Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It’s February, the very beginning, and there are never enough hours in the day to do taxes and write and edit and eat and sleep and socialize enough to stay sane. Something has to give. I can feel sounds like impacts, and paranoia is rising every time someone walks by my tax location with a hand full of papers (are they tax papers? are they coming here?). Then I go home and my computer lights are blinking, asking me to write instead of sleep. Friends? I think I have some, maybe. Art? I’m actively not looking at my embroidery basket right now, and my garden likes its weeds better than me.
David B. Coe describes some of the things he did to stay healthy and sane as a full-time writer back in 2008 when he blogged at Magical Words with A Full-Time Writer’s Top Ten List. Central, of course, is treating writing like a Job – a Real Job. Otherwise things slip.
This applies even when working a full-time job, like taxes, and doing other stuff like sleeping.
Since I do editing and writing, why do I continue to do taxes and day-job?
- Money – Editing and writing don’t cut it yet. Not with car repairs, mortgage, and student loans. They might never cut it, however hard I work and wish it … but I still may do taxes because …
- Discipline – I’ve discovered I need to touch base with answering to someone else, clients and bosses, to remind myself how important showing up to work is. Day-in-day-out. Tax time provides me discipline and structure after losing both over the holiday season. And I do lose them, every holiday season. I come out of New Year’s wondering what happened to all the time since Thanksgiving, every.single.year.
As hard as these four months are, they allow me to focus on writing and editing the rest of the year. And during that time in 2019, I will approach editing as a full-time job. It nearly became one in 2018, and I will focus writing and editing for 2019.
David’s list is perfect to hone the focus during the editing season, and for any work-from-home position. Exercise and eating healthy seem like no-brainers, until you’ve stared at your screen for six hours without moving. Realistic Daily Goals to prod yourself to always move forward is not just good advice, the Goals are talisman against depression. Time off, away for the keyboard, allows you to bring new stuff to the keyboard. Look over the list and think about what top ten works for you. I need to make mine … later, after I sleep.
Again, you can see David B. Coe’s full list and the related comments here: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/a-full-time-writers-top-ten-list/