The Pomodoro Technique Focus for ADHD Writers

Im reading The Art and Business of Writing by Chris Jones on my Kindle and its full of helpful advice. Ill review it in a later post. For now, please take this gem I got in there (then, interestingly enough, I also found the same gem the next day in a speed-reading ebook I was proofreading on Fiverr, which tells me the Universe wants me to try it).

Basically in the mornings, I put my butt in my seat after getting my coffee and something to eat. Focusing after that is hard. I want to check email, Facebook, my ebook sales, Fiverr, blog stats, do some blog social media, and more. Back and forth and then Ive wasted an hour! That is no way to make your dreams come true of moving to the country, traveling the world with your family and writing a bunch more books! 

So you start by hitting the app store with your smartphone (or you can just do it yourself with a timer, I suppose, but I am trying out this free app to see if it keeps track of stats and stuff ... there are also paid versions).

Then you handle your settings. I left mine on the default. So I proofread for 25 minutes and then take a break. I plan to also use this for writing so I can get articles and ebooks actually WORKED ON! After every 4 sets, you get a longer break. Ill have to use this to switch out the laundry, do some dishes, throw dinner in the slow cooker, brush my teeth, get dressed, etc. I am only doing this in the mornings so far when the kids are sleeping and I am not distracted or interrupted. Once the kids are up, all bets are off and its homeschool and family time until I can get more work done at night, usually about another hour until my brain is too tired to think.

The timer goes quietly for 25 minutes and then buzzes or can go off with an alarm with noise and then switches to 4 minutes of break (yes, you can pause it if you need to). Sometimes I might grab my 5-pound weights I keep by my desk (a 1950s Formica table in the corner of the kitchen, my "office") or do some planks or squats. Or check email. But the point is when that time is up I have to get back to work. No more languishing in Facebook land for me!

Id love to hear about your tips, tricks and tools for getting things done! And be sure to come back to read my review of Chris Jones book! Youll love it!

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Organizing Writing Projects with Self Diagnosed ADHD

A writing friend of mine recently asked me:

Do you have one block of writing time for all your writing projects or does each project get its own time? Sometimes I feel like a fat man at a all-you-can-eat buffet. I want to do every project on my heart. It is hard for me to focus solely on one until completion.

Im not sure Im the best person to ask! I mean, I do a chunk of  my work in the mornings, some more in the evenings and try to sneak in 15-minute pieces here and there throughout the day depending on what Im working on and how busy my life with my kids is at that point in time.

Here are some things I generally have going on:

1. Proofreading
2. Blogging
3. Bubblews
4. Regional parenting magazine articles
5. Self-published ebook projects
6. Private writing clients
7. The Kindle Pixie author promotion business

The short answer is: I dont finish anything in one sitting usually. I try, but my self-diagnosed ADHD makes me flit from thing to thing and I cant focus on one thing for long. I recently realized Ive always been this way and have often been given crap about it by my husband, parents and friends, but its working for me obviously.

So a typical morning might look like this, starting around 7 a.m.:

• Make coffee, grab a protein bar and some water
• Check Facebook for messages, check email
• Get distracted and check Amazon to see if any ebooks sold
• Check Bubblews bank balance
• The checking of Facebook and email will generally lead to other things I need to do or fix or write or whatever
• Now its time to focus on a project. I have a list on a spiral notebook and I start a new page each day to refresh the list. I start with the most urgent thing first.
• I keep a wall calendar to tell me what I should be doing and when stuff is due.
• I start on the most urgent thing, get bored, and move to the next thing.
• If the projects suck, I procrastinate them and move to something I usually dont want to do, like delve deeply into an ebook Im writing. I put it off because when I start I get lost in it but it does not immediately pay the bills.
• If all my projects are crummy, I can be found cleaning the bathroom or doing dishes, two things I hate.
• I sit down, I check realtor.com to find the perfect house even though I dont want to move.
• The kids start to get up, we homeschool, we head out for the day, we come home. Around 7 they settle in for a movie in the wintertime and I sneak in a few little work things if the homefront is quiet.
• I keep a plastic thing in front of me at the kitchen table (my "office") to hold all my files so I dont lose things or spill chocolate milk on them.
• I try to write 10 Bubblews per day to max out on Sundays around $75 so I write and post those throughout the day and spend about 15 minutes at a time on them.
• I check email like a crack addict and like to keep it clean and organized in there because I HATE not being able to find stuff and after my grandpa died last fall my email was overflowing and was a freaking mess.
• Right now I am doing this blog post to procrastinate working on a nightmare formatting job, so there.

I hope that answers that for you with about 1,000 too many words, friend!

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