February 23, 2016

De-Clutter Your Life So You Can Write - WN 037

29 minutes

I've been thinking a lot about work/life/writing balance ever since I committed to writing a book this year. And so Episode 037 of the Write Now podcast is about just that -- balance, clutter, distraction, scheduling, and so much more.

Just keep spinning...

This is what I feel like a lot of the time:

It's not incredibly fun (though maybe it looks cool from the outside).

Being busy is fine if you can balance it well. But how many of us can actually claim that we balance it well?

What's really important?

Before we take a look at what's cluttering our life, let's look at the non-clutter -- the important stuff.

In today's podcast episode, I encourage you to think of 5 things that are deeply important to you -- 5 things, whether they're objects or entities -- that are integral to who you are.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Spending time with family

Nurturing healthy relationships with your friends

Serving the community and volunteering

Your faith

Your creative time spent writing, drawing, painting, dancing, photographing, etc.

Your vintage car collection

Your career

Personal fitness

That plant your mother gave you that you've triumphantly managed to keep alive for nearly a year

Reading

Etc., etc., etc.

If the other stuff in your life doesn't support these things, it might just be clutter.

Distraction destruction.

Clutter creates distraction. I know that when I used to think about my email inbox of 300,000-odd unread emails, my eyes would glaze over and my stomach would knot with dread. It's hard to write when your mind is on all of the emails you've never responded to.

Same goes with a cluttered desk or office, a cluttered sink full of dishes, even a cluttered schedule.

Sometimes it's worth it to devote the time to purge that stuff from your life. Sometimes it's even worth sacrificing one writing session for. Clean it up, get it over with, and get back to writing.

Ultimately, the question you need to ask is:

What needs to happen for you to sit down and write with the focus that you need to write?

The answer might surprise you.

It also might be time to give yourself some grace.

I'm not very good at all at doing this for myself. But if you accidentally spend 45 minutes answering emails instead of writing during your writing hour, just forgive yourself, move on, and be more intentional about writing during your writing hour tomorrow.

We're human, after all. We're not perfect. So give yourself some grace, move on, and set yourself up for a successful distraction-free writing session tomorrow.

The Book of the Week is on its way.

Uh. Yeah. I am still working on reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. It's really, really good, but also really, really long. (And I've been really, really busy.)

More to come... in the meantime, keep up-to-date on my book-reading adventures on Goodreads!

MERCH?!?!?!

This week marks the soft launch of my MERCH store!!! You'll find a ton of varieties & colors of pro-writing, pro-reading shirts, hoodies, tote bags, mugs, and more -- all of which support the work I'm doing here at the Write Now podcast. :D

Or if you prefer, please do feel free to take full advantage of my Tip Jar:

What's cluttering your writing life? What's distracting you from writing?

Let me know via my contact page, or simply email me at hello [at] sarahwerner [dot] com. I can't wait to hear from you. :)

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By Sarah Rhea Werner

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