You’d think being semi-retired (or as I call it, creatively unemployed) would give me more time to do the things I like to do, more time to be creative.
Nah. Things seem to intervene to prevent a focused approach on creativity these days. Not to mention that my Rogers internet crashed for a couple of days because their servers couldn’t keep my IP constant, so I was cast adrift from my virtual life and back into the depths of the printed work – poking through the mini-library upstairs.
Most of yesterday was spent cleaning and reloading files after my blueagaveforum.com site got hacked. Two hours wasted on the phone trying to get some advice from Norton tech service, which ended up with one of their techies resetting my browser setup, which required another 30-45 minutes of tinkering to get it working as I had before. Meanwhile I was searching through hundreds of PHP files for the source of the malicious code. At the end of the day I was back to where I had been last week.
The Red Queen’s Race: you run as fast as you can in order to stay in the same place.
On the plus side, I get to listen to a lot more CBC Radio during the day. That’s good and bad. Bad because I get distracted by some of CBC’s superb content and turn my attention to the radio and away from my writing. Some days I just have to shut it off to get anything done, although I try to hear at least the hourly news. Good because CBC always expands my horizons and often challenges my intellect (one day I’ll have to blog on how CBC is the acausal connecting principle that binds Canada, a bit like Jung’s synchronicity).
I should – or could, if I focused – be doing serious things like posting on my blog. Work on my next book for Municipal World. Working on my novel. Updating my websites. Researching, reading, walking the dog. Exercising. Practicing the ukulele. Working on my photography. Grooming the dog. Practicing the bass. Okay, painting the hallway, too.
Instead, time seems to get fragmented and I end up doing a bit of this, a bit of that, rather than doing any one thing. I sometimes start blog pieces or articles based on good ideas, but they slide away unfinished when I turn my attention to something else.
Yes, I managed to write three books this past year (and get two published, the third still waiting), and have a fourth started, as well as 30,000 words into a novel. But I’ve slowed down quite a bit since
At least I haven’t fallen into the trap of TV watching. I don’t play many computer games these days, either, and usually only in a desultory manner (computer games don’t seem to engage me like they did a while back, although I play a few rather lackluster games of Go and chess on the iPad now and then). Nor have I sunk to doodling, filling in crossword and sudoku puzzles or taking afternoon naps. Yet.
Maybe I need to schedule my time better. Set aside blocks to exercise, to write, to read… But then I get distracted by writing something pointless like this… *sigh*… back to work…
