Motivation begets Amotivation – how to find the time

Did you notice that I posted five times last week?  I was playing catch up on some books that I’d finished over the last couple of weeks and stayed motivated to write all week.  I had this really intense manic phase where I, for a brief period of time, lived the life I wanted:  I woke at 4:15am, journaled every morning, read every morning, and then after I put the boys to sleep at night, I wrote a blog post every night, and then followed that with more reading.  According to my fitbit, I averaged about 5 hours of sleep that week, but that’s okay – I’ll take it!  Who really needs sleep anyway?
Actually… *I* do!  The crash is always so close behind.  Always!  So I’m back to the drawing board, because it didn’t quite work out for me.  And on top of it all, I am trying to find a way to spend more time writing.  To reach that goal, I’ll be playing the lottery until the end of my days.

“But Katie,” my brain often says, “you’re a woman.  You can multi-task!”  And then tonight I turned around and my 1.5 year old was sucking on the sprayer of a spray bottle filled with cleaning solution.  My 3 year old wouldn’t stop looking for the chocolate chips that I hid from him and threw a humongous fit over their disappearance.  It’s INSANITY!  My heart is full but my hands are fuller, let me tell ya.

I also happen to remember giving myself a break about not writing lately, but dang it!  It’s time to put the coffeepot on.  Here’s a couple of handy ways to help you find some more time in your day for writing:

1. Quit your job.  You’ll have plenty of time during the day with all of your newfound freedom.   And knowing that you have no money coming in and that you’re probably gonna lose your house is motivation to get to work!
2. If quitting your job is too extreme, consider carving out considerable amounts of time to work on your own personal projects at work.  If you play your cards right and become a truly useless employee, no one will even notice.
3. Delete all of your social media accounts.  Sure, they’re all self-promotion paradise, but if you haven’t got any of your own work to show off, what are you going to promote?
4. Pretend that the judges at the MacArthur Foundation are following your work and are just waiting to hand over that genius prize to you.  Dammit, you are SO close!
5. Volunteer to be a guinea pig for a lab that is manufacturing human beings that require no sleep.  You might just get paid for it AND if it works, you won’t need to sleep anymore – bonus!

This is my smart-alecky way to say that I’m doing the best I can.  We are all doing the best we can, right?  I plan on forcing myself to lighten up, enjoy the moment, and to keep plugging away!