Sometimes the best way to focus is simply to do it in the morning...or in the afternoon...or late at night.
I read a blog a few weeks ago about a stay at home mom that said her best writing time was before she woke the kids up to get ready for school. I read on Facebook that another's was about 1-3 in the morning. For me the best time of day is when my two year old is down for her afternoon nap.
A personal study conducted by Karen Leland among her peers at LinkedIn showed the morning between 9-11 am was the most productive.
I read a blog a few weeks ago about a stay at home mom that said her best writing time was before she woke the kids up to get ready for school. I read on Facebook that another's was about 1-3 in the morning. For me the best time of day is when my two year old is down for her afternoon nap.
A personal study conducted by Karen Leland among her peers at LinkedIn showed the morning between 9-11 am was the most productive.
In 2005 a study conducted by Microsoft Survey's pronounced that of an average persons 5 day work week he or she was truly only productive three of those days.
So how do we beat this daunting statistic while deadlines are approaching and life is always getting in the way?
Conduct your own productivity survey.
Yes you read that right. Conduct it yourself!
My lover, a business and finance major has been very good at keeping me in line that Lesa Fuchs-Carter is indeed a business, and that just like a business I need to know facts, statistics, input, output, sales figures, etc. etc. etc.
And so the day I published my second book I started keeping track of what I generally did in a day. Now I've been hit or miss, 3 days on, 4 days off, but I generally keep a decent log of how many words I wrote (if it was a writing day) or which piece I edited/cover I designed, and the rough time frame I completed it. When I started doing this it was more to prove to myself that I was doing a fourty hour work week, and in case anyone should desire to know how my day was run.
I have learned that my best time currently is from about 1-4 pm. I can knock out 5-10,000 words in that time, and I tend to dribble or get continually distracted in the morning, and once my husband is home - kiss writing goodnight.
The point is that keeping that log let me see hard facts on what you are actually doing! And knowing is half the battle.
So how do we beat this daunting statistic while deadlines are approaching and life is always getting in the way?
Conduct your own productivity survey.
Yes you read that right. Conduct it yourself!
My lover, a business and finance major has been very good at keeping me in line that Lesa Fuchs-Carter is indeed a business, and that just like a business I need to know facts, statistics, input, output, sales figures, etc. etc. etc.
And so the day I published my second book I started keeping track of what I generally did in a day. Now I've been hit or miss, 3 days on, 4 days off, but I generally keep a decent log of how many words I wrote (if it was a writing day) or which piece I edited/cover I designed, and the rough time frame I completed it. When I started doing this it was more to prove to myself that I was doing a fourty hour work week, and in case anyone should desire to know how my day was run.
I have learned that my best time currently is from about 1-4 pm. I can knock out 5-10,000 words in that time, and I tend to dribble or get continually distracted in the morning, and once my husband is home - kiss writing goodnight.
The point is that keeping that log let me see hard facts on what you are actually doing! And knowing is half the battle.
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