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Jan 21

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Jenn: Chapter 4. Check.

I came to my parents’ house for the holiday, in part to go to a postponed holiday party, and in part to finish Chapter 4, which I just finished and sent to my students. I’m having moments of “this is going to be GREAT,” and moments of the-Emporer’s-new-clothes I’m just a stupid little girl who can’t possibly compete with the venerable old male scientists who are my soon-to-be competitors. Right now I’m in an upswing.

I went to Starbucks this morning in an attempt to be productive. It didn’t work, but I’m glad I tried. I really need to be in a silent room without distraction. Starbucks had this GREAT music playing, a little too loudly. And I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on all of the patrons. People’s cell phones rang and loud conversations ensued. Some huge man at the next table had on eye stinging amounts of cologne. I forgot my flash drive. I couldn’t connect to the internet. But I did manage to do a fair bit of reading.

The more I write, the more I realize I have to write. Little sidebars, glossaries, introductions, etc.. It’s still fun, but it’s a LOT of time. Now I’m thinking of taking my Eating and the Environment class up to Maine to work on an organic farm during spring break. My plan *had* been to put the finishing touches and edit one chapter a day for the 10 days of break, then send the first 9 chapters to the publisher. Far too many fun things to do in this world and far too little time. WHY don’t men seem to have this problem?

I’ve also found Wikipedia to be a GREAT help, and both USGS and NOAA have tons of figures and photos I can filch for free. Yay. And I’m organizing a “movie night” at school for the senior geology students. I’ll lure them with free food, show a film of a natural disaster (Twister, Deep Impact, Volcano, etc.), then we’ll discuss fact from fiction and Brittany will take notes on the computer. Each will be a sidebar in a chapter.

Next up: Volcanoes. There was just an eruption in Colombia that forced the evacuation of 8,000 people. But by the time I go to press, I’m sure it will be a distant memory…

I hope everyone else is being productive and finding time for fun and balance as well.

Jan 21

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Miranda: Walking the walk (and stumbling)

stumbed.jpgWell, I was hoping to finish Chapter 3 by Friday. In the end, I didn’t spend more than two hours on Chapter 3 last week. I also spent some time revising my short story, but mainly, I was so distracted by life and work that I forgot about Chapter 3 until Thursday. Then I told myself I could make up the difference over the weekend–but that didn’t happen either.

It is strange to be organizing interviewees, talking to people about my book (on how to manage creativity and motherhood), and tending to this blog daily and yet still manage to “forget about” what I’d intended to accomplish.

Sure, there have been “legitimate” distractions: The new snow blower died in the middle of the last storm, so our driveway is an uneven glacial challenge, which I’m trying to keep navigable with sand and snow-melt. Most household members are recovering from various viral ailments; we’ve been spending time and effort getting the house ready for listing; we sunk half a day in dealing with a heating system problem on Saturday (which at least did NOT turn out to be a frozen pipe, as originally diagnosed). My back is bothering me, so I went to see my chiropractor for an adjustment. Then my mother came over to help with Project Basement on Sunday–followed by the playoff football games (and I actually like watching football). We also learned that my mother-in-law was hospitalized, which is a real worry, although she seems to be OK right now. And of course, being nearly 6 months pregnant, I’m pretty tired at the end of the day. With regular work and domesticity poured on top, driving kids around, there just wasn’t a lot of time on hand for anything else.

The bigger issue though is my mental framework: I want to work on the book; I’m in the middle of Chapter 3 and having fun writing it. But I think I need a hard and fast writing schedule, because without one, there is so much going on that I won’t get to it. I’m too distracted. That isn’t to say that I don’t actually have the time, because I think I do, it’s matter of claiming that time before all the other bonfires take over.

Any suggestions for how I can improve my focus and productivity? I almost feel like I need a live-in coach to continually point out the best way to use my time at any given moment, and keep me on track. But the only coach I can possibly hire is myself–and I don’t seem trustworthy at the moment.