Although I meant to actually have a post yesterday to kick off NaNoWriMo, in true NaNo fashion, things did not go as planned and I ended up with a lot more things to do. Sacrifices had to be made, and that ended up being the intended blog post.
That however, I think is a pertinent point. It’s so easy to get caught up in needing to do so many things that we forget it’s okay to let some things go, especially when it comes to making the choices between things for us and things for other people. Could I have easily done a quick, measly two hundred word post yesterday? Yes, and just as easily I spent that time adding two hundred words to my NaNo project.
The choice I made yesterday was clear. Work on my NaNo project or write a blog post. Consequentially, the words I wrote are ones that aren’t likely to be seen for months at the very least, and possibly not until next year. It also meant there was no activity at all on the the Written Vixen for yesterday.
Although that exact situation may not repeat itself, the idea behind it will. The choice and the sacrifice. The concept itself is not new, it happens every day, likely without us noticing. Spend five minutes doing something productive, or spend five minutes browsing social media? The sacrifice there is clear, either we give up five minutes of progress on a project, dream or goal, or we give up five minutes of news from our friends and family. Yet, I know I’m guilty of spending twenty minutes browsing the web without much thought behind it.
There are of course, also cases where that choice isn’t so clear cut, such as needing to look after a sick kid, or help rescue a stranded family member. In those cases, the option simply may not be there. Life happens, and sometimes circumstances arise that don’t give us much in the way of choice.
With all that in mind, finding those choices we can afford to make might seem like an impossible task. Five minutes here and there adds up quickly, and while writing is a solitary act, most of us don’t live in a vacuum. We interact with the world around us through friends, family members, phones, computers and television.
Rather than trying to make those choices as they come at us throughout the day, try starting off your day by making one. Finding just one thing you can afford not to do or to ignore until later can make it easier to preserve your writing time when everything else piles up.
The Written Vixen 