by MP MacDougall | Productivity, Writing
I was on a roll this morning.
I had worked diligently on my novel, and was kicking around ideas for a post to the site, but I had to take a break, for, umm… er…
OK, OK, I had to use the bathroom.
Yup, being an author is pretty glamorous.
Anyway, I closed my laptop and went off to take care of the necessities, if not the niceties, of daily life. I planned to come back and work on a blog post, then do some bits of site management.
In other words, I was being productive, and feeling pretty good about it. One little bathroom break wasn’t going to break my stride. (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Editing, Productivity, Writing
Yesterday I discussed time management, and how it can be useful for more than just keeping track of hourly earnings.
If you use time management software to track your productivity, you probably already know its value – but if you’re new to the topic, which program do you choose?
To be perfectly honest, I can’t really help you choose between two or more programs, because when I went looking for time management software to track my editing projects, I used the first one I tried – and never looked any further.
I’ve been using the free version of (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Editing, Productivity, Writing
I need more time.
Writing takes time.
Editing takes time.
Posting to this site takes time.
The day job takes a lot of time.
The question is, where can I steal more time for what I really want to get done? (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Productivity, Writing
Yesterday’s post was a breakthrough of sorts.
It helped me to realize that my writing challenge can (and should) be accomplished with more than just blog posts. This site exists to give me a platform for my fiction writing, but if writing content for the site keeps me from writing fiction – it sort of defeats the purpose. I have to find a happy medium between writing usable and/or entertaining content and writing fiction for eventual publication. (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity, Writing
Yesterday my friend John Muldoon from Monthly Experiments asked me a great question about my ongoing Write Every Day challenge:
“Hey MP. I have a question about your writing habit. From our perspective, watching your journey has been fantastic and inspiring. But how do YOU feel about all of this? I’d love to know what this journey has been like for you so far.”
Like I said, great question.
I’ve been so busy trying to stick to the parameters of the challenge (write/post something every day for as long as I can keep it up) that I didn’t really pay much attention to the side effects it might be having on other areas of my life (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Editing, Productivity, Writing
My comparison of mind mapping software concludes here with a look at MINDMAP 7, by ConceptDraw.
At first glance, MINDMAP 7 by ConceptDraw is a much more polished product than XMind 2012. That’s not to say that XMind couldn’t be a useful tool – I think it could. The two may be very similar in features, but I suspect the major differences will come down to pricing. ConceptDraw offers a 21 day free trial for MINDMAP 7, while XMind has an unlimited time for its free version. XMind’s freeware, however, is seriously limited in the amount of features it allows, requiring the serious user to purchase the full version to get at most of the more complex tools.
XMind’s full version with all the bells and whistles will set you back (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity, Writing
I wonder what the most common phrase is that people utter right before they do something they’ll regret. I’ll bet it’s one of these:
“Come on, it’s easy!”
“I know how this works.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“It can’t be that hard!”
“Don’t help me, I can do it myself.”
“Watch this!”
I especially like the last one – it paints a mental picture (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity
Today I found out that I may have to take up to a 20% pay cut at my day job.
Pretty alarming news, when you think about it. Losing even part of your paycheck elicits feelings of instant panic and doubt about the future, unless you put things in the proper perspective.
Initially, I worried about what losing one fifth of my paycheck would mean to my family. Then I started to look for the silver lining in the dark cloud. I was able to find two reasons to maintain my calm and see the positive in the situation.
First, (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Productivity, Writing
Stagnation.
Every author runs into it at one time or another. That point where no ideas break loose, no words come, and the keyboard grins up at you with evil contempt. Your stream of consciousness turns into a slimy, moss-covered retention pond with a foul smell. All the brilliant ideas you had yesterday are now somehow eluding you, and you feel like you couldn’t come up with an original thought if your life depended on it.
So how do you break through? (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity, Writing
Life is not a spectator sport.
Modern society, however, is set up to encourage spectators rather than participants.
We live vicariously through video games, reality TV and social media – and the net effect is that we build habits that keep us on the sidelines; keep us from getting in the game ourselves.
For too long, I allowed this trap to keep me from pursuing my writing. I also used it as an excuse to let myself go physically – after all, it’s a heck of a lot easier to watch a triathlon than it is to compete in one. (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity, Writing
Writing every day is helping me to get more non-writing tasks done.
Sound silly?
Let me explain.
Since I stared this writing challenge, I’ve been purposefully controlling my time better, in order to have time to write. The side effect of my nascent time management has been that not only do I make time to write; now I’m more productive with the rest of my time, because I don’t want anything interfering with (more…)
by MP MacDougall | Lifestyle Design, Productivity, Writing
Today, I weighed 17 pounds less than I did a month ago.
I haven’t been checking my weight obsessively – I’ll weigh myself about once a week; maybe more, maybe less, because I know that weight is not an accurate measurement of fitness or health – it’s only a (more…)
