So, you’re stuck at home, work’s on hold, and you’re struggling to stay on task … or even remember what day it is.
I get it. I truly do.
I’ve been working from home for a few years now. And I understand very well how difficult it is to concentrate on something you don’t normally do at home when there’s all those home things to do.
I mean, how long have you been promising yourself that you’d reorganize that room, clean out those closets, alphabetize your spice rack?
Yes. I know, you thought I was going to say “Write, Dammit!”
Why would I say that?
Well, it is true that you’re stuck at home now, and if you’re unlucky enough to be unable to work from home, you do have time you didn’t have before.
And maybe that time could be spent catching up on your writing.
But it’s not an easy thing to do.
Why?
When you go to a café or the library and sit down to write, you’re not responsible for that space. At home, that’s your home, you’re responsible for the order of it.
And it’s darned hard to write when there’s all those other things to do.
So you should take care of all those other things first.
Things have to be perfect
You need to know when you sit down to write that everything is the way it should be. You need to be able to just forget all that might distract you and the easiest way to do that is to make it done.
I’m telling you straight up that I think you should clean all the floors and walls, wash and dry and fold all the laundry, take care of the grocery shopping and maybe even make a few dozen meals to freeze so that you have nothing to bother you when you do start back to writing.
Are your bills all paid up?
Do all the paper work, make sure your taxes are filed, pay all your bills and maybe even pay the repeating ones in advance.
Shampoo the dog. Groom the cat. Take the curtains down and launder them. Clean out the garage, and the attic.
There should be nothing left undone because your writing is too important to be interrupted by trivial things like making sure there’s enough cereal in the house, and that the shower drain has had all the hair snaked out of it, that the grout on the backsplash has been cleaned and scrubbed with a toothbrush, and the toothpick holder has been refilled.
Of course, if your writing is too important to be interrupted by all these things, maybe just go ahead and write?
I mean, it is important, right?
