This blog is about making the most of your downtime. In the previous blog, Can’t Insures That You Won’t, I talked a little bit about thinking outside the box and finding creative solutions to do the things that you want to do. In this blog I want to take it just a little bit deeper and focus on what to do during downtime.
Now I realize all of us need down time, as in rest and relaxation, but some of us just have activities that seem to eat away at us. Times when we can’t really accomplish anything because we’re running a kid here and there, or we have to sit in traffic or stand in line. It’s unproductive time, let’s say.
Well, I came up with this little rhyme as I was sitting here watching my kids climb the wrong way up a slide at the playground.
Notebooks at ballet and rough drafts on Kindle.
My mom’s a huge Sound of Music fan and she likes to hum along to the tune “My Favorite Things”. I honestly don’t know a single word to it. Enough of you probably recognize the tune and this will stick in your head anyway. So notebooks at ballet and rough drafts on Kindle is a little funny way of how I carved time out when I was sitting for three hours a week at the dance studio with my daughters. I have four daughters, all of whom enjoy tap, jazz and ballet. As a homeschooling mom I like to let them participate in extra-curricular activities as much as possible so that they get a chance to interact with peers in different environments.
What I started doing is when I went to ballet I carried a notebook with me and I would jot down ideas and outlines for blogs or for stories and just kind of let my creative brain flow. I would sit there and catch snippets of conversation and watch the way people interacted and let my brain meander. Just kind of having some downtime. But I kept a notebook close by because invariably I would start to hear snippets of dialog in my head or various other things because my mind was open.
Now the rough drafts on Kindle is for the assessment that I do for clients. Most, if not all, of you know that I do assessments as part of my Writing Career Coach package of services. With assessments I’ll read through someone’s manuscript and give them an idea of strengths and weaknesses. It’s not a detailed edit; it’s more an overview of the story itself. What I found is by emailing myself these rough drafts to my Kindle, I was able to sit at dance and sit when I’m waiting in the car for one of my kids or if I have a little bit of down time I could scroll through my books. Sometimes I want to read a novel, sometimes I want to read a book on writing and sometimes I want to just read a manuscript for one of my clients. So that’s what I was doing to help me save time. Notebooks at ballet and rough drafts on Kindle is just another example of ways that we can take advantage of our down time.
So why don’t you take some time today and think of the places and the activities that maybe steal your time and think of ways that you can use them. Whether it’s sitting quietly and observing people or whether it’s perusing through a book or even getting a book on CD and listening to it while you’re stuck in traffic going to and from your day job. Whatever is it keep in mind that your favorite things will come when you’re able to focus on making the most of your down time.
Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.
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