The Way I Concentrate (by sarah)
I have worked out that part of the problem with house work, bills, contracts etc... is the way I concentrate - I focus and focus deep generally on one project and even when I'm not actively doing that project I am still mentally chugging away at it.
This means that I don't always notice 'interuptions' and end up with like a pile of post and dirty dishes - this is one of the reasons I like people visiting as means I'll notice the dishes!
Now with Jean at school I've been trying a varient on my pacing methods for the pain - the 10 mins just was not working becuase I just get into something and have to change - so I experiemented to see if I could get my tolerance level up to 20 mins - most of the time this works well - though afternoons are a complete write-off with this system.
It seems to be working though - I am starting to get on top of the house work and am writing and drawing alot - being more productive than I have been for most of this year!
Basically I get Jean off to school and then pace - 20 sitting reading, writing, drawing and 20 minutes doing household or gardening stuff - I have even managed to tackle a hedgerow harvest in this way this year!
The plus side is that the house work is not mounting up and 20 mins stints at it isn't leaving me flaked in the way trying to do a solid hour of it was and because it is manual work my brain is free to mull over the next thing I'm going to write - and I have found I due generally only want to work on one project a day - maybe even for several days in a row!
This is actually a revolution for me 🙂
Of course when Jean's about pacing goes out the window but thats fine too 🙂
Sat 24th Oct 2009 11:16 am 
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By Rachel Cotterill, Sat 24th Oct 2009 @ 5:01 pm
I love that idea 🙂 I also have a tendency to notice dishes when visitors are coming... but I do find in general that doing "other stuff" is good for giving myself the space to work out what I'm going to write next.
By sarah, Thu 29th Oct 2009 @ 7:43 pm
Thanks 🙂 It really does seem to be working though - went out the window abit this week due to being sick :/
Sarah