Everyone who knows me well knows I’m big on organization… I’m a lister and a boxer and a filer. I’m also big on de-cluttering, and one of my projects this past year was to throw away one thing every weekend – something I hadn’t used or had no further use for. I was on track with this right up until my cross-country move, where I ended up throwing out or donating a whole ton of stuff anyway (a cleaning apocalypse) so I was able to hit my year-end goal all in one month.
However, the last month or so, I’ve also been doing the same with email accounts, Facebook friends, Twitter “followings”, etc. Much like I try to keep my physical life de-cluttered, I think it’s healthy and important to keep your mental and emotional state de-cluttered as well. Once all that background noise goes from entertaining and educational to distracting and detrimental, I think it’s time to turn down the volume.
One of the things I’ve trained myself to do in the mornings when I sit down to write is never to look at my email, Twitter feed or Facebook first. Sure, it’s interesting to see what’s in Publisher’s Marketplace, and what articles i09 has posted up, and what my friends thought of their dinner last night, but it’s not important to know that stuff, particularly at that moment when I need to focus and make the best use of the writing window I have. The reality is I’m something of an information junkie, so I’m always up for new book and movie reviews, interesting essays, the latest political news, blah, blah, blah – but spending my time and intellectual energy on that, means I’m spending less time and energy on the things that are really important to me.
And here’s the truth – my truth, I guess – particularly regarding Twitter and Facebook: following people’s lives in 140 character blasts or awkward “selfies” can be uniquely dehumanizing and frustrating. Right or wrong, these are self-selected and curated glimpses designed to promote something or someone, and they often only reflect that everyone is amazing and amazingly good-looking and their lives are awesome and totally successful (everyone has a new agent, a new book deal, a new movie coming out, a new house…you get the idea). If you’re competitive (and I am) and prone to riding yourself hard (and I do) then it’s easy to get to the point where you lose yourself in the mirrorball distraction of what everyone else is or isn’t doing.
So like I said, I try to turn down the noise and the lights a little bit on that stuff. It doesn’t always work, but it’s always worth the try.
Also, this month is the 15th annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you’ve never given NaNoWriMo a try, I suggest you do. The first 50,000+ words of my book TAIGA (take a free read right here) were written during the 2011 NaNoWriMo, and I credit that time – and that focus – for really helping me get serious with my writing.
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