  So when we push ourselves to get beyond it, we feel an amazing exhilaration.  It's a great feeling, and there's nothing quite like it.  We should all do it more often.

There's a difference between activity and productivity.  Even knowing this, I still find myself busy, but not always productive.  It's so easy to spend time on blog posts, emails, Twitter etc. and not actually produce the all-important word-count. 

It also has a lot to do with making goals, and prioritising what's important.  

Most of us don't have control over every hour of our day.  We have work, families and other committments, but what about the hours we do have control over?  What do we do in that time? 

Do we spend it watching TV or on activities that contribute to our goals?  Putting it like that makes it sound virtuous, but dreary.  Ultimately we have to decide for ourselves.  At the moment I'm very aware of time, and that we don't always have the endless supply of it we often imagine.  

Change happens - embrace it, or at least deal with it.

Get busy and don't wait to live the life you've been dreaming.