Top Ten Ways I Procrastinated During the First Week of Nano

November 1st was the first day of NaNo (read my last post if you’re not familiar) and while I’m on track with my word count (average of 1667 per day!) that doesn’t mean it’s been smooth sailing. There’s been fall cleaning (like spring cleaning but the opposite—you know what I’m talking about), a minor thing called the World Series where my second favorite team FINALLY WON, and the warmest November we’ve had in a long time (which required me to be outside as much as I can). But those don’t even make my top ten list.

Are you ready? Here we go!

10: Instagram

My Miniature Schnauzer Owen’s Instagram finally passed 10,000 followers and as he gets more popular, it’s been more and more difficult to stay on top of comments. But try I must. I’m also very active on my personal account so that takes up a lot of time too.

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9: Email

I have two personal and two work accounts on my phone, so it’s fair to say I get an email notification every 4.2 minutes. And every now and then I’ll get worked up about the agents who have my manuscript and will check just in case Google forgot to send me a notification.

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8: Facebook

I don’t think this needs an explanation, but I will add that I’ve been managing a contest on my day-job’s page this past week so I really have needed to check my notifications frequently. Really.

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7: Twitter

While it goes without saying that Facebook is a time suck,  I can lose just as much time on Twitter. Whether it’s scrolling through my feed to see what people are talking about, joining in the latest hashtag game, or complaining about procrastinating, I feel like Twitter gets me in ways that my manuscript doesn’t.

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6: Texting My Besties

Because who doesn’t love to do that? They cheer me through every plot hole and convince me that the dirty joke I put on page 4 of my manuscript is totally appropriate for YA. (It’s probably not but I’m keeping it in there.)

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5: Bathroom Breaks

What can I say? I drink a lot of tea and water. As long as the potty breaks don’t turn into cleaning the house, we’re good.

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4: Getting More Tea

Speaking of liquids, I can’t write if I don’t have a beverage in arm’s reach. My electric kettle beeps when it turns off, and that’s usually right about the time I’m finishing my cup, so that means it’s time for a break.

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3: Prioritize House Projects

While I’m waiting for the kettle to warm up (because it just turned off and therefore is not the correct temperature for brewing tea), that gives me a minute to contemplate all the renovations we still want to do to our house. Big project or small, nothing is off limits when I’m supposed to be writing.

There are too many things I want to change to fit in one photo, so here's the crazy black & white backsplash in the kitchen. You can see more if it in the tea kettle picture. I also hate the bathroom pictured above.
There are too many things I want to change to fit in one photo, so here’s the crazy black & white backsplash in the kitchen. You can see more if it in the tea kettle picture. I also hate the bathroom pictured above.

2: Halloween Candy

Perhaps you had hundreds of costumed children knock on your door or ring your bell, all begging for free sugar. We bought the candy but only seven children appeared, and that means A LOT of leftover candy. I’ve found Sprees make project prioritization go much, much easier.

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1: Playing With Owen

Because how can you resist this face? You can’t, that’s how.

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What are your most ridiculous procrastination methods?

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4 Comments

  1. Love this post, it’s so true! Tea bathroom breaks are common for me when I hit writer’s block. They’re a bad cycle (except when I get a breakthrough idea upon clearing my head during a trip to the lou!). I started out strong with NaNoWriMo, but ended the month with only 15,000 words. How did you do?

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