Happy December 21 from Jeanette. Today I spent a chunk of my writing day on a project that felt like homework. Usually I enjoy the type of assignment involved but this just wasn’t clicking. On top of that, my head was foggy from a cold, both sons are off school, and four days before Christmas all I want to do is bake and watch movies. Can you relate? Then maybe you’ll benefit from how I dealt with it.

1) Since it felt like homework I thought of it as that. Sometimes it helps to say, “This is an assignment so pretend you’re being graded.”
2) I allotted a specific amount of time to the project. It isn’t due for awhile so for today I set a timer in my head and stuck to it. I took the facts that I wasn’t feeling well, had one more project to tackle afterward, and had kids at home into consideration.
3) I let some fun play in the background. My boys wanted to move their game of Risk into my office and I immediately felt the benefit of their presence. Usually I need quiet but today, with Christmas break, it felt good to have family in the room as they tried to take over the world.
4) I gave myself an incentive. Since I wasn’t feeling well I decided that once I finished my work for the day I would take a much-needed nap. When that time came I knew I’d earned it. Tomorrow my reward might be that I can bake cookies with the boys.
5) When time was up I declared myself finished and on to the next thing on my list. That assignment felt surprisingly easy.

If you are trying to write around kids and holiday craziness, try this method. And be sure to work some fun in as you prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth.