Comfort is key! That is what I learned after sitting at my old desk working from home for the past year. Although I love dearly the antique chair my husband surprised me with, it soon became clear that beauty and value do not equate with comfort. And my desk was entirely too small for the stacks of papers and books that I normally have spread out around me as I am writing. I cleaned things up a little bit for your visit today!

So this is my new office. Thanks to a great sale and a couple of coupons, we were able to purchase both the desk and the chair for $149 each at Staples. The filing cabinet was also on sale for $69, and the big beautiful armoire which is currently hiding my mess was free! A gift from friends of ours who had just purchased one of those ginormous televisions which take up an entire wall. Thanks guys!

I love the spaciousness of my new desk combined with the extra surface of the filing cabinet. I can really spread out and have everything I need easily within my reach, and still have room for a glass of water, a cup of coffee and the occasional cat. I am just as pleased with my chair. It is as comfortable as it is beautiful. I no longer walk away from my desk feeling worse than when I sat down. My new office is making me much more productive. I don’t think I would have been able to take on my writing assignment at my old desk.

I spend a lot of time at my desk, so it is imperative that it is a space I enjoy going to and that it does not cause a flare in my symptoms. The money we spent was an investment in my health and in my career. If my blog is my happy place, my office is the structure surrounding and supporting it. My new office might be the nicest thing I have ever done for myself!

17/30

I love my blog. So why would I avoid it? Well mostly because my brain and my body have not been cooperating with my desire to be productive, so instead of writing more fluff posts, I decided not to write anything at all. I recently read somewhere that Perfectionism is the biggest enemy of Productivity. How true is that! So what, if I can’t write a post that I am totally and completely satisfied with, then I am not going to write at all? Can I still call myself a writer if I am not writing? Am I the first and only person to write in less than ideal circumstances?  Am I the first person with a chronic illness to write? Uh, no.

Sometimes I just need a kick in the butt! Well I am giving myself a kick in the butt. No more avoidance, no more procrastination. I am giving myself a writing assignment to write a post a day for 30 days – 30 in 30. I need the structure and I need the challenge. I love writing. I want to write. I need to stop getting in my own way and just do it. I have a tendency for self-sabotage (now there is a great post topic), but I think if I approach this as an assignment I will be successful. I have notebooks, and notepads, and scratch papers full of ideas and topics to write on. Time to sit down, review them, and pick a subject for tomorrow.

Besides procrastination, (and feeling lousy because of Fibromyalgia and the concussion) the thing I have struggled most with lately is creating a routine and sticking with it. My ideal schedule would look something like this:

Monday

9am-1pm  Write

2pm-4pm  Read/Research

4pm-5pm  Answer emails, etc.

Tuesday

9am-10am  Yoga

11am-2pm  Write

2pm-4pm  Read/Research

4pm-5pm  Answer emails, etc.

Wednesday – Repeat Monday

Thursday – Repeat Tuesday

Friday 

9am-11am  Write

noon-2pm  Lunch with sis

2pm-4pm  Errands & Appointments

4pm  Answer emails, etc.

Now that is ideal, and doesn’t allow for any out of the ordinary circumstances, but like my goal of 3 posts a week, I don’t think I have ever come close to that schedule. I no longer want to be a writer who only writes occasionally because she has Fibromyalgia. I want to be a writer who just happens to have Fibromyalgia. And for my writing not related to this blog, I simply want to be a prolific writer, and that is what I am going to be!

So I am counting today as day one. One down, 29 to go. And when this assignment is over, and I have strengthened my writing muscles and given them the endurance they have been lacking, I am going to take on a new assignment. Perfectionism & Procrastination be gone! Productivity is my new thing!

1/30