thoughts, like light

- do a short block of work as soon as you wake up, or right after you eat breakfast/drink coffee/whatever your usual morning routine is. The worst thing (for me anyway) is to start by procrastinating or doing something fun, because that throws things off for the rest of the day. I’ll just want to continue doing the “fun” thing. 

- plan your day: this doesn’t have to be a super detailed schedule. I usually write out one or two big-picture goals (e.g. ‘write three paragraphs’, or ‘develop outline for my Dickens chapter’), then break these into tasks which you can work into some sort of schedule. Don’t forget to keep in mind the big picture, e.g. if you’re trying to finish a chapter in two weeks, take that into account in the amount of work you allot to it each day (I am most definitely Not Good at this but struggling my way towards improvement)

- I usually aim to do about 4-7 hours of work per day, and I break this down differently depending on how motivated I feel. For the past couple of days it’s been a real struggle to be productive, so I’ve been doing 30 min work/30 min break to keep things moving. Some other combinations which have worked for me: 

4 x 25 mins (with 5 min breaks) + 30 min break (rinse and repeat)

3 x 30 mins (with 5 min breaks) + 30 min break (rinse and repeat)

If you’re feeling brave, 4 x 60 mins (with 30 min breaks) - I do this if I need to get through all my work in one half of the day.