writing

Uncluttered Office Equals Focused Mind

Published on by Kristi Holl

Are you ever overwhelmed by clutter (even good clutter)?

This will be primarily a photo sharing blog post—and you can skip to the last half of the post if you want to—but I want to share what prompted my office decluttering project.

I have a small 10-foot X 10-foot office which holds a treadmill/desk, a computer desk, a large table, and nine bookcases. 

Plenty of room for books, right?

You’d think so, but I also had books stacked everywhere, and no place to work or spread out research and papers. I have writing deadlines I must meet this summer, but I couldn’t settle down to work in my terribly cluttered office.

What To Do When Life Happens: Buy Books!

Since January when I broke my hand, followed by a couple of eye surgeries, things have piled up in my office. The rest of my house is junk free (other than closets and pantry), but I struggle with my office. Especially considering my bargain book-buying habit.

Lately, I’ve avoided my office, but there’s no other good place in my house to work. The chairs elsewhere hurt my back. There’s noise (even though I have a quiet husband). And my reference materials are stored in the office.

I thought my trouble was focusing as I’ve tried to get a grasp on my writing time since returning from vacation. But when reading I Was Busy, Now I’m Not by Joseph Peck, I was struck rather forcibly by this statement:

“There are two things to organize—your time and your space… Removing clutter from your physical environment helps you think more clearly and brings more peace. Getting organized is crucial to the matter of redeeming the time.”

Where Do I Start? Unclutter 101

I had tried to straighten up my office many times, but I simply had no room for everything, especially the books I had collected for the last 25 years. What to do? As when dealing with any issue, I figured there was help available “out there,” and so there was. I found the Becoming Minimalist website and signed up for a 12-week Uncluttered course. I thought that surely, with the help of videos and weekly email pep talks, I could bite the bullet and get my office functional again.

One weekend and fourteen fewer bags of books later, it looks terrific. (See the contrast below.) All the book shelves are still full, but the floors are clear, I can see the treadmill again, I re-discovered so many unread books, and I can find things! Five bags of books were donated to the Book Cellar downtown for re-sale, and nine bags of books went out in the trash. (I mark up all my nonfiction and scribble notes all over the margins, and no one wants them for re-sale.)

Saying Good-Bye to Friends

I grieved, truly, as I parted with my books. I glanced in many of them, noting the dates and messages in the margins which reminded me of what I was dealing with at the time. Those writing books and self-help books chronicled my various recoveries over the years, and those books were like my friends. Those authors and their support or advice were always at my fingertips. If only I could have kept them all!

Here are the before and after photos of various parts of my office. There are many British photos and mementos from my trips to England, and yes, my mini Christmas tree with the British ornaments stays up all year. I love my office now and can’t wait to go in there in the morning. The minute I sit down at my cleared-off desk, I actually feel focused. And I am still surrounded by a ton of books, which makes me really happy.

If you need to do this too, I hope you bite the bullet. You may find that it’s the only cure you need to give yourself instant focus.

BEFORE and AFTER Removing the Clutter

   

   

 

   

 

For other ways to focus, try some of these articles.

Making Memories with Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pioneer Girl

Published on by Kristi Holl

In a slight departure from the writing tips posts, I want to share some photos of the homesteads where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. I just returned from touring sites with my youngest daughter and her two girls (ages 6 and 8).

My granddaughters read the Laura books this past year, and my own three girls were raised on them. They visited Independence KS and Walnut Grove before I caught up with them. These are photos from De Smet SD and Mansfield MO. 

The pictures below are mostly from De Smet, where we could take more photos of the hands-on experiences. (Rules prohibited photos inside the actual Ingalls homes and surveyor’s house.) There is also a photo “On the Shores of Silver Lake” in De Smet.

The last two photos are from Mansfield MO, at Laura and Almanzo’s home where they lived many years. (They built that huge farmhouse by hand themselves, one room at a time as they could afford it, with materials found on the farm.) Everything in the house was exactly the way Laura left it when she died in 1957. For us devoted Laura fans, it was incredible getting to see Pa’s fiddle and the two items saved when Laura and Almanzo’s first home burned down, among dozens of other personal effects.

Laura, the Writer

As a writer, I loved seeing Laura’s writing desk, left exactly as it was the day she died. (I loved that a letter from her publisher lay on her desk. It was called Harper & Brothers then. I’ve had a number of books published by HarperCollins, as it is now called.) I know it’s rather silly, but I also loved seeing her Blue Willow dishes in her kitchen. (I have collected them since I got a child’s Blue Willow tea set when I was young.) A kindred soul!

For all you Laura fans out there, here’s my mini tribute to a tough, sensitive, gritty, wonderful pioneer girl and writer. ENJOY!

At De Smet, South Dakota 

Mansfield, MO

Blasting Off: Reclaiming a Daily Writing Habit

Published on by Kristi Holl

I launched my writing rocket 35 years ago. With a daily writing habit, it took off and kept my career orbiting, despite getting off-course sometimes and necessitating a re-calculation. In theory, a re-launch would never be required. 

But the last couple of years have wreaked havoc with my writing routine. Breaking my left wrist in four places, learning to type again, losing my mom, breaking my right hand in two places, two eye surgeries (one of which went awry), and a couple other major life “events” meant that I have spent the last few years learning how to start again . . . and again . . . and yet again. 

Why So EXHAUSTING?

Thank you to each one of you who wrote to ask if I were okay. I really appreciated that. I knew that I both needed and wanted to get back to blogging. First, I needed to face the fact that I’d replaced my iron-clad writing routine with a “maybe I will, I’m so tired, maybe I won’t write today” attitude. That needed fixing first. I had succumbed to Newton’s first law where objects at rest tended to stay at rest!

I tried to get back into my former writing routine (devotions early in the morning, followed by a time block of four hours for writing). Even with my mental flogging, I could only manage that routine for a few days. Then I cut back to two hours, then half an hour, and then gave up altogether for three or four days.

I had no energy for it! But why? I was happy when writing, but instead of energizing me again, it wore me out now! That really worried me.

Pull of Inertia Vs. Lift-Off

The answer came when I was listening to a podcast last week. Someone mentioned how much energy a rocket needed for lift-off. Did you know that 70% of the fuel on board a rocket is used up during take-off, trying to escape the pull of the earth’s gravity? Seventy percent! The rest, a measly 30%, is all that is needed to get to the moon and back (or wherever the rocket is headed) once the rocket is up to speed.

A light bulb went on when I heard that. Getting started with my writing routine again seemed to take so much energy each time. Apparently it wasn’t my imagination either. I always knew that getting started was the hardest part, but now it made sense why. It took more than half of my energy! I was in the habit now of sitting, not writing, or watching Britbox mysteries, not writing.

So it was no wonder that, after overcoming my inertia, I had little energy left for writing.

Blast Off? Who’s Kidding Who?

Did you ever notice how S-L-O-W those rockets lift off? They don’t blast off! They make lots of noise, raise lots of dust and smoke, shake and shimmy, and barely move an inch or two. Then more noise and dust, and they lift off six inches, then a foot. But it takes a lot of noise and effort and time to reach any kind of speed or escape velocity.

And that is exactly how we “lift off” again when our daily writing habit has been disturbed a few times. We shake and shimmy, make noise and smoke, burn more than half our energy, and lift off an inch at a time. But we DO lift off!

A Daily Writing Habit: Give It Time

If my theory was right, I knew what to do. I tried something new.  I granted myself the grace to admit how much energy it took to get started again. If actually sitting down and creating words out of thin air again was going to take 70% of my energy, then I wouldn’t expect my remaining 30% to produce four solid hours of writing.

No.

Instead, I expected to write one full hour with my remaining energy. That mini goal equaled a very successful day. I’ve followed that routine all week, and I’ve succeeded five days in a row so far. Actually, today I went beyond the hour because I still had some energy left. I doubled my daily word count, in fact, but was no more tired than yesterday after one hour.

THIS IS THE POWER OF HABITS, in my opinion. That is why I aim to write daily from now on. I never want to get back to the place where simply attaining “lift off” takes 70% of my energy. With a daily writing habit, you slip into it almost without effort. That leaves about 95% of your energy–NOT 30%–for your writing.

And that’s the kind of magical writing day that leaves you more energized than you began.

ARGH! I’ve Done It Again

Published on by Kristi Holl

As I announced before the holidays, I planned to take a break from social media for a month. I did that, and soon I will write about some of those results.

But lately I’ve received several emails asking if something was wrong and why I didn’t resume the blog in January. 

Well, it’s because I did it again.

History Repeats Itself

Less than two years ago I tripped and fell in the backyard, breaking my wrist in four places. Healing involved being in three different casts for three months, then learning how to type all over again due to a frozen wrist.

This time my accident was much less serious, but when I fell in early January, I broke my right hand (and I’m right-handed). The first picture below I got off the Internet. It shows which bone is broken, but mine broke in three pieces instead of two. 

At first, I couldn’t move my arm, wrist, hand, or fingers. Now I’m in a removable cast and can wiggle my fingers and shower without a plastic bag!

                                    

Online . . . Sort Of

For several weeks, I answered email and completed copy-editing projects typing with my left index finger. You can imagine how long it took. Occasionally I use my Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, but unless you are writing a rough draft, I haven’t found it terribly helpful, at least not during the book editing phase I am working on.

As you can see, I’m getting around just fine. Last week I was even able to accompany my youngest daughter’s family on a trip to Washington, DC.

I had never been there before, and it was so very inspiring. We toured about a dozen museums and government buildings, but my favorite was the Lincoln Memorial.

Any Tips?

Thank you for the kind comments I received in the email and on Facebook. If any of you are prone to falling or have very breakable bones, please send me any tips you have for avoiding falls. I have done the obvious things, like making the shower safe and putting nightlights in every room of the house, but I’m sure there are lots more things I could be doing so this doesn’t happen again.

I plan to be back to the blog very soon. Next week I get my hand x-rayed again to see if it is mending. If the bones are starting to stick together, I can avoid surgery for sure. I also have cataract surgery next week, which I am very excited about. Very soon I should be able to type again and actually see the keyboard without squinting! I can’t wait!

 

Minimalist Living and the Internet: a Productive Partnership

Published on by Kristi Holl

Today I read a blog post in my Inbox about making great use of the Internet and smartphones without wasting time and trading your life for it. The web post by Barking Up the Wrong Tree author (Eric Barker) is HIGHLY worth your time.

Please head over there right now. You’ll find yourself nodding and saying, “Yes! Yes!” as you read.

After reading the post, I went immediately to pre-order the book being discussed: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport. His solutions are made in heaven for everyone, I think, but especially for those of us who write.

While you are waiting for Newport’s new book to be released, I hope you will get a copy of his previous bestseller (Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World) and read it too.

Best of Both Worlds

Writers: like Dorothy, we aren’t in Kansas anymore. Do you want to do the writing of your dreams, but still be part of the digital age? Then get this expert advice. I think, if we apply these principles, we can have the best of both worlds.

So, don’t waste another minute. Read the preview here.

Domino Effect: Watching Good Habits Fall into Place

Published on by Kristi Holl

I read a lot about habits. I used to focus on breaking bad habits because I had a lot of them. Then I had a few so-so years where things were mediocre. That was better, but not the life I wanted, especially in my health and career. Enter the studies on building good habits that stick. I wanted vibrant good health and a career where I could afford to write what I loved . . . period.

My favorite “habits” books (by writers James Clear, Neil Fiore, Michael Hyatt, and Stephen Guise) pointed out a concept that was a huge turning point for me. I often overwhelmed myself with lists of goals (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and career goals.) I tried to do them all because they ALL seemed important to me. That would last a week, tops. Usually less.

What’s the Answer?

Then I noticed a concept that Michael Hyatt called a “push goal” and James Clear called a “keystone habit.” It pinpointed the ONE habit that, if accomplished, made all the other habits so much easier to do! For some people, exercise is that habit. (If they do that first thing in the day, they are more disciplined all day long in other habits.) For others, the keystone habit is a time of quiet devotions first thing in the day, to gain clarity and peace and make the remaining day’s habits much more likely to be achieved. Yet others are like me now: my keystone habit or push goal is sufficient sleep!

A bad night’s sleep or very shortened hours usually means that my following day will include more junk food, more Netflix, less exercise, and less writing because of headaches and brain fog. A wonderful night’s sleep gives me a day just the opposite, ending with satisfaction that I am further along the way to all of my goals. This is referred to as the domino effect.

Your keystone or push goal habit often changes as you age or go through various life circumstances. When my children were toddlers and babies, my keystone habit was my quiet time in the morning, even if it started at 4:30 a.m. A few years later when I was working full-time, my keystone habit revolved around my evening/bedtime routines so that my systems were place for the next day. Right now, with age and an autoimmune disease, my push goal habit is a good night’s sleep. (That includes what it takes to get one, like less screen time at night and eliminating certain foods.) 

Take Time to Evaluate

Look at your own life and goals. Really think about this. Which one or two habits, if faithfully followed, give you overall better days than if you achieve any other goal? After you identify that goal or habit, push it to the top of your list. Make it small at first so you actually do it. (Walking 15 minutes is a better push goal than running for an hour, at least at first.)

Identify your one keystone habit. Do it daily. And then watch those dominoes fall!

Six Days Until NaNoWriMo–Time to Gear Up!

Published on by Kristi Holl

NaNoWriMo (the shortened name for National Novel Writing Month) begins November 1st. I wasn’t planning to join this year, but I realized this week that (for several reasons), I had lost momentum on my novel since coming home from England.

So what better way to get back in the writing habit pronto than joining NaNoWriMo again? It’s worked for me in the past, and it’s free!

Instead of explaining what NaNoWriMo involves and how to prepare for it, I will point you to a previous post that should answer many questions. Exploring the NaNoWriMo website will answer the rest. If you need a shot in your writing arm, or a kick in the pants, there’s hardly a better way to get you writing a lot than NaNoWriMo.

Is NaNoWriMo For Me?

Here’s a good overview of the November event, including all the “extras” you get when you sign up (pep talks by famous writers, an archive of pep talks dating back to 2007, three free writing-focused classes with handouts to help you prepare for November, and much more!)

However, PLEASE NOTE: I am NOT running a challenge group this year. The challenge mentioned in the older article was just for that year. Even though I’m not running a challenge or accountability group this year, I may team up with one other person to hold me accountable. Sharing the struggle and the victory is always sweeter with a writing friend.

The Fun Side of Research: Local Color

Published on by Kristi Holl

Even though I had done months of reading and research before my stay in the Yorkshire village of Settle, I learned so much more by living there a month. 

How I loved all the small town events in the village: folk singing many nights in the pub, a weekly market day every Tuesday, the weekend organized hikes up into the moors to see caves and waterfalls, and talks at the library and museum by people with first-hand accounts of events. And while I didn’t see any front porches with swings, nearly everyone had a gorgeous flower garden out front or window boxes bursting with blooms. This usually meant plenty of gardeners to chat with when you went for a walk.

I will talk later about the people I met, the museum programs I went to, the help I received from two authors and a museum curator there, and the retired folks who told fascinating stories of WWII involvement and working on the railroad during the steam train era. That kind of research was invaluable. Just as colorful, though, were the little local traditions that varied from village to village, the things that made each village unique.

The Settle Flowerpot Festival

One fun tradition in this small village involved making flower pot people and animals for their annual flower pot competition. The event was over by the time we visited Settle, but a few of the homes and businesses still had them on display. So, just for fun, here are a few. Will I use this information in the book I’m working on? Maybe. It’s authentic local color, the kind of detail that hadn’t shown up in anything I’d read or seen online. 

These are just a sampling of the flowerpot people and animals I saw on my walks. Can you tell what these creatures are?

   

  

  

  

Simple fun. Certainly creative. The fun side of research.

 

Writing á la Pavlov

Published on by Kristi Holl

In previous weeks I’ve shared why I went AWOL for months, the need to rest, reflect and realign, how to re-figure your writing output, and how to avoid burnout in the first place.

What if you’re ready to write again?

You may not have hours every day to write, or you may have tight deadlines. So you need to make the most of your time. And that means getting started quickly. 

Write on Cue

A jump-starting activity is something that makes your brain realize immediately that “now it’s time to write!” If Pavlov’s dogs could be trained to salivate at the ringing of a bell, I thought surely I could learn to write on command.

Rituals and Routines

I’ve always loved reading about other writers’ rituals, the things they do to “prime the pump” for writing. I never felt much need–nor wanted to use the writing time–to do much of that myself. The writing exercises would take me 30-60 minutes and Julia Cameron’s morning pages took me an hour. (I consider myself a pretty fast writer, but most of the things that “only take 10-15 minutes” take me considerably longer–including these blog posts.)

What I needed, I realized, was a short cue along the lines of the ringing bell for Pavlov’s dog. I needed something to trigger an automatic writing response–and it needed to be something I could do at home, on the road, or when staying with my grandkids.

Time-Tested Help

If your writing time is short–and you need to get started quickly–here are some rituals and routines that other writers have used:

  • Light a special lamp or candle
  • Put on a particular kind of music that works for you (Lyrics? Instrumental?)
  • Prayer, meditation and/or affirmations for writers
  • Hot tea or hot chocolate
  • Eat a banana or apple or something healthy
  • A short walk–ten minutes or so
  • Stack dishwasher, pick up house (Some writers do this for their jumpstart, but it doesn’t appeal to me!)

Again, I needed short things to do. The danger is always that the ritual takes over your whole writing time. If you have all day to write, that’s a different ball game. You can take a whole hour to get started, if you want to.

Make a List

It’s a good idea to have a number of rituals to choose from too. “Create as many practices as you can, because sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t,” says Vinita Hampton Wright in The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life. “Their effectiveness will vary. When one thing doesn’t help so much, go to something else…adapting practices according to the season of the year.”

This makes sense to me. While in the winter, a good cup of hot chocolate is perfect, during hot Texas summers, it’s about the last thing you want. I think a written list posted near my writing space would be a good idea too. I might have a whole list of rituals to choose from, but so often when I try to think of one, they all escape me.

If you want to read more about the power of these little habits, see a book by Mason Curry called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. In the book 161 artists, writers, and other creative types give insights into the specific rituals they use to get the creative juices flowing on command.

And doesn’t that sound appealing?

Honor the Writing Process

Published on by Kristi Holl

Every piece of new writing is a voyage into the unknown. There are things you can do that help the writing process–many things! There are just as many that dishonor the writing process.

[Reminder: While writing in England, I am re-posting favorite articles from the past. This one from four years ago still helps me today!]

Wiser published writers than I am often say, “You have to honor the process.” What does that mean exactly? I think it means you have to accept the complexity of writing, how it happens for you, and what you need in order to nurture the process. (Simple example: If you know you need seven hours of sleep in order to write well the next morning, you honor the process when you go to bed early enough to sleep those hours. You dishonor your writing process by staying up till all hours and arriving at the keyboard the next morning in a mental fog.)

Ways You Dishonor the Process

There are many ways we unknowingly and accidentally dishonor the writing process. We may:

  • get a great idea for a story, but wait until we have time later to write it down, and when “later” comes, we can’t remember it.
  • rush into writing a rough draft before we’ve given the idea time to gestate.
  • tolerate habits detrimental to our health.
  • allow such critical voices in our heads that everything we write sounds like rubbish, so we give up in discouragement.

We all probably dishonor our writing process in different ways, depending on personalities.

Ways You Honor the Process

If you wanted to honor the writing process, you might:

In Deep Writing, Eric Maisel made this observation:

“I hope that you’ll take seriously the notion that you can help or harm the writing process and that, in a corner of awareness, you already know which of the two you are doing… When you find the courage to explore your own truth about honoring and dishonoring the process, some writing successes are bound to happen.”

What about you? In what ways do you honor the writing process? Make one small change today that honors your writing. (And then, tomorrow, make another one!)