Writing Week

My study buddy. He is anything but helpful.

This week is one that I am lovingly/begrudgingly referring to as Writing Week.  I took the whole week off from work to work on my dissertation proposal. Which may explain my stink face when I tell you that I am off this week and you tell me to "Enjoy it." Not exactly.

Rather than enjoyment, what this week really looks like is more like this:

• Using Freedom to minimize distractions. It may seem silly to have to lock my computer off from the Internet for hours at a time, but going "off the grid" seems to work.
• Setting a timer for 50-minute intervals of work, with 10 minute breaks built in to do things like taking out the trash, checking Pinterest, etc. There are hour-increments where I count down the minutes until that break time. Who knew that doing the dishes could sound so exciting?! 
• Opening multiple windows in the house, despite the cold air coming in, to try to distract the cats so that they stop crawling across my laptop and notes, confused as to why I am home. If it means that I have to wear the zebra-print snuggie while I work, so be it. 
• Eating strange combinations of snacks, most of them not healthy, like the leftover Jack's pizza and mint Oreos with coffee for breakfast. Diets are off during Writing Week. 
• Staring at my notes for long periods of time, trying to figure out what magical sentence that I can add that will make this thing feel like it is coming together. And/or finding that one citation that I need that demonstrates that I am not making this up because experts have already said it.
• Finding at least one errand that I can run during the day as an excuse to leave the house.

While this self-imposed week of focus may seem like torture at times, it was necessary to set aside some solid time to work on this thing. Because after a long day of working and coming home to make dinner, it is really hard to want to sit down and write some more. I am hoping to work through large chunks of this proposal this week, so that I can spend future writing time focusing on tweaks and additions.

Here goes. Writing Week: Day 2.