But at the same time, knowing that there are just four weeks left until school starts gives me a little jolt of panic. I don't have enough time to spend with my kids! I'm losing them to school! We haven't had enough fun!
If you're in the middle of the summer slump, maybe it's not a bad thing. If you're spending time with the kids, focus on them! They won't be this age forever, and I'm told (over and over again!) that we'll miss these days, so we need to enjoy them now.
But if you want out of the summer slump, maybe the key isn't spending more time working, just better time working. Recently, literary agent Rachelle Gardner posted an idea to work smarter instead of just harder.
Rather than spending the entire day trying to get a few sentences out, some say that the most effective way to work is to work with very intense purpose for a while, and then take time to rejuvenate & relax before working again. Rachelle's research suggests 90 minutes as the optimal focus time.
Part of the big struggle of summer for me has been thinking I have a lot of time to get stuff done, but it eats into time with my kids. They get frustrated with being ignored and I get frustrated with being interrupted, and I can't focus long enough to get anything done.
It's a vicious cycle.
Instead, I want try this intense focus technique--and the kids are in bed, so I'm off!
Jordan McCollum is the Education Director of Authors Incognito. She blogs about book marketing and writing craft at http://JordanMcCollum.com.
Great post Jordan. It's one of those life's wisdom moments. But kids and family should always come first--you'll have plenty of time to write all alone in the years ahead! In the meantime, I agree--take what you can get and make the most of it!
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