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Day 6 - Sept 6 - Workspaces
Daily Check-In Post Number 6! How did things go today? Are you feeling on track with your goals, or still making adjustments?
As always, new members are welcome! Introduce yourself and tell us about your progress today!
I recently moved into a very small living space, and have been working hard to simplify my life. Part of that meant giving up my "office" (and/or "sewing room") which was basically an 80 sq ft junk drawer. Now I have a little table in a corner as my in-home workspace, and I occasionally get work done there. But my local library, despite all the distractions of people-watching and roomfuls of books, is actually the place where I am most productive.
It seems counterintuitive to me, but I always work best in public. Part of it is certainly about appearances. Some part of me is always basically roleplaying a very busy adult doing very important things when I know other people can see me. But I think it also has to do with the space itself: quiet (but not eerily silent), well-lit, spatious, clean, tables to spread out on, and free wifi for when I need to send time-sensitive emails and/or look at pictures of cats.
Where do you all work best? Do you have a space set aside for writing, or exercise, or other work that you do? Or are you able to work anywhere? Are there essentials that you cannot be productive without? Has your ideal workspace changed over time?




At the moment, I'm making use of my shiny new office between meetings (work is weird and no one gives a fuck what I'm doing providing I'm not skipping meetings and stuff gets done). Language modules need to be either out and about (big headphones and not giving a fuck about talking to myself) or somewhere comfy, like bed! Swimming - I swim indoors at the local Olympic size pool.
... and I swam 800m today! A bit slowly, but heading for my goal!
I'm lucky enough to have a big house, with lots of choice for where my computer desk goes. We've lived here eight years and in that time it's migrated from the 'breakfast room' (lots of light, which was great, but being practically in the kitchen didn't work out well) to the tiny third bedroom (dark and claustrophobic) to where it is now, in a corner of the living room. I haven't really started writing again consistently since we moved most of the furniture in the house around, but I think this spot is going to work. I just need to decorate the brown walls a little.
And for my check-in, My daily goals went well today: I did my cardio and crunches this morning, did some round-robin writing with a friend on Tumblr, and my Bullet Journal is starting to look nice!
Oh, and thanks to whoever recommended the "Strides" app. I've downloaded it and set up a few simple tasks. I like the fact that you can set reminders at different times for each task!
I live in a tiny apartment, so I have major sympathy for those of you who live in small spaces. My last place was a tiny room in a tiny apartment (I'm moving up in the world!) with no space for a desk. I did almost everything in bed, which wasn't very productive and led to a lot of neck and back aches.
Nowadays, I get almost all of my writing done at my dining table/desk. I do most of my painting in a tiny corner of my room that I have set up for my art.
As far as public vs private goes, I find that it doesn't make a difference for painting. I tend to immediately get into the zone and keep going for hours when I paint. WWIII could be happening 10 feet away and I wouldn't notice. With writing, I find that I can't write in public. In large part because I don't talk about my writing irl. Weirdly, I'm completely comfortable with Internet strangers reading my stuff, but the idea of someone I know seeing my screen gives me the crawls.
For me, the most important aspect of a good work space is the ability to have everything I need immediately within reach. I always keep all of my painting stuff laid out and within grabbing distance. The same with my laptop and keyboard. It might not be House Beautiful tidy, but I find that I'm much more likely to get work done if I don't have to spend ten minutes setting everything up.
Well, I got my steps in today! But only because I decided I really needed to walk to the ice cream shop after dinner.
I'm going to count that as a double win today, because goal + deliciousness. But I need to keep it from becoming a habit, or I'm going to need to double my step goal to cover the extra calories 😂
Honestly I'm bad and do a ton of my writing/drawing from bed. I know I know, don't use beds for things that don't start with S, but I think in some ways it's a Poor Culture thing--lived lots of places where I didn't have a couch, or where my bed WAS the couch (a daybed) and in the living room and everyone sat on it.
But when I do make workspaces, usually they're...weird and designed for fidgeting. I have a hammock hung up in my room (I sometimes hang it outside too...but bugs...) I can rock and sway as I work, and sometimes that's what I need to focus.
I also have a makeshift desk with an exercise ball as a chair. Same reason, it's fidget-friendly. But I find I have to be pretty energetic to want to sit with my back unsupported.
Possibly the weirdest workspace I have is in the bath, writing with a waterproof keyboard.
I generally prefer to work alone. Drawing I can do with other people around if I have to, but writing I need to be able to collect my thoughts, and that won't happen in public spaces.
I've never had an office, but I wouldn't trust myself to use one. A room I can compartmentalize all my effort onto and then never look at or think about? It'd be covered in dust. The extra effort of going anywhere outside would also probably become an excuse not to do anything. The fact that I can be productive from bed means I have no excuses even if I'm not getting out of bed that day.
A waterproof keyboard sounds neat! Considering how much writing I do in the shower that I forget once I'm out, that sounds like a really good idea.
I really love my keyboard! It's this one--but I got mine way cheaper on eBay. Most waterproof keyboards are sort of squishy and soft and weird to type on, this one actually has a really impressive design where the water can flow right through it and the individual circuits are all coated.
I'm not sure if it would work in the shower--you'd need a way to protect your screen too! Maybe a little recording device to record ideas on? I also tend to take really long soaks, most people probably wouldn't want to stand around typing too long in the shower.
That kind of internal writing you do when you're spaced out is something I call "prewriting." Writing always flows much better for me if I let my brain mull on scenes. But it's important to not let it sit too long either! It's like, you grow your crops and then you harvest them. Gotta give them a chance to grow before you harvest, but don't leave them too long!
For about three months my life situation was such that I had a really easy time going form shower prewriting to siting down and putting pen to paper, and I got so much done. It really taught me that environment and external life circumstances do have a big impact on productivity. Now the trick is managing the environment to create those circumstances when it doesn't naturally want to be like that. The crop analogy is a great one. So much dead fruit on the vine T_T.
That's definitely true! And sometimes you just hit a serendipitous mix of both life circumstances and intangibles and things flow. But something I've found as the years go by is that things that were automatic or "just happened" in my teens and 20s, like writing, making friends, even staying in shape, have become things that require conscious intention in my 30s. I'm not even sure why that is, since the stuff about having more demanding work and home responsibilities isn't actually true in my case. But nonetheless, it seems that whereas in my 20s life sent me a free sample pack, today I have to actually think about what I want to include in my life and put in the work to make space for it.
I have done good writing in the library, yes. But at home I have everything the way I like it, all my art supplies right there (or anyway somewhere in the apartment), and also I can use Dragon if need be. Dragon is dictation software, you see. It is a [swearing redacted] piece of [redacted], but it is useful when I have too much hand pain to do anything else. Also, at home, I can work any time I please, including after I get home from my paycheck job. Four days a week I get off the clock at midnight. Library's not open then!
I'll check in later on word count and exercise. --Hey, actually, what's the weather out? *checks* Okay, 74F and sunny, that's good stuff. I'll leave Mom a note (so she doesn't freak out when she sees my car is still here but I am not, because you know she's going to wake up right after I leave the house) and go for a walk. Probably the short route around the neighborhood, honestly, because owie, but hey. Exercise.
fist bump of matching icons
*bounce*
I did walk around the neighborhood, but now Mom's up, so the TV's on, and Matlock is not in any sense good background noise for writing. And I can't be bothered going home till after work today, because I have stuff to do at my parents' and then an appointment before work.
Going to write those hundred words anyway, if it takes the rest of the morning. ...wait, when did "the rest of the morning" get to be just an hour?
I mostly work at the desk in my house, though when I worked in an office, I'd write in a notepad on breaks there. I actually prefer some noise to distract me, so in school days I did better in the cafeteria than the library, but that's long ago now.
Goals: No progress recently. Resting on laurels of finishing first fic, but I should get cracking on the next one today. Distracted by Imzy drabble fest.