It's been great on days when I felt really revved up and ready to work, but it was difficult on days when I just didn't want to sit down and write.
But I had a lot to do so taking days off wasn't an option.
Instead, what I did was use the popular Pomodoro Technique to get more done on days when I just wanted to kick back and be lazy.
And it worked really well.
The Pomodoro Technique is a way to help you to sit down and work when you really don't want to.
In it's simplest terms, it's a system of working in 25 minute segments which are called Pomodoros. Each 25 minutes is one Pomodoro.
Each Pomodoro is followed by a 5 minute break and then another Pomodoro of intense work is started again. After 3 or 4 Pomodoros, a longer break is taken of 15 or 20 minutes.
And a break means a complete break of getting up and walking away and doing something physical (getting a cup of coffee, hanging out the washing, pulling up a few weeds in the garden, patting the dogs).
And that's what I did.
I used the timer app on my phone to time each Pomodoro. I'd just set the timer for 25 minutes and then get to work and see how much I could get done in the short time that I had.
What I found was that I can get quite a lot done in 25 minutes which really surprised me. And knowing that I was working against the clock made me much more focused because I didn't have time to get side-tracked by unimportant things because I knew I'd soon have to stop what I was doing.
It was a brilliant way to work because knowing that I only had to work for 25 minutes and then I could stop, made it easier to sit down and start work.
And the short breaks where I got up and walked away from my work made it easier to come back and start again because it felt less of a strain than sitting and working for hours.
But one thing I did find, is that I only needed to work in Pomodoros on days when I DIDN'T feel like working.
Most days I can sit and work for hours and on those days I found that the timer going off and having to stop working and then start again was a complete distraction and bugged the heck out of me.
But at least now I know that on days when I don't feel like working, I can still get lots done by simply working in Pomodoros.
So simple, yet it works brilliantly.
And because I'm still practicing with writing fast, which is improving with leaps and bounds and I can get so much more done in a day now, being able to work on days when I usually found it difficult, has increased my writing output immensely.
If you have trouble working on days when you just don't feel in the mood (and don't we all have days like that?), just try using the Pomodoro Technique and see if it helps you too. It's just one of those things that you really have to try to appreciate how well it works.
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Goodbye Writer's Block:
How to Be a Creative Genius
and Have an Abundance of Ideas
Plus the Inspiration and Motivation to Write
