Distracted Writing Awareness

Or, alternately…Turn Off the Notifications…

In my continuing quest to figure out how I’m going to get everything done I have to spend time realizing that I’m not going to get everything done.

And, that takes time.

I am not Superman. You do not want to see me in those tights.

Or out of them, for that matter.

I digress.

In further digression, the Christopher Reeve Superman came out while I was in college. My college drama professor bore a striking resemblance to Reeve…but he got rather annoyed when we made the comparison.

That’s another story.

And, another distraction.

Okay, first I know that there’s good reason to consider that I’m trying to do too many things.

I mean, in addition to the day job, I’m in a show that opens on Friday night [A Little Piece of Heaven], the night that closes I conduct the first round of auditions for the show I’m directing in June [Doublewide, Texas], my script Clean Dry Socks: Diary of a Doughboy may very well be produced next season (details to come), on top of that I’m submitting it to a couple of writing competitions, and I just confirmed a directing job for next season (Spring 2019, details to come).

Novel? What novel?

Yard? What yard?

You get the point.

So, I’ve been doing an assessment of what tools I have, and what tools I need to make it all happen, to keep up with the theater projects, to keep up with the blog(s), to keep up with the writing.

And then…you know…have a life and a family and an active faith…and a yard that doesn’t annoy my neighbors.

I’ve given up on the “Yard of the Month” goal. I’m simply striving for the “Yard that doesn’t make us call the authorities” consolation prize.

So, there’s a constant reshuffling of priorities and projects and a continual assessment of what is really important.

As I said to friend earlier this week, and as I’ve said before “the juggle is real.”

That means I have to find a way to more productively use my time. To consider where I’m wasting time. To consider what might be taking my time that’s not that important.

I’m going to have to do it.

I’m going to have to turn off the notifications.

I mean, my phone is constantly by my side. While I have it on silent, the screen still manages to flash when there’s a message or notification.

When I keep the Facebook and email windows open, I see how many notices I’ve got.

And of course I want to check them as soon as I can.

After all, someone might have said something.

More importantly…they might be wrong.

I have to fix that.

No, no I don’t.

While I like the immediacy of the communication…if it really is the communication…in most cases it’s not urgent.

All of the time management experts tell you to pick a time to check your email, and to check in on social media.

So, I’m going to try.

Not to worry, if there’s an emergency you can call or text me. My phone will still let me know that. And it’s set to ring only for my favorites, so that’s family and a few close friends.

Few.

Then again, if you want to be on my favorites list you can hit the tip jar on your way out.

Or not.

Where was I? I got distracted.

My reality is that, during the workday, I can’t turn off the notifications for work-related email. I avoided the instant messenger option as long as I could until I was told I had to have it activated.

But, I can shut down Gmail, and Facebook. And I’ll be going through all the phone apps to turn off the notifications.

I don’t get notifications on Twitter until I sign in. Maybe it’s an age thing, but I’ve not learned to use Twitter well. I spend too much time trying to figure out where the conversations are going…or not going.

I’m not talking about shutting these down just while I’m at the day office. I need to shut them down at home when I’m trying to write, or create, or direct.

I can do it. I mean I shut off my phone in church, or at the movies, or the theater.

Amazingly, it’s all waiting for me right there when I get back.

We’ll see if this new effort makes me a more productive writer or director or actor or anything…or whether it stresses me out because somewhere, someone on the Internet might be wrong.

It’s a burden. Someone will have to correct them.

If they can wait a few hours, it might be me.

In other news, American soprano and actress, Marni Nixon was born on this day in 1930 (died 2016). You may not know who she was, but you’ve likely heard her voice.

This is Nixon singing Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music. She didn’t dub this song for the movie, but made her only on screen appearance as Sister Sophia. She did dub songs for Natalie Wood (West Side Story), Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady), and Deborah Kerr (The King and I), among others.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowedge that yesterday, we here on Earth said farewell to a remarkable servant of God. Our loss is heaven’s gain.

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Cover Photo by Pascal Christen on Unsplash