{"id":2280,"date":"2021-06-14T19:30:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T00:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2025-01-11T16:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T22:54:30","slug":"unproductive-start-to-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2021\/06\/14\/unproductive-start-to-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Unproductive Start to Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the attempt to use a writing log to maintain my productivity<\/a> failed, I\u2019ve been feeling defeated. It\u2019s hard to bounce back once I\u2019m off track and this summer has been particularly frustrating after I had tried to reestablish a writing routine.<\/p>\n

If I managed to write an hour or two daily, I\u2019d have a blog post each day. If I managed to write for a few more hours, I\u2019d make progress on the two book manuscripts I wanted to complete this summer. If\u2026 if\u2026 if\u2026.<\/p>\n

Pandemic parenting and homeschooling had to continue into the summer. That means I spend my days shuttling between our daughters as they try to complete their assignments. They aren\u2019t at grade level, unfortunately. Susan and I want to have the girls as ready as possible for the next school year. We did our best not to fall behind during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

It was my belief the girls would have \u201csummer school\u201d in the mornings and I\u2019d spend three or four hours working no writing projects throughout the summer months.\u00a0In an ideal, normal world, the girls would do an hour or two of summer bridge activities and then have free play time from lunch onward. There\u2019s no work on weekends, either.<\/p>\n

Instead, I am spending all day helping the girls review materials from the previous years. After dinner, I\u2019m grading their papers and trying to determine what gaps remain. By the time my teaching tasks end, I\u2019m exhausted.<\/p>\n

On weekends, we\u2019re upgrading the house. Painting. Assembling doors. Handing shelves. I\u2019m tired by the end of those days, too.<\/p>\n

Losing hours to necessary exercise doesn\u2019t help.<\/a>\u00a0I am not able to dictate or type while exercising because I have to raise my heart rate to 110 beats per minute or higher for a reduction in my blood glucose readings.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m typing this blog post at 1:12 a.m. on a Sunday-Monday night. This isn\u2019t healthy, but I have insomnia so it probably doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

To return to a writing schedule, I\u2019d have to consider letting the girls take a break from school. The last time we tried that, though, they forgot some basic skills. The girls don\u2019t retain knowledge or skills without constant use and review.<\/p>\n

I have maintained my freelance writing schedule. It helps that there\u2019s a paycheck involved.<\/p>\n

Here we are, approaching the middle of June, and I need to get a routine reestablished or my mental health will decline. I\u2019m already in a downward spiral, feeling miserable about the lack of productivity. I only have a freelance gig and the blog right now, but if I don\u2019t keep writing I\u2019ll never have anything more as a writer.\u00a0This week I want to produce a few thousand words and get back on track. Without some measurable progress, it gets more and more difficult to resume writing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that I\u2019m trying to teach time management skills to the girls while struggling to keep my own schedule.\u00a0If the girls return to school in August, I must force myself to write and work on projects during the day.<\/p>\n

Cranking out 500 to 1000 words daily used to be easy for me. Now, I have a difficult time finding an uninterrupted hour in the day.\u00a0At least this post is more than 500 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the attempt to use a writing log to maintain my productivity failed, I\u2019ve been feeling defeated. It\u2019s hard to bounce back once I\u2019m off track and this summer has been particularly frustrating after I had tried to reestablish a writing routine. If I managed to write an hour or…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingUnproductive Start to Summer<\/span> <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[812,10,13],"tags":[100,187,303,353,381,517,554,567,716,781],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","category-podcast","category-writing","tag-blogging","tag-creative-writing","tag-freelance","tag-homeschooling","tag-insomnia","tag-pandemic-parenting","tag-podcast","tag-productivity","tag-time-management","tag-writing","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/11\/Podcast_Banner_800x400.png?fit=711%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-AM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3538,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions\/3538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}