Thursday 24 February 2011

Ten Ways to Put Off Writing Before Breakfast

1) Yoga. V important when you’re about to spend all day at your desk. Even better if you have a pet that likes to join in, as it will help you feel that you aren’t the most ridiculous looking one in the room.

2) Make a cuppa. Well, obviously. No brain can work without tea.

3) Tidy the office/study/studio/workspace. Whilst I’m writing a first draft, everything else in my study tends to get neglected to the point of looking a bit like my niece’s first year undergraduate kitchen on a Sunday morning. So don’t worry; ‘tidy’ merely means create a path through the boxes, cameras, paperwork and guitar so you can get to your desk.

4) Play the guitar. Now you’ve spotted it. Just a quick practice, as it loosens the cogs in your brain and makes you feel creative. Plus it means sitting in the window seat looking out at the sleepy world for a few minutes and ruminating on how lucky you are to work from home.

5) Check emails. OK, the truth is, you’ve probably already done this on your iphone while the kettle was boiling, but it never does any harm to check them again, does it?

6) Update facebook status and twitter status, get slightly distracted by a friend’s new photo album, then update both statuses again as you’ve spent so long checking your friends’ news feeds that you’ve got a whole new 140 characters’ worth of update to share by now.

7) Check your latest book’s Amazon rankings. Come on, admit it. You know you do it.

8) Phone your mum for a catch up. It was far too early to call when you crept smugly through a sleeping household to your study, but as it’s now at least an hour later, she’ll be up.

9) Repeat numbers 2-7, as it’s been so long since you last did them all, it’s about time you did them again.

10) Twiddle thumbs for a few moments, wondering whether to get down to work on your book. Then have a bright idea. Write a new blog entitled ‘Ten Ways to Put Off Writing Before Breakfast!’

Job done!
Dog Yoga