Here we go again, working in the open. I like it so far.
Yesterday’s progress
- I completed item 5 from this week’s plan, creating a new Medium publication called True Crime Adjacent and adding my relevant research articles to it.
- I worked on item 4 (new research brief).
- I didn’t work on item 1 (table of contents for the book).
Troubleshooting obstacles
Challenges to getting my writing goals done yesterday included there being extra people and commotion and stuff to do around the house that broke my concentration. Also the construction on the road outside was near-constant, and my headache remained in place all day. My mom and father-in-law came to help out with the stuff around the house, and C was home after working the weekend. Let’s apply the five whys…
- Why were these challenges? I tried to work in the livingroom and that put me in the middle of a less-than-ideal working environment.
- Why? I can’t work in the office right now.
- Why? My desk is buried in books and magazines.
- Why? I haven’t cleaned it off in a month or so.
- Why? Each book or magazine represents part of a project I’ve planned in my head but haven’t recorded anywhere else, so dealing with the giant pile means doing a lot of cognitive work that the idea of, frankly, makes my anxiety spike.
I will continue offline with a couple more whys, but it’s pretty clear at this point what I need to do: clean off my fucking desk and work in the office when other people are here and I need to work. To do that, I will tackle it for short periods of time with pen and paper and clear shelf space on hand.
Right now
Construction continues outside. I’m concerned that it will knock out Internet access at some point because that’s just my luck. If that happens, I will use it as an excuse to work offline on going through the slipbox.
Today’s plan
I plan to work on items 1, 3, and 4. I’ll also work on excavating my desk.