Monthly Archives: August 2008

This is the first installment for the post from the healthy habits series. Be sure to return for other entries in this set.

Do you know what to do when your health starts to flag?

You know how sometimes you get sick, your sinuses fill and apply pressure to your head to bulge, only there are no plates in your skull to allow expansion? Your eyelids want to shut but it feels like they can’t go over your eyeballs which are burning, itching, and stinging–even they feel swollen. Whoa, I had a flashback.

Anyway, it makes you wonder how you can avoid the next bout of flu or sinus infection. Or, you hear someone else’s story and you think it’s time you took stock. What do you do with that motivation? Start by reviewing some key lifestyle points. Thins often covers things that we overlook, underestimate or just let slide now and again, until bad habits are formed.

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The above picture is one that I shot from the New Orleans Riverwalk Marketplace.

I love traveling. Really. Sometimes, I’ll get to a point when I feel the need to take a trip. A feeling washes over me and I will think It’s time I took a flight out. Without leaving town, I would indulge myself by picking a place away from my house.

When writing is a factor, I need to know where I feel like going. I’ll pick a location that resonates properly in my spirit, as well as a place that facilitates my work.

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Lately, the topic of healthy habits as a writer keeps coming up. I needed a starting place to consider what I was going to change. I’ve been reviewing my lifestyle and my less than stellar habits. I sometimes take health matters for granted, and allow bad habits to stand. In part it’s because I’m writing; I think how much damage am I doing.

However, since I need to make a lifestyle change, I’m going to share some healthy habits that work for me and may work for you. As I do the research, I’ll link the collection back here for easy reference.

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Blogging is a lot of work, and it’s a pleasure too. I’m including my pictures, now, every chance I get. I may have to start shopping on Flickr or other image vendor site. More than likely though, it’ll finally push me to start to plan my photography shoots—to cover my posting needs. Lately, a bigger issue is my generally flagging FOCUS.

Focus Can be Hard Work

Although writing for my blogs is satisfying, several things must be present for me to generate accpetable posts. One of the most important for me is FOCUS. It comes to mind lately because I’ve been a bit distracted. To regain my focus, it’s important to know what’s blurring my vision.

Even for something that I enjoy, there are times when I’m just not fully present with it. In blogging everything starts to feel the same and there’s no newness to what I’m writing. It’s like smelling perfume; after you smell 4 I think, they all smell the same. And who wants posts that offer nothing new?

4 Things that Blur My Focus

1. There are times when I don’t have a clear purpose or point for my post. I have trouble writing just to be writing, when it comes to posting.
2. Getting ahead of myself is another problem I sometimes run into. I want to put everything out there in one epic post. Clearly, that’s not the best choice to make.
3. When I allow intrusions of random thoughts and concerns to intrude on my writing sessions, I can lose track in mid-thought.
4. I have trouble sleeping right now, because I have so many things on my mind to get done. The lack of sleep can make me a little fuzzy, which defeats the reason I’m awake. Often times it makes the other reasons worse, if it doesn’t precipitate them.

If I stop blogging tomorrow, I will appreciate the experience forever. Right now I’m staying awake to write and there’s no way that I need to be awake right now. There’s also no way that I’m going to press the publish button tonight because I know that what’s here may scare me when I’m fully alert. I know who’s in charge, but still I fight.

In a post, Problogger author Darren Rowse asked his readers how long they take to write a post. I saw answers that ranged from 10 minutes to days. I fall in there, as another responder said, depending on my focus. Lately, I’m near the slower publishing times.

Being Well-Rested can Fix Focus

I want to be one of the faster blog writers. Things that hang me up are all surmountable. I have a few tactics that I use to get the job done. Some of the things that help me are meditation and journal writing. Gratitude is a key salve in the process of sharpening my focus. These all help me to calm my thoughts. And the main thing that I do, before anything, is to rest more.

You need more than sleep. Usually, when I get blurred it’s because I’ve stopped resting, too. A rested mind is one that can easily clear thoughts. The ability to quiet your mind is how you prepare sleep. Sometimes, a simple word I use before I go to bed is “tomorrow,” to dismiss my thoughts so that I can sleep.

I have a schedule, but many times I want to go longer. When I notice my focus is not so sharp, I rely on discipline to stop when I’m scheduled and rest. In my resting times I do different things to clear my head to be rejuvenated.

So, why do all this for blogging? Really, I won’t be declared a master blog writer this week. But I work at it just the same because I know that improvement comes with effort over time. And as long as I can take joy in and appreciate what I’m doing, it’s worth my effort to see it through.

What do you do to regain your focus? How do you know when you’ve lost it? If any of this sounds familiar to you, please share your experiences.

Related Entries

• writing life: 7 strategies to keep going
• gaining perspective the write way
• The Boss of Me

Since I do much of my writing on the weekends, I’ve been thinking up ways to make the time most productive and pleasurable. So, participating in this just seems like good fun and useful too: It’s a group writing project over at Joanna Young’s blog, Confident Writing. This one is about your ideal writing weekend.

I first saw it some time ago but I ran out of time. A couple of weeks ago, Joanna shared some of her writing weekend essentials and the rules, and she extended the project’s deadline to September 1, 2008. I thought I would pass it along.

In March this year, I participated in Joanna’s 4×4 sources of writing inspiration project, and that was fun and thought-provoking. The results post on April 3rd was an excellent resource. These projects offer keen insights and novel perspectives.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this is actually a competitive group writing project. You can visit the link above or go directly to the Absorbing Writing website to get the details.

10.24.2008 My entry for the project, my ideal writing weekend has actually won second prize.

10.30.2008 RESULTS: The results of this project are in! For more details, visit this post to see where it’s posted.