The Sunday Experiment

by Kristin Baker Przybyla

While browsing through posts on blogs I'm following, I ran across this one by Ali Cross. I thought it was such a neat idea that I decided to give it a try yesterday. I know a lot of us already have things like this worked out, where you don't write on Sunday, or watch TV, or get online. Anything that reminds you to keep the Sabbath holy and/or to set aside one day to regroup and put family first. I try to do something like that too, but Facebook and email have me snared in their nefarious webs, and I spend a LOT of my free time wasting said time online.

So my unconnected day wasn't 100% successful - baby steps when you're combating an addiction! ;) First I commented on Ali's blog about what a great idea that was (on Sunday, yes I did), then I checked my email just in case I was missing something important, then I checked Facebook, went "oops, what am I doing?!" and finally logged off. I decided to work on a scene from my WIP that I hadn't had the time in recent weeks to look at.

I know a lot of you also don't write on Sundays, and I totally respect and admire that. Maybe one day I'll set the laptop down completely on a Sunday too, but for now I still write because to me it's just fun, relaxing, and a peaceful thing to do on a peaceful day. Plus, with 6 kids I'll take all the writing time I can get! On Sundays they're a little less crazy than they usually are, and that's when I'm most likely to get free time.

Anyway - I got nearly 1000 new words written over the course of a few scattered hours throughout the day, and I learned some important little tips on managing the things that waste my time the most. I did slip once or twice more and got back online, but this next Sunday I'm going to try for 100% unplugged. Even if that means not writing at all, or asking my hubby to temporarily disable the internet. *cries*

The most shocking, and most important lesson that I personally learned, was that when I sit down at the computer to write I tend to go straight to my social sites first. Every single time. I don't know if it's a feeling of writing inadequacy, just wanting to procrastinate, or what, but I'm going to try to put a stop to that. I have all my social windows open right now (because it's my birthday and I wanted to check my messages!), but as soon as I hit "post" I'm going to close those windows and open my WIP.

How do you combat things like social media or other distractions?