Beware the Time Slayer, Killer of Dreams!
"Do what you love, and you'll never work a single day of your life." - Misquoted (probably) from an unknown source (seriously, I looked it up, nobody knows who said it for sure).
Whoever said this probably didn't mean playing video games on your phone when you should be doing the actual work you said you were going to do today. It does seem to fit the professional writing category for me, though. When I'm in the zone and cranking out material, time flies, and I feel great about what I'm doing. After my last blog, Monday and Tuesday were dream days for me as far as productivity. The boss even put away the tazer long enough to bake a frozen pizza!
And then...I found "Empires and Puzzles" on my phone.
I'm easily entertained, let's just be upfront about that. I'm even more entertained by puzzle games and fantasy fiction. So when I found this puzzle game with fantasy RPG elements and lovely graphics, I should have known I was in trouble before it started.
There's a social element with live text chat. It's a neat feature, but that also means there's people on the other side of the screen who I might enjoy talking to. I don't want to disappoint them by not being available. That would be inconsiderate! So now I have more reason to pay attention to the game instead of other things that I should be doing. Then there's the building up your party of adventurers, leveling them up, fortifying your base...
Dang it...my point is, it was a bad idea to get started playing the game. On some level I knew that when I started downloading it, but I did it anyway. Now I'm three days behind on making progress on my book. To be fair, yesterday was a planned down day, but that's really just an excuse. As it turns out, I probably could have done some writing had I not given in to the distractions.
Lesson One: Know your enemy.
The boss is going to end up taking my phone away during work hours. (It's like cubicle land all over again!) But in this case, I agree with the logic. Distraction is my enemy, and it's incredibly effective at sneaking in to sabotage my efforts. I can't be the best writer I can be when I'm eyeballing my phone or losing hours of productivity dinking around on a phone game (no matter how entertaining it may be).
Priorities: Make them, stick to them, and live up to them.
Lesson two: Celebrate the small victories.
I overcame the immediate distraction and managed to get my weekly blog done. It may not be a chapter finished for the second book, but it's productive writing, which is more than I was doing earlier today.
Know yourself, know your habits, and know what distractions might get in your way. The sooner you figure these things out, the sooner you can get back to doing what matters most.
And remember, kids, "Knowing is half the battle!"
