There was a time when if I found myself six minutes late to something, I would simply choose not to enter. I was late, I didn’t want to interrupt, I hated missing the beginning and would find myself having a difficult time focusing.
I was reminded of this today.
My plan: to write during 30 minute #wordmongering sprints and do chores in between. My day instantly balanced between a free flow life containerized in thirty minute chunks.
It works for me.
Structured AND chaotic.
Full of accomplishment PLUS a certain amount of give and take between rigid and formless.
I found myself with three spare minutes in my “chore” thirty minute segment so I started sorting painted paper by color into bags. I reveled in the pages, decided I needed another bag for small scraps and before I knew it, my “chore” had “stolen” four minutes from my #wordmongering!
The Either/Or “Can’t show up late, it isn’t proper” version of me would have said, “Dammit, now I have ruined my whole day! I am such a screw up!” but the real me said, “So, your writing will contain fewer words. You will survive. Just go write now.”
So I did. I sat down to write, leaving half the paper left unsorted and I am so grateful I did.
I have successfully written 222 words in the last five minutes AND my papers are more sorted than they were before. Sweet!
Now I am back into the swing: I have my day mapped out and I know if I veer off the predetermined course, I am always able to pick up my skirts and run through the tall grasses to get to the task I am “late to” because perhaps I wasn’t late, perhaps my skirts wanted to skim the tops of the wildflowers, lacing my petticoats with their almost Spring fragrance.
You may argue I am not in the country, I am not wearing a long skirt I need to pick up in order to run and I am not on a path, I am sitting at my writing desk and puttering around my house in Bakersfield, California.
If I wanted to waste my time in arguing I would carefully point out that I am a writer so my reality is anywhere, even as I sit facing South in my living room in Bakersfield and I putter down my long hallway which faces West and the ocean is 120 miles from here, I can run to my hallways edge and dip my toes into the surf and be refreshed by the salty breezes: I am a writer. Anything is possible.
Did you notice what has happened in this last 15 minutes?
I went from “I am late, I am unorganized and unaware. I shouldn’t allow myself to write, I should ‘dock’ myself with more ‘chores’ since I broke my own plan before I could even implement it!” to the much more productive, “I am a writer, hear me roar and play in the surf in the Aegean Sea in mid March even though I live in Bakersfield, California!”
Word count: 594 words. Check!
Cleaner, more organized home? Check!
Attitude adjustment? CHECK!
Productivity? Yes ma’am… checkity check check check!
Have you tried #Wordmongering? Its birthday is here – why not try it out? You’ll find me on twitter, posting the hashtags and adding to my daily word counts. My friend Sara wrote her Happy Birthday, Wordmongering here! One of the founders of the hashtag, Moni-Marie, wrote her Happy Birthday, Wordmongering here!
I hope you will try #wordmongering, too.
Check me out, I have twelve minutes left to write something entirely different.
I think I’ll explore those waves some more.
Surf’s up!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again March 22, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
(Photo to the left by Michelle Guerrero, incredible photograher residing in Tehachapi, California.)
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