Nina Sadowsky is busy. She’s had 4 books published in the last 4 years, 2 of those were released in 2020, and that was done while she was teaching, and then while she opened a school, and was also developing TV series, and sending out a cheerfully dark dispatch from her website. Before becoming an author, she was an attorney, a producer, screenwriter and executive. She’s the Program Director of NYU Los Angeles and her novels are Just Fall, The Burial Society, The Empty Bed, and Convince Me.  We talk about: needing joy or optimism to be productive, or using anger as a motivator; being ruthlessly time-efficient; finding what drives you; sometimes, it's just the doing; try something new (art, cooking), do something different to discover new motivation; building community; contributing to the conversation; taking advantage of this time to reassess, ask what you'd like your life to look like on the other side of this; look at how productive we've actually been during COVID; the doing of it; being disciplined about it; vertical and lateral thinking; mediation; dancing; finding ways to keep your joy as well as your quieter side; sink into yourself; ask how you measure productivity; managing expectations; accomplish what you can in this day; be present; rather than dread something, just do it; have compassion for ourselves in a big, big, way; the uncertainty of this situation makes it so much harder; look for the positive things that have happened; learning how precious time is; sometimes, too much time makes it hard to know what to do with it; scheduling is an illusion of control; Blursday impedes productivity; supporting local bookstores; hitting a wall; not having enough personal interactions; importance of making your bed; finding a dedicated workspace; giving yourself a short time space to do work you don't want and rewarding yourself for accomplishments; getting started is half the battle; take pride in what you accomplish; things you should plan to accomplish every day: gratitude, exercise, getting outside, connecting with someone, create beauty; let go of "normal"; pivot; being collectively tired; set an alarm and give yourself a pattern.

You can find Nina on Twitter @Sadowsy_nina and on Instagram @NinaSadowsy

Mentioned in the interview:

NinaSadowsky.com

Hollywood Climate Summit

Supreme Myths Podcast with Eric Segall

Bookshop.org

Episode recorded on 10/23/20

Episode released on 12/30/20

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Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs