writing

Writing

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

I write best when I’m lying in bed trying to sleep.
Or taking a shower.
Or when I’m having a conversation with… anyone really. I loose my attention, I zone out, form witty, funny sentences that I imagine my 10s of readers will enjoy.

And then I sit down to write. And it’s gone, it’s lost and forgotten. It will probably never return again, until I’m slightly buzzed and drifting off to sleep. Sometimes when I’m shaving my legs I make myself laugh with how hilarious I am. I rinse still thinking about it, towel off and put on lotion–my hands still slick with Lubraderm I sit to write it down and BOOM, it’s gone. Just like that. Out of my head, left me to go find someone who will take this thing more seriously.

Take this thing more seriously… I suppose I should get a waterproof notebook, one I can keep in my pocket at all times. Though, I rarely have pockets, I wear a lot of leggings and athletic pants. And have you SEEN the pockets on women’s jeans?! PLEASE! They hardly hold a nickle let alone my favorite Moleskin journal! And what pocket are we talking about if I’m in the shower… get outta there!

Okay. Time to get distracted so maybe I can focus on writing more.

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What Is Your Time?

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

I wish all day was the morning time, until it was dinner time and bed time and then it would be morning again. I don’t wish it was morning so that I could drink coffee all day, though that would be a perk! But the am hours are the hours that I am most productive.

Things Sloan is good at in the morning:

  • Writing
  • Reading
  • Working out/running/swimming
  • Opportunity hunting
  • Training clients
  • Writing workouts for said clients
  • Working at work
  • Meditating

So, pretty much everything. My brain power starts at about 5am and gets a little foggy mid morning, I power up with a snack and I do pretty well until about 2:30pm. It’s not to say that I don’t get things done later in the day–I have to, it’s life. But I definitely prefer and produce better work early.

With that said I obviously can’t fit everything in in those hours. So I have started assigning hours. I take each day individually–Lord knows no day is the same–I approach the day with a list of things that absolutely need to get done. And I start filling in time slots:

Wednesday:
630am: Client
7:40am: Client
8:40am: Find coffee shop and write this post
10am: Be on time for work
10-1145am: Emails, client work outs, check in with boss
12-12:45pm: Teach a kick ass class (this is my work out for the day)

So at this point my morning is gone and I’ve yet to have more than 45 minutes to myself. I’m literally at said coffee shop writing this. Feeling like I’m racing against the clock because I have 36 minutes until I have to clock in at work. Then POOF, my morning is gone and I won’t be home with my own time until 7:45pm with a 4am wake up call. So what is a girl to do when mornings are reserved for other people? The time that I’m most productive is literally bought every week.

This is something I’m working on currently. I know that at 8pm I’m not going to want to work on my personal writing, or this website, or stage some beautiful instagram photo. I’m going to want to veg in front of the couch with a jar of peanut butter and turn my brain off.

I think there’s a lot to be said for finding your most productive time, however, I also know that we don’t all live the life of leisure to be able to do what we want when we want. We have to work around our jobs, kids, partners and other life obligations.

So, new goals for these coming weeks. I’m going to resist the TV brain mush urge. I’m going to play music and read instead. Or maybe I’ll do the dishes that have been piling up for three days. I’m going use myself as an experiment to shift my productivity hours to the afternoon or evening.

This may take a lot of coffee and will power–I would love any tips you have. Have you done this? How did you succeed? Will I be sad that I’m missing my favorite Netflix original series premier?

thesolesearch

Good morning Chicago

 

We Digest

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

I’ve cooked the food and set the table. The dinner party has come and left, we masticated the veggies and the meat. Moved past the dessert of fruit and pie and ice cream cones. The guests left me, dishes are cleared and now washed—I sit and stare at them.

 

I digest.

 

Stories told over dinner have turned into stories to be told. I wait until the inspiration flows and the invites of dinner parties on this side of the world occur. I wait to write, I wait to tell and I’m trying to listen.

 

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