Improving productivity

Tweet I'm quite a fan of the Brain Pickings blog, and last week they featured this animated video about the science of productivity, from AsapSCIENCE.


The main points raised by the video are;

• Willpower can be depleted, so simply convincing yourself to 'try harder' won't work;


• Starting a project is the biggest barrier to actually being productive;


• Successful people don't work more, they work better, putting in periods of intense work of around 90 minutes followed by breaks of 15-20 minutes to see more work done;


• Habit and discipline are key to establishing a productive routine;


• Deadlines focus the mind;


• A list of progress should be made so you can evaluate what you've actually done, helping you avoid mindless tasks;


• Avoid multi-tasking as you end up doing less; and


• Split big tasks into smaller tasks to make them more manageable.

Given I have to divide my time between PhD work, study for a teacher training qualification, preparatory work I need for teaching, writing, and having a life, I thought I might share my top three tips for being productive.

1) Make lists
I make two types of lists. The first is the things I need to do - I split this list into two columns, listing what needs to be done against when I'm going to do it, and I list things according to when they need to be done (naturally the things due for Tuesday will be higher up the list than those due on Thursday). I can cross things off as I've done them which gives me a natural sense of achievement as I end up with more crossed out tasks than uncrossed out tasks.

2) Set deadlines
If something doesn't actually have a deadline, I find that I'll procrastinate and find all sorts of reasons not to work on it...so I set myself a deadline to ensure that I will. I also do more work the less time I have in which to do it because I'm very much aware of the clock ticking. Even self-imposed deadlines get me working faster.

3) Take breaks
I have the attention span of a particularly hyperactive spaniel so I find my attention wanders very easily, no matter how engrossing the task at hand may be. The only way for me to get through it is to promise myself a break. Rather than making myself sit and focus on something for several hours, I work for an hour or so, take a break, then come back to whatever I was doing. Even when I'm writing something like a blog post, there are usually mini breaks, during which I check Twitter or read other blogs. It breaks up my work and gives me something to come back to.

What about you? What do you do to remain productive?

Should writers use Pinterest?

Tweet

The ever helpful Kristen Lamb has a post over on her blog about why writers should be using Pinterest. Pinterest, for those who don't know, is a service by which you can create a 'board' and 'pin' images that you think are interesting. You can create boards for almost anything, from showing off your own artwork to sharing those images and photos that you've found online. Kristen suggests creating boards full of photos that inspired a book you've written, in the same way that some authors create musical playlists that accompanied the writing process.

I know, I know, almost every person who runs a blog about writing seems to post something every other day about why you should use this or that new profile/network/social media - it seems like something new comes out on a fairly regular basis and we're always being told that if we don't jump on the bandwagon, we risk being left behind by those people who embrace new technology. It gets confusing, and after a while, you find you're spending more time trying to figure out new stuff, and less time actually writing. Where's the sense in that? It's madness, I tell you.

Now, I read this particular post with some interest because I like the idea of Pinterest but I just wasn't sure how I could actually use it. If you take a look at my boards, you'll see I currently have four. I've got Colour Swatches, which is a collection of the colour palettes I've put together using my own photographers, and which are available for download in various formats over on ColourLovers.com (but you can still sample the colours from these bad boys on Pinterest using the Eyedropper tool in Photoshop). There's also a board for my Creative Photography, which I keep forgetting to update since I put everything on Flickr as standard. There's Old Photos, which are cool old photos that I've found online, and Fabric Designs, which is comprised of the fabric designs that I have for sale on Spoonflower. I'm hardly setting the world of Pinterest alight.

But is there greater scope here? I could easily create a board themed according to The Guns of Retribution, and pin photos of locations that inspired the book, or images of Grey's weaponry. I could create one for The Necromancer's Apprentice, dedicated to supernatural, fantastical or mummy-related imagery. Humans are by their nature a visual species so would this be a better way of sparking interest, by pinning interesting photos or asking people to contribute their own? After all, people can sometimes shy away from reading a sample of a book based on nothing more than a brief blurb, but if images stimulate their imagination, then they're bringing more visual acumen to the reading experience - which can only really enhance it. For example, if I have a board full of pictures of the Arizona desert, Old West ghost towns, Colt Peacemakers and Victorian photos from the 1880s, you're going to have a much better mental image of the world of The Guns of Retribution.

I suppose my question is...would it be worth going to the effort of creating one?

How to break out of a creative rut

Tweet
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Amid the noise and haste, go I

Tweet

The New Author has posted an interesting entry about the types of environment in which writers write best, and it got me thinking about my own creative process. Indeed, my very good friend Thomas D. Szewc asked me a very similar question over on my Formspring a couple of weeks ago.

I've always been the kind of person who works best amid some kind of noise. When I was at school, I did all of my homework lying on the living room floor in front of the TV. At uni, I'd write essays while watching movies (I had an excuse, I was a film student) but this would severely hamper my essay-writing ability during exams. After all, I could hardly ask for the invigilator to make a lot of noise to help me concentrate! It's therefore not really surprising that as a writer, I like some kind of chaos around me in order to write.

I've written many of my flash fictions on the way to work, surrounded by colleagues on my lunch break, sandwiched between tourists on the tube, or in a noisy coffee shop. I've even been known to write flash a couple of sentences at a time while tidying my flat. It's very rare indeed for me to sit down quietly and work on a piece. The closest I've come to that was my contribution to this year's Chinese Whisperings anthology, which was written at home while I listened to Alkaline Trio and talked to my lovely boyfriend, Jimmy Misanthrope, on MSN.

I find that if I'm sitting quietly at home, my mind wanders too easily. I'll waste time on Twitter, or decide to sit and draw yet another robot, or grab my knitting needles and carry on with my woollen work in progress when I should be writing. I could argue that at least the latter two distractions are still creative, and I've already discussed the merits both of drawing and being crafty, but it's still not writing. Yet if I'm surrounded by noise and distraction, my brain focusses on what I should be doing - writing. It's as if I need the white noise in order to have something to 'tune out'. Without the external interference, that focus just disappears!

It's rare that I do decide to sit down and write, but when I do, I'll either have a movie or some stand up comedy on in the background. Occasionally I'll listen to music, but not religiously so. I'm not entirely sure what effect, if any, the music that I might choose to listen to has on my fiction. On those occasions when I do write and listen to music, my media player is continually on shuffle so the same piece could have been written during punk, 80s glam, classical and country. Can you tell?

I guess it doesn't really surprise me that noise appeals to me so, considering what a chaotic and frenetic person I am anyway. I'm very restless and find it difficult to sit still for long periods of time, and I like to do several things at once. Some people might think that this is somehow splitting my focussing, or that i means I'm not serious about my writing, but what can I say? What is good for one is not always good for another. I'm incredibly serious about my writing, I just cannot help the quirk of personality that means I work better across a range of tasks when I'm juggling them, as opposed to completing them in some kind of sequential order.

Still, like any writer, I do daydream about taking myself off to the middle of nowhere, and settling down in the peace and quiet to write my little heart out. Trouble is, I know for a fact it would be the kiss of death for my writing! After all, look what a writer's retreat turning into in The Shining...

What do you prefer? Silence? Noise?

Robot Rock - Or Why I Started Drawing Again

Tweet

I've been trying to come up with new ideas for fiction, and I remembered reading Zoe Westhof's eBook guide to having a creative mini retreat to boost your creativity. I still haven't managed to find the time to set aside an entire weekend, but I decided to grab some spare time where I had it, and do some drawing. I used to love drawing, but after I finished college and was no longer studying art, my drawing became somewhat sporadic. It's a shame, since it's something I really enjoy doing, so I've decided that, in an attempt to jar my brain from seeing things the way I normally see things, that I'll draw more often to make me look at things in a new way.

So I ended up drawing a robot. I've never really coloured things in using Photoshop before, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out! I've always been much better at drawing mechanical things, or structures, than anything organic, so you never know...perhaps I'll end up writing a spate of robot-themed futuristic sci-fi, with illustrations to match?

Friday Flash - Strictly No Digging

Tweet

Today's Friday Flash is actually inspired by a bizarre sign I spotted near Leicester Square in London. Normally I wouldn't have dreamed of digging up the public highway, but of course the very second you're told not to, you can't help but want to!

Strictly No Digging 

Davey pointed out the sign the first time we ever cut through Perdition Square. The black oblong of metal was screwed to a bollard near old man Jenkins' cafe. Big white handpainted letters spelled out 'Strictly No Digging'.

"Why, man? What don't they want us to find?" said Dave. He pointed at the sign, a goofy look of conspiracy plastered on his face.I simply shrugged.

"Could be anything. Water pipes, maybe?"

"Nah, man. There's got to be something they're hiding there. That's why they don't want us to dig." He gesticulated wildly with spindly fingers. Dozens of bracelets made of wooden beads knocked together on his skinny arms.

"Bollocks. Jenkins probably doesn't want people taking up the cobbles."

"I'm tellin' you, man. It's got to be parliament." Davey's eyes were wide. They were also bloodshot, and I wondered for the umpteenth time what he'd been smoking this time.

"I doubt it."

"Look, they're telling us not to dig. So, I gotta dig now. I wouldn't have thought of it before, but now...I gotta know what they're hidin' under this place." I thought I caught a whiff of stale moonshine on Davey's breath as he leaned close.

"Do whatever you want."

I left him standing in the square, contemplating the sign.


Eleven hours later, I found myself standing in the square again. Thick clouds blotted out the moonlight, and shadows clustered in doorways. I looked around at the silent buildings, feeling the heavy weight of the windows' stare. Davey jabbed his dad's spade between the cobbles around the bollard. The grate of metal on stone set my teeth on edge.

"Do you HAVE to do this?" I hissed. "You've already broken my shovel and that one isn't looking too healthy. My dad's gonna kill me!"

"I'm nearly there," replied Davey. He tossed aside his own shovel, ignoring the large crack that ran the length of the wooden handle. He dropped to his knees, and clawed at the loose cobbles. I looked around the square. A shiver ran down my spine as I looked at the windows. I wondered if anyone sat beyond the glass, watching us from a darkened room.

"I don't believe it."

I looked down at Davey. A small pile of cobbles sat on the ground beside him. He still clutched one, dirt clinging to his fingers. I peered down into the hole he'd made. A single piece of white card lay at the bottom.
I fished it out and held it up, brushing crumbs of soil from the card. A breath of wind drove the clouds from the moon, and I could read the black script.

Come to O'Nally's, for all your hardware needs! Shovels, 

gardening equipment, pick axes - if you need it, we have it!

Creativity game

Tweet

There seem to be posts on creativity all over the blogosphere at the moment, two of the best being Melissa Donovan's post over at Writing Forward and Mary Jaksch's post at Write to Done. I remember one person saying that you couldn't describe yourself as 'creative' unless you did anything deemed to be such, since creativity is an action. That being said, I decided I'd share a little game I devised the other day whilst sat on the tube to try and spark your creativity. It can be done on most forms of public transport, and trying to be furtive is good practice should you ever decide to become a spy.

If someone is reading the newspaper beside you, take a sneaky peek over their shoulder at the headlines. Quite a lot of people assume it's alright to read a broadsheet on a crowded train so this shouldn't be too difficult. Try combining two different headlines from the same page to come up with a plot line. Take a look at the person with the newspaper and try to work out just why a particular story might mean something to them. If the headline is about a security leak at government level, perhaps your newspaper neighbour is the staff member who left a laptop on the train? Or maybe they're the person who bought it for their own nefarious ends!

I love to read the newspapers to get ideas for plots! Truth is often stranger than fiction and one of my favourite things to do is to scan the 'for sale' ads, and then try to work out exactly why the owner wants to part with the item they're selling. Just today, I saw adverts offering a 'slightly used' wedding dress, an antique set of drawers, and a job lot of men's shoes. Why were they for sale? Even more importantly, what sort of person would buy them? Read a little further, and even the obituaries can give great story ideas, if you don't mind being a little morbid. If your newspaper has a science section, or a "strange but true" column, give that a read too. You never know what inspirational nuggets may lurk therein.

Further ways to use the news in your writing can be found at Melissa's post here. Recommended reading! Plus, if you're suffering from writer's block, then try Mark McGuinness' post at Lateral Action. They're currently running a series on removing creative blocks.

Now go forth and start scanning those newspapers! What weird and wonderful things can you find?

Why Photography and Writing are natural bedfellows

Tweet You hopefully won't be surprised to learn that as well as writing, I like to indulge my creativity with a spot of photography. I took the photo on the left last night, from a spot outside County Hall (this was before I got moved by security since, for some odd reason, you're not allowed to use tripods in that area).

London's a fantastic place to live if you enjoy photography. You've got your usual tourist-y locales, along with the many markets and shopping districts for those whose bent runs more towards street photography. Parks and nature reserves satisfy the nature photographers, and there are buildings galore for the architectural enthusiasts. Your two biggest problems are finding a spot among the other photographers, and trying to be polite to those idiotic passersby who seem to think it's vital that they occupy the pride of place in your shot.

Still, I love photography, and it satisfies the more visual side of my brain. Whenever I write, I try to paint a picture in the mind of the reader, so they can 'see' what I see in my head when I'm writing, but sometimes it's just easier to take a photo of it. Besides, photography is an excellent way to stimulate creativity - a favourite 'game' of mine is to browse the random shots gallery on Flickr, and use the first image that pops up as a story prompt. Try it yourself and see what you come up with!