The Lockdown

November 30th, 2012

A friend sent me a link to this piece called “The Daily Routines of Famous Writers.” It details, well, the daily routines of famous writers. I found this interesting because, although I am a plebeian editor / copywriter and not a brilliant novelist per se, one of my greatest hobbies is honing my own daily routine down to a science. The more I can perfect the synthesis of eating, drinking tea, not answering the phone and trying to concentrate, the more relaxed (in other words, productive) I find myself. At this point, I’ve gotten a pretty good rhythm going that goes something like this:

arrowWake up any time between 8 and 10, without an alarm. (I am a big believer in getting enough sleep and never, ever set an alarm unless I have to catch a flight to Bangkok.)

arrowUntil 11am, my singular ambition is to adjust to being upright by drinking tea, answering thousands of emails, jotting down any brilliant world-saving ideas that came to me in my sleep, and reading things on the internet (like the above piece). I also try to start every day by looking at at least one cute animal video. (Please send me any you come across.)

arrowAt 11, promptly, I kick into billable time, which means I go “on the clock” for clients and start to track my time in half hour increments. This is when things get rull serious.

arrowI do billable work until 6pm. Once I’m in that zone, I try not to break it. It takes a lot for me to concentrate. I’ve had countless know-it-all-about-wellness friends advise me that I should always take a lunch break and step away from my computer, and that multitasking by eating while working is something only neanderthals do. I even went out and splurged on a sweet green bistro table because I had a vision of myself having my lunch on the back deck every day while looking out hopefully over my pit of despair:

pit of despair

Anemone coined the term “pit of despair,” and she really nailed it.

I have yet to eat lunch at my sweet little bistro table even one single time. Concentration mode is a dicey thing, and I can’t afford to break it. I spend all day, every day, tracking a triangular path between my desk, the kitchen (to make a lot of tea) and the bathroom (to pee out all the tea).

My goal every single day is to keep my caffeine and blood sugar levels at such a stasis that I can focus on the task at hand for at least seven minutes at a time. For this reason, the phone is off. I don’t leave the house during the day. I might, if things are going really well, allow myself to check the mail.

Even on my very best days, though, there is usually some Bermuda Triangle time in the mix, where I end up taking an inadvertent mental break that might involve some combination of the following:

  • A Wikipedia wormhole (possible subjects on my mind right now: why the band The Be Good Tanyas broke up, exotic places I can go for Christmas with my $400 flight voucher, how to make elderchic homemade cold cream, buying new domain names)
  • A witty text message frenzy with a friend
  • Throwing myself dramatically on the couch for a histrionic interlude
imaginary band names

Around 6-ish, I finally get dressed, leave the house, and go exercise. The key, for me, to ever getting anything done is the lockdown.

 
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