30-day challenge update

Speaking of 30-day challenges!

I'm on my last week of working outside the home every day. It's been a good exercise. There were definitely times I wanted to stay home and curl up in a ball (anxiety and depression will do that to you), but I made myself get out and work elsewhere pretty much every weekday.

I always felt more accomplished after going somewhere else and setting up shop (even if it was just down the street to Leslie's house). There's something about the determination to go and be and use my time (and battery life) wisely.

My hope is that I'll keep up the habit most days, if not every day. Especially now that I know that it keeps me productive when I would otherwise dissolve into a nap and/or Doctor Who reruns.

I'm taking 30-day challenge suggestions now for the next month, although I think that my next couple are going to be writing related. I have a manuscript I want to finish before October 31 and then it will be time for NaNoWriMo, my favorite 30-day challenge ever!

Thirty-day Challenge update

My current thirty-day challenge is going pretty well. I spent all last week working at Leslie's house, keeping her kitties company while she was gone... that was perhaps a little lazy, but it did keep me out of the house for more than 2 hours at a time, and I did get a fair amount of work done in the process, so I'm going to call it an overall win.

It's interesting that it was easier for me to be creative about my work spots when I didn't have a car... weird, I guess. But hey, I'm weird.

It's September now, and I'm super excited because I just found out I'll be co-ML (Municipal Liaison) for my region for NaNoWriMo in November. I seriously love NaNo. I was scared of it at first, because I wasn't sure I could write 50,000 words in 30 days. But, I think that's the point. You're supposed to push yourself ... and no one is going to point and laugh at you if you don't reach the goal. But you might surprise yourself.

The first year of NaNo I wrote 30,000 words. I've won it twice since then. And a couple of times in between I fell short. But that's ok! The point is to get out there and give it your best shot.

And now, this year, I get to be a cheerleader for others who are writing, too! I can't wait!

First week of a new challenge

Well, the first week was last week. This is just a recap at the start of week two. Hope you stick with me.

Ok, but before I dive into my 30-day challenge, I have to just say how much I love it that when I google "You should be writing" there's a whole CATEGORY of Benedict Cumberbatch memes. Seriously? I love it so much. Sherlock or no Sherlock, those eyes say "get writing" and I can't refuse them!

My first week of challenging myself to work outside my home every day was not without its obstacles. I had the wrong time for buses and operating hours of businesses... and on the day when I had a car to drive, I had to figure out how to move it and not lose my seat in the cafe where I was working. (This involved talking to actual people that were sitting around me... eek).

But, I felt productive and ... almost like I was living some kind of a scene from a movie. I think I've imagined myself working in crunchy cafes and at the library... it seems very writer-ly.

Now we're on to week two, and I think I have it planned out... but I'm not sure entirely. I will likely revisit a few places, perhaps try a couple new ones... we'll see. Top of my list to return to: Cloud Forest Cafe, Crepeville, and the library (not to mention Leslie's)... which leaves only one place that I'm going to try really hard NOT to go back to... Panera. I really don't like Panera. I only ended up there because I mixed up schedules last week and got to the library three hours before it opened.

I just need to get myself together and get out there. I can do this. It's not scary... well, maybe a little still... but... it's getting better.

Day 30: 30-day #noFacebook challenge - Time to move on

Today's the last day of my 30-day #noFacebook challenge, and I can safely say that my habits have been altered. I was sufficiently able to curb my Facebook use, and I don't think I'll ever return to the way things were before. I feel so much less looming pressure to sit and wait for notifications on something that I've said or posted about.

I am getting used to being alone with my thoughts, again, to not needing the validation that I'm witty or smart or deep. I can just be me and not worry about who I'm presenting myself as. I am me.

As the great Chuck Wendig so eloquently put it in his blog post today: "I will try to be present when the world asks that I be present."

And now it's time to move on.

Yesterday I mentioned a new 30-day challenge I'm going to embark on. I won't post about it in the same way I have the #noFacebook challenge, but it's another important one for me. For the next 30 work days (Monday thru Friday) I will spend at least 2 hours working outside my home.

See, I'm a freelance editor of novels. I get to work at home and read some pretty cool stories, and help authors sculpt their manuscripts into the best book they can write. It's an amazing job, but it takes a lot of time behind the screen. I have been going a little crazy being at my computer in my house all day every day.

But I also have a little anxiety disorder that makes the thought of taking myself anywhere else to work seem like this huge, horrible, scary thing that could never be accomplished. Because what about buses and finding power for my laptop and not being approached by weird scary people and getting thrown out of somewhere because I've been there too long and they don't like me anymore and being hungry or thirsty or needing a bathroom...? All the worst case scenarios I can think of... right now...

Obviously those are all not life-threatening problems and most are easily surmountable, but when you have anxiety disorder it makes everything seem unsolvable and life-threatening. So... yesterday, with a little extra encouragement from my good friend Gabriela over at DIY MFA, I ventured out into the wild for the first of my thirty days of working outside my home.

Yesterday's plan was to hit the library at 10, work for a couple hours, and then reward myself with a tasty lunch that was on the bus route home. Only the library didn't open until 1! (A worst case scenario I hadn't accounted for.) I almost went home right then, but it was my first day of challenging myself and I was determined. So I walked a mile to the downtown area and found some food and a seat with a plug next to it at Panera. And I spent three hours plowing through a frustrating manuscript to finish it instead of needing to work on it again today.

Today I'm at the library. Got here at 1:30. I got the bus schedule wrong, so I ended up spending an extra ten minutes waiting at the stop because it wasn't long enough for me to walk back to my apartment and wait, but now I'm here I have a good seat with a plug for my laptop and I'm shaking off the frustration that the library opened at 10 today... I'll get it right eventually.

My goal in all this is to face a fear, no matter how trivial it may seem to the rest of the world... and to eventually give my brain some external stimulus and help me feel more connected to the city in which I live.

So, reader, what about you? What fears do you need to face? How can you push yourself to try something new and different, even if it's a little scary? What new habit do you want to cultivate that I can encourage you in?

Day 29: 30-day #noFacebook challenge - The Penultimate Day

I've normalized my Facebook addiction in the sense that I don't NEED it anymore... but I feel that if I were to revert to my earlier way of thinking, if I let myself use Facebook whenever I wanted, it would take back over pretty quickly. So I'm not going to. I'm going to keep this once a day Facebook restriction as part of my every day. No more 30 day challenge after tomorrow... just normal life.

In other news, today I'm staring a new 30-day challenge (with some caveats that I'll explain later)... I'm going to try working outside my home. I'm a freelance editor by day, and while I love love love the job, the flexibility, the actual work... it can get challenging living inside the same 4 walls I work in.

So I'm challenging myself to get out and work in different places around my community this week. There are psychological reasons why this will be a) hard and b) totally worthwhile for me. So I'm diving in today! I'll let you know where I end up.

Day 24: 30-day #noFacebook challenge - Almost

I've pretty much decided to keep this restricted Facebook access habit. I like being in control of it instead of it being in control of me, is what it comes down to. There's no need for me to hover over the site waiting for notifications to pop up. I can get on with life just fine without them.

I'm wondering what my next 30-day challenge will be... I like the finite-ness of 30 days. It's not all that long, but long enough to make you feel like you've accomplished something when you get through it.

Leave suggestions for me? I'll give them due consideration and let you know in a few days what I decide to take on next!

Day 22: 30 day #noFacebook challenge - Real life is no piece of cake!

It's been 22 days. I haven't posted here every day like I wanted to, but I'm going to cut myself a little slack. I was participating in (and winning) Camp NaNo, so my writing time went elsewhere. But I also, in not hovering around Facebook every waking moment, spend a lot less time online in general. Which was not unexpected, I suppose, but... it has interesting side effects, this #noFacebook challenge.

What I've noted, now that I think the honeymoon period is over, is that real life is no piece of cake either. I have hit my head against a few walls in dealing with relationships people that I love dearly and who love me that I might not have hit if I'd been self-medicating with online interaction. But now I'm out in the open, floundering around and dealing with life while it's in front of me. And it's not necessarily pretty. But I'm trying. And no one has died yet. So... there's that.

I guess that, if you're going to try a challenge like this, you have to start from a belief that real life is worth the extra time that you're going to give it. And I do believe that, even with all its bumps and bruises. Life is worth living unmasked.