Day 2: Writing
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)
#Reverb10 is an exercise in reflection on 2010 and…reverberating on 2011 (did I say that right, Gwen?). It’s not too late to join in on the fun.

Check email constantly. I get so completely paranoid that there’s stuff in there that people are expecting of me and waiting on me for. And I absolutely must have a clean inbox at the end of my email processing. That is not optional for me – I figure if I don’t clean it out every day, then every day it’s just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Snowball-turned-avalanche-turned-Sarah-has-a-stomach-ache.

What I’m doing to eliminate the obsessiveness with email – I mentioned Cal Newport’s GCTD method the other day. It’s basically a way to block out your creative time so that nothing else interferes with it (keeping in mind a few guidelines based on how motivation works and how creatives reach a state of flow). It’s been helping me relax into not creating because I know that I have time for that built-in. And not only do I have time for that built-in, but I know that during that time, I am not stressing on a specific outcome. I am ordering and enjoying the process, and trusting that the outcome will take care of itself. It’s a beautiful thing.

So I thought to myself, if this method is helping me relax when I’m not creating, what can help me relax into not checking email? I’ll let you take a guess. (I’m sure you’re picking up on this faster than quick-draw McGraw here…people have been telling me how to handle email obsession for years, but I haven’t figured out how to make it work.)

The lightbulb finally went off, and now I’m blocking out my email processing time, making sure that it’s enough time to clean everything out (I spend 1-2 hours a day on email…one day, I really will delegate some of this). Also, I’m making sure I have at least one block of creative time before email. And it’s really helping.

Speaking of elimination

(Which makes me think of going to the bathroom, but you’ll forgive me. I’m pregnant.) I don’t usually quote Seth Godin, because everybody knows of his brilliance. Everybody reads it. Everybody absorbs what he says like a giant roll of Bounty paper towels.

But he said something recently that made me stand up and applaud. And it just happens to be about clutter, which our esteemed prompt-writer of the day (hey, Leo!) is big on getting rid of. It’s one of those things that I always try to tell my clients, but it’s like they’re plugging their ears. But if Seth Godin says it’s true, I might actually have a fighting chance of getting them to believe it.

“Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn’t free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, a desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit.”
From the lips of the G-man himself (read the full article…it’s short and sweet).

Did you hear that, friends? MORE CLUTTER [on your website, in your newsletter, in your tweets] ISN’T FREE. It’s not just another ad. Another button in your sidebar. Another piece of brilliant persuasive copy. It is training people to ignore you. And that is a big deal.

Instead of having more, be laser focused. Have everything easily accessible through your navigation, but don’t bang people over the head with every single thing you offer. Focus on one thing. Then when you’ve completed your goal for that one thing, focus on another thing. If you try to accomplish too much at once, you will accomplish nothing but invisibility. (I also harp on this over here, if you want more).