You’ve offered us such an intriguing perspective. I am only just starting to explore meditation as a complement to the creative process, so I am a long way from the serious study you speak of. I love your diet analogy, because that really challenges a lot of the typical thinking on “getting into the zone.” I’d love to hear more about your practices — you sound interesting, not like some kind of priest!

I don’t mean to sound like some kind of priest, I’m just a regular guy who drinks coke and eats potato chips LOL!

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@ Lindsay – Sounds excellent, I’m looking forward to seeing the site! It’s true that sometimes making modest promises to ourselves (like 1 hr each day) helps us actually get moving, whereas it’s easy to push off a big project by saying you just never have enough time.

@ tt – Wow, that sounds like a pretty comprehensive book proposal! I do agree that planning the block of time in the morning is really helpful toward actually doing it. I like staying up late, but my attention tends to be more scattered at night.

Very cool that you’re giving yourself a new 15-day challenge

Worked on a book proposal: I put together a table of contents, outlined chapters, roughed out an introduction, started a sample chapter, and started jotting thoughts about potential audience, marketing, etc.–things that would be part of a proposal. It’s far from done, but I’ve laid out a path.

I did miss a couple days, but I set a rule: Make up a missed day the next day, but not by doing a two hour block—by doing two separate 1 hour blocks at least an hour apart. That was hard, and it helped. It served as an incentive to stay on schedule. I also learned that even though I think of myself as a night person, it was definitely best for me to put in my block of time first thing in the morning.

I agree that an hour a day can really move a project forward. I’m guessing maybe a 2 hour block would be good too. Anything beyond that I can only imagine… It didn’t seem like I could really get into the zone in anything less than 30 minutes. I found shorter “extra” chunks of time useful too, but only for thinking, planning, jotting in a notebook, etc, rather than actual writing.

Starting each time was hardest, but sometimes stopping was hard too. When things were going well, continuing was easiest.

It worked so well I’ve decided to set another 15 day challenge of one hour blocks for myself. That’ll make it a month total. It’s worked so far, and I’m hoping this will get a routine established.

I have distractions galore apart from just the online ones, so it really worked well to focus for ‘just’ one hour and then get on with some of the other things that were calling me.
The revelation was that several of the things I was previously labeling ‘distractions’ (in relation to a particular project) are genuine activities which also need my attention throughout an average day. Collecting the kids from school for example!! (Ok, just kidding).

An hour is also plenty of time for me to get into the zone. In fact only having an hour helped me to focus hugely.

Will post the link to the website once it’s done. I have a friend helping with the tech side next week, so I’m setting myself another 15 days from tomorrow till going online.

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I think the best way to counter this is to make strict separation between creation time and preparation time. Keep a notepad next to you as things you need to look up pop into your head — then move onto that list when you’re “out” of the zone.

@ Joely – Looks like you’re creating quite regularly anyway . Of course, you can always put yourself to this challenge on your own…

@ TJ – Sounds like you used the time marvelously! Your motivation to write is contagious

@ Trina – My pattern was similar to yours — I often felt an hour was way too short, but then there were also days when I had to push myself to do that hour. Thanks for sharing the link with us! I’m really intrigued by how you used Polyvore — I’ve never seen it before.

@ Wendy – Yes, I personally agree that larger chunks are ideal. Smaller chunks work for me when it is a side project, or when I’m trying to push myself to actually start moving forward with a project. Momentum is a good word — once you have that going, it’s a shame to cut it off.

@ Alex – Yep, small chunks are perfect for moving a project forward. But I do think that for my creative projects, especially the ones I’m focused on, an hour sometimes feels too limited.

It is a good trick, however, to stop writing (for fiction) when you still have more to say — that way when you sit down to write the next day, you can pick up with that same momentum.

As for interruptions. While working on something I’m usually pretty good at ignoring temptations, especially if I’m really interested in what I’m doing.

Cheers,
Alex

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