Always Feeling Like I Should Be Doing Something Else

Do you ever get that feeling that no matter what you're doing you should be doing something else?

I suffer from that continually all day long. Week after week.  Month after  month.

When I'm doing other things I feel like I should be writing.

When I'm writing I feel like I should be doing all those other things that I haven't gotten around to yet.

Years ago I was studying for a degree and doing it though the Open University so that I studied from home.

All through the year I felt that I should be studying, until I was studying and then I felt that I should be doing something else.

It felt like unstoppable pressure. I was always glad of the 3 month break at the end of every year so that I didn't feel so guilty any more.

But now that I work from home as a writer I still have that "should be doing something else" feeling, no matter what I'm doing.

It's just guilt, guilt, guilt all day long.

Even if I spend all day writing and produce an epic amount of work, I feel guilty about the weeds still  growing in the garden or the pile of ironing waiting to be done.

But now I seem to have reduced the pressure somewhat and so far it's working okay for me.

First I bought an extra computer, one that I can take out with me so that I can work away from the house. It's a Mac Book Air and I find that when I'm not at home I feel no pressure to do anything but the work right in front of me. And I get plenty done because I have nothing else to do while I sit in the park or in the library.

Secondly, I discovered iTunes podcasts about writing, productivity and making money online. And I've also (just last week) subscribed to downloading digital books from the local library.

Subscribing to both was easy.  iTunes takes just a click to subscribe to any series of podcasts I want to hear and if I don't like them, I can unsubscribe in just one click as well.

For the library, all I had to do was download an app for my iPhone and I can download any ebook or audio book in just a click or two, and they're easy to browse because they're categorised really well. The ebooks, if I ever want to borrow one, are available in different formats including Kindle.

The books I download are audio books so that I can listen to them on the go while I'm doing all those other non-writing related tasks that I always "should" be doing when I'm not writing.

And, if you've been following along with me for a while, you'll know that I have a part-time evening cleaning job (in lieu of a gym membership) for extra exercise, and I listen to all my podcasts and ebooks while I clean. I work alone so it's easy for me to escape into whatever I'm listening to while I get my work done.

And what this does is help me to catch up learning what I need to know as well as getting physical jobs done, the ones that require busy hands but empty mind. I also listen to things while I'm doing the dishes or the ironing or mending clothes.

This makes it easier to sit for a long time and get my writing done without feeling as guilty because I'm not doing all the other things I need to do.

And speaking of other things, the dogs are whining for their afternoon walk so I'll have to leave now. Sadly I can't listen to anything while I walk them because they take all my concentration as they continually swap sides, try and quickly follow interesting scent trails like a couple of blood hounds, dragging me along in the process, and meet and greet all dogs and their owners coming the opposite way. Sigh.

But at least at other times, listening to all these informational audios helps me to feel less guilty about doing other things and I feel less time pressured when I'm writing.

I also signed up for a webinar about blogging last week but I didn't have time to listen to it at the time  it was on, so I used my audio recorder to record it while I was busy doing other things. I just switched on the recorder and laid in against the speaker on my laptop. Sneaky, I know, but I listened to it later while I was out doing my cleaning job and to be honest, being a video didn't add anything to the learning experience because it was just someone talking to the camera the whole time. I didn't need to see them to hear what they had to say.

So if you suffer from the "should be doing something else" guilt trip, try using audio to help relieve the pressure and kill two proverbial birds with one stone.

It's working for me.

:)