Ever feel that not adhering to a regimen is goofing off, or
unproductive when doing what you enjoy, or just checking emails, social media
sites while still in bed drinking coffee and watching the news in the
morning? Or watching some of your saved shows at night?
Because English is my second language, but I left my country of
origin Nicaagua, when I was in my early teens and after I became a citizen I
didn’t return since ust actually I’m not usre I’m a
This morning, after my computer prompted "drive is full"
I was cleaning up saved docs when I came across an article from years ago. The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. His story of a
woodcutter sawing to the point of exhaustion while trying to take down a tree.
"When a man suggests that he could get done quicker by taking a break to
sharpen his saw. The woodcutter says: "I don't have time to sharpen the
saw. Don't you see I'm too busy?"
I related while doing edits on my novel VIRGINS to send
to an editor when my software started to crash. The nice people at Apple
said, after hours of trying to fix the problem, “you have to contact Microsoft,
you have an old version of Word.” It’s a good thing I was able
to put the rest of my life on hold because, after hours, by the time I got
to the people at Word I was angry and inclined to believe Microsoft started
the crash to get me to pay for new upgrades. After 11 pm, on the edge of the
deadline, I submitted my first three chapters to the editor and worked on my
short story The Dream, to meet the deadline for a Horror Writers contest.
Btw, while all that MS stuff hit I was in the midst of family
events we had to attend and a screenwriting class with ISA. Can’t wait to carve
out the time to learn the software but submitted a logline for Virgins; some
say "it would make a great movie or a series like Game of
Thrones." But first, I need to catch up on a class with The
University of Iowa, The Power of the Pen, which is what incited me to write
this article, guess I needed to get all this frustration off my shoulders and
share it in the first class.
Still the “are you done yet?” creeps in with “I must learn the new
Word upgraded.” It is then I come upon this article saved from the
Huffington Post, Can
You Achieve More by Doing Less? By Rose Caiola. And I pray, Universe,
please help me put away the do not procrastinate hammer. Covey suggests
we nurture ourselves and return to our tasks “refreshed, with a better attitude
and more focus.” So, what makes up nurturing? Caiola suggests we find our
“sweet spot.”
What a great concept my “SWEET SPOT” - maybe not what you’re
thinking - but how awesome to allow myself “uninterrupted blocks of time” to do
my work and nourish my body so as not to burn out. Today as I go forth to find
my ‘sweet spot’ I will also post this article on my blog. Haven’t written for
my blog in over a month, will, shelve the “are you done yet?”
Oh, how ‘sweet spot’ it is!
