New writing system

As it turns out, all my widget fiddling on Sunday actually produced something useful: a new writing system.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: I have no self discipline. When I'm feeling antsy and social and anything other than butt-in-chair, I find it incredibly difficult to set aside distractions like email, LJ, Twitter, etc. to get the writing done--no matter what treats I promise myself, how stern of a voice I use or how much guilt I try to heap on myself.

*cue dramatic music* Until now.

I discovered an Apple dashboard widget called Tea Timer that allows me to set a virtual timer for any amount of time. At the end of the time, it signals me with an audible tone or Growl. I set the timer for 30 minutes. Close email, Firefox, etc. Start the timer. Write--do nothing but write for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, I have permission to check my email, check LJ if I want--whatever, as long as it's for a short amount of time. When I'm done, I start the timer again (it automatically resets to the last entered time) and off I go for another 30 minute cycle.

I also use Tea Timer to remind me to drink water and stretch while writing. I have the audible tones set differently, so that I know when I need to stay focused and just sip or stretch and reset versus when I'm taking an actual break.

There's another widget called Ding, that I also tried yesterday. This one is nice because I don't have to "reset" the timer. You input everything up front, like a to do list. So I could keep my writing window open for 30 minutes, uninterrupted, and just listen for my "drink" and "stretch" tones as they went off. Unfortunately, it was a lot of work to set up all the reminders and there was no way to pause them (that I found) when I unexpectedly decided to take a long lunch break, thus negating ten or so of the reminders I'd painstakingly entered earlier.

In any case, I share this in the hope that it will help you on your not-so-motivated days. I'm sure there are similar widgets for Windows computers, or you can use a plain old kitchen timer (or, hell, the microwave or oven!) just like Lilith Saintcrow does -- she's who I got the idea from, after all.