Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 35
that’s a time vampire. Who can resist read-
ing all the things on their Facebook wall
once they log on with the intention of post-
ing just one thing? Think about setting up a
Facebook fan page. Then after you hit 100
likes, you can schedule several posts ahead
of time. Perhaps just playing around on so-
cial sites is best left for late evening when
the most important things have been done.
For Twitter, use one of any number of sites
that allow you to schedule multiple Tweets
for future posting.
Once you know what you absolutely
must accomplish each day, even if the air
conditioning does go out or your best
friend calls right in the middle of a particu-
larly productive writing session insisting
they have to talk to you, keep calm.
If you don’t finish something, move it to
the next day unless it’s a deadline situation.
Periodically check to see how many times
this particular thing has been delayed yet
one more day. Is it something that must be
done eventually? If the answer is “yes” get
rid of it by doing it right then. Sometimes it
takes longer to justify to yourself why you
can’t do something than actually taking the
time to do it.
C LEAR OUT DEAD PAPERS
Get rid of unnecessary or obsolete pa-
pers. I wish I could train myself to do this. I
really do. Unfortunately, sometimes my
stacks just create more stacks. This is
something that sounds so easy, but I tote
around bags of stuff that should have hit
the shredder or garbage months ago. De-
spite my own weakness, my words of wis-
dom are: Don’t let it get out of hand. Other-
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
wise you will be reviewing the same things
every time you decide to clear the deck.
At the end of the day try to address pa-
pers you’ve printed, received or put aside.
If practice what you preach means any-
thing, maybe I will actually master that my-
self some day. In the meantime, I keep ac-
quiring more tote bags.
However, I’ve started scanning im-
portant stuff, backing it up and then filing
or dumping the hard copy. It definitely re-
duces the pile. If you refer to an online
manual over and over again, print it out
and put it in a notebook. Online is great, but
it’s so much faster to grab the notebook and
go right to the page.
M ORE ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT
Don’t engage in long personal phone
calls until the most important items on the
list are done. Use caller ID to weed out
those unidentifiable numbers that always
turn out to be someone trying to sell you a
useless service or soliciting a donation for
the preservation of fire ants. If the call is
important, they will leave a message.
Never be afraid to say to a friend, “Can I
call you back in a few hours? I really need
to finish what I’m working on.” If they are a
friend, they will understand.
Feeling overwhelmed? Get up and walk
around for a while, go for a short drive,
grab a book and take a break at the local
java joint. The only caveat here is to re-
member you do have unfinished tasks.
You’ll come back refreshed instead of stuck
in neutral and find you’ve become produc-
tive again.
P AGE 30
S PRING 2019