A Mom's Year

Boy, does this advice ever hit home. I remember years ago when the kids were very small, I was trying to get out the door for a meeting with someone who wanted a newsletter. It was complete chaos but I managed to leave the house (pretty much) on time. But my stress meter was elevated thanks to last-minute spit-up on one of the few “professional” shirts I owned. And then I got stuck in traffic, couldn’t find a parking place, yada yada yada.

So I walked into the coffee shop, found the table where my casual acquaintance was sitting, and burst into a flurry of explanations.

I finished and there was silence for a moment. Then she said, not unkindly, “Give me a second to wipe off the emotional spew.”

As I type that, it sounds harsher than it was. Sure, I was a little embarrassed at the time, but I’m grateful that she called me on it. She was actually the motherly type and probably thought I looked like I could use the help!

I think we extraverts/ambiverts have a harder time managing the spew. We enter a room ready to connect but the wires can get crossed if we’re focused too much on what’s going on inside our own heads. It takes a conscious effort sometimes to set aside the spew, put on a smile, and pay attention to what’s happening with the people around us.

I’m curious: do introverts have this problem? Is there an introverted equivalent of the spew?

[Update: Yes, I did get the job. I didn’t yell at her or anything. She was just pointing out that I took 20 seconds (without taking a breath) to explain why I was a little late when I should have just smiled and said “hi”.]

 

 

With four busy kids and a growing list of clients, plus a husband and a few animals thrown into the mix, I’ve been finding it difficult to get any of my own writing done. I tried to channel Henry Miller (“I only write when I feel like it; and I feel like it at 9 a.m. every morning”), but no sooner would I sit down to work on revising my book than the phone would ring and it would be a client or the school nurse. Those calls are too important to ignore, but I felt like I was constantly letting myself down.

I went online to look for ideas from other writers and came across this tidbit about Gabriel García Márquez’s writing schedule on Goins, Writer:

When he was writing Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez would awaken at 6 a.m., read for two hours and then write for five hours. Marquez spent the afternoon at the beach with his wife and friends, and after sundown, he walked the city streets, talking to strangers and meeting with friends. The next morning he’d weave bits of those conversations and experiences into his writing.

Wow. Wouldn’t that be an amazing schedule?

But some of us have laundry to do and dogs to take to the vet and we need something a little more practical.

[Read more…] about Timer Strategies for the Creative and the Self-Employed