Write Good or Die

any job.
    Third, moving my office. I haven’t done that for years. It’s a good excuse not to work, except that I have deadlines, just like you would at a day job. I had to figure out a way to work while I’m in the middle of this transition. Because if it’s not this transition, it’s another transition. Life is full of them, and you have to figure out how to put in your freelance hours, even while everything changes around you.
    But those are bigger events. It’s the small ones that interfere with discipline. Let’s address what I call the whiney complaints.
    First, I would rather read. It took me an entire summer to figure out that reading, for me, will suck all my time out of every single day. I cannot start a book with breakfast or I will read until I go to bed.
    How did I discover this? I had a day job that went part-time. I opted to take the afternoons off. When the job had been full-time, I read during my lunch break. So I continued this habit on the part-time schedule—and got nothing done.
    I tried “disciplining” myself. I would put the book down and try to go to work, only to find myself reading again. “Disciplining”—forcing myself to quit—didn’t work. No matter how hard I tried, I simply could not stop reading, even when I finished the book. I’d move to the next one.
    So the key for me wasn’t quitting reading. It was not starting. I set the books aside until I got x-amount of work done each day.
    This isn’t easy. It required actual hiding of the books. I enlisted my then-husband’s help, making sure the books were out of sight.
    Eventually, I learned that I worked hard and fast if I knew I could read when I was done. I got my work done, and then I read. Problem solved.
    It sounds so easy, but it took months of trial and error. No amount of “forcing” myself got me to change my habits. I had to figure out where the problem started, and nip it in the bud.
    Second, I want cake. (Don’t we all?) That’s usually a sign to me that I’m hungry. I need to figure out if I’m really hungry or—catch this—bored with what I’m doing. If I’m bored, I think I’m hungry, because that’s one of the few things I will get up from my desk to deal with. If I need a meal, I eat. But my subconscious loves to trick me (and my hips) by convincing me to leave when I’m not through.
    Often, the “I’m hungry” reaction comes when I’m working on something particularly difficult or something I don’t want to do. Again, it took many months (and too many calories) to figure this one out. Now, before I get something to eat, I ask myself this: Do I like what I’m working on? If the answer is no, I generally stay at my desk.
    Note that I do not ask myself if I’m hungry. I’ve already identified hungry, and the answer would be yes. But I figured out that my subconscious has learned a mind game to convince me to get away from the computer, one that makes me think I’m hungry (or craving food, like cake) and gets me to leave when I don’t need to.
    We all have mind games like this, and they’re hard to identify. The question should always be: Is work going well? Because if it is, and I’m hungry, I have trouble tearing myself away. If it isn’t, I’ll make up any damn reason to leave my desk.
    Third, I want to watch the news, download e-mail, look at the internet, do Twitter….in other words, do something else entirely.
    This was almost as bad for me as reading was. I learned to keep my office spare. My computer has internet access and it also has e-mail access. I have shut those programs down. I’ve tossed away all games that were initially on my computer. There is no phone or television in my office. I have a stereo and a radio turned to a classical channel. No news of any kind allowed here.
    Why? Because they all distract me. Rather than “discipline” myself to overcome the temptation, I remove the temptation entirely. In order to download my e-mail, I have to go to a different computer, one with an existing e-mail program, and download from there. I need to go to a different room to watch television. I can’t even hear the phone ring in my office.
    These were all tough things to learn. The internet is particularly sneaky because you feel like you’re working when you’re online. You are not working—even if, like me, a small part of your business comes through the internet. You’re not doing your core business. I have a number of writing friends who refuse to remove