December 2nd, 2010

Reverb 10 Day 2

Still doing the Reverb thing–thanks to those who shared their own words in the comments of my last post.

Here’s today’s prompt:

December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)

Hey, I didn’t even know this was a writing project–I feel so special! Uh, I suppose the thing I do is self-delude. I tell myself that *everything* I do contributes to my writing in some way. I need to go to parties and hang out with my friends, or I’ll be too sad to write. I need to play Facebook scramble and eat a lot of snacks as healthy breaks from writing. I need to get totally obsessed with page-formatting or editors will think I’m a slob.

Cough.

Probably not all those things are true, but I sure do enjoy them. In truth, I probably can’t entirely cut these things out, but I can cut down on the self-lies…a little. I do think it has to be ok with me that I’m not a terribly focussed person and maybe never will be; it has to be ok that I take breaks and slack off and make random phone calls instead of working sometimes. Because honestly, the biggest enemy of productivity seems to be guilt. The worse you feel about writing vs. not writing, the less you’ll actually accomplish (at least, in my opinion/experience).

What are your big non-contributors?