By ruthlessness I do not mean an attitude of cruelty or hostility to the world or toward other people. You need only be ruthless toward your typical excuses, or the typical non-productive habits that you let yourself fall into. Be unsparing with your self-justifications. Call bullshit on yourself.
*I can't write today because I'm tired / sick / burnt out.
*because it's a teaching day.
*because I got so much done yesterday.
*because I'm not inspired.
*because I have to save up energy for tomorrow.
*because it's not close enough to the deadline for me to feel any sense of urgency.
You see, I already know all your excuses. My Stupid Tricks have a lethal effect on them. You only have your had habits to lose so what are you afraid of?
5 comments:
So. Today, for the very first time, I wrote on my teaching day. I revised my accepted article and submitted it. I also added 600 words to my new article. These are not amazing 600 words but they will give me something to work with tomorrow.
I am so very happy that I listened to your advice and stopped deluding myself with this weird 'I can't write on the day I teach' mantra.
Right. And was your class any worse? Are you dropping from exhaustion? 600 words is a lot for a day. I only managed 550!
No, to be honest, the class that I taught right after the writing session went really well. I felt very energized.
I was always convinced that this wasn't humanly possible for me. Now I can't even remember where that idea came from.
I always feel as if I am getting away with something when I get in writing in my teaching days!
Where did this "I can't write on teaching days" idea come from? Does it mean that if you teach five days you can only write weekends?
I am *sure* the professors I had in school *all* wrote on teaching days. I only started hearing that you couldn't write on teaching days later.
I was *not* taught that and I want to know who is teaching it.
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