I took Thursday off from work. I needed a day where I didn't have to sit at the computer, answer the phone or any questions.

Usually after a day like that I rush home, scarf some food down and try to get a couple hours of writing in.

Instead of doing that, I slept in until 8am (when I was younger I never would have thought that one day I would consider waking up at 8am, sleeping in), ate some cheerios and took a very long shower before heading downstairs to write.

I had a great writing day. I let go and just wrote. Finally I was able to listen to that advice I have been told so long. It wasn't easy, however, but I think I happened upon a good technique.

At first, I wasn't getting much accomplished other than just getting frustrated (and surfing the web).

I finally realized what I could do to be a little more productiive. I broke each task down into one hour blocks. I have a half dozen books to read and write reviews for, two edits to be done to manuscripts I would like to submit to online mags and a little free writing.

If I didn't do this when I was editing, I would think about the reviews. When I was sitting reading, I was thinking about my me skipping out at work. My thoughts would spin like truck tires in mud, never gaining traction on what I was doing at the time, but on everything else that needed to be done.

So I decided to break it all up. I would concentrate on one project for one hour at a time. I read for one hour, then edited for an hour, then wrote for an hour, etc.

And ended up getting more done in a few hours than I had all weekend. I gave myself permission to do what needed done for a specific amount of time and not worry about the other stuff. And it worked.

I wholeheartedly suggest it!