Sprinting to the Finish Line
Last week, I opted to use the single week’s worth of buffer I’d built into my blog posting routine to take a step back from blog writing. I did this very deliberately, as I was in the last week before a self-imposed deadline on another project: finalizing a draft of my novel before sending it out to beta readers.
Normally I cannot make myself do only one activity for a full week; it’s exhausting and boring and I just don’t wanna focus for that long on anything… usually. When I’m approaching a deadline, one I know is real and binding, my brain goes into extended hyper focus, though, and I find it much easier to single-task.
So I spent last week editing, rewriting, and rereading over and over again, trying to get my book finished before the deadline I’d come up with. It worked for the most part! I got 95% of the way there by my “deadline” and I’m finishing out the last 5% today–that work being a final read-through before I export the book into a variety of formats and send it on to my readers for feedback–but in that hyper focus mode I completely forgot the cardinal rule of these types of hyper focus weeks.
If I sprint to the finish, I will need to lay down at the finish line.
Every time I plan for one of these intensive sprints, I forget that I need a recovery period, a time to lay down and read someone else’s book, or scroll through the same 200 Pinterest pins I see over and over, or rewatch all of a favorite YouTube series. Sometimes I need a couple days to do an admin reset because while sprinting, I tossed all planning out the window because who can think when they’re running at full speed? I didn’t plan on using this week for that sort of recovery, but my body and my brain sure are telling me I need to adjust. So if my posts are a little scattered this week or if I suddenly come back to blog about the incredibly ridiculous Personal Knowledge Management system I’ve built out of twigs, you know why.
Be well friends, see you after I nap ten feet from the finish line.
8 August 2022 mental-health productivity strategies