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Disruption – the entire world is feeling it at the moment, so how can we, as writers, keep our creativity bubbling and stay focussed? It’s hard – we’re not going to deny that – but looking at your schedule and productivity in a different way can help you stay a bit calmer, get some work done and prepare for when you’re on a more even keel.

For the Spa Girls, we’ve pivoted a wee bit to bring you Lockdown Sessions – a daily video of around 10 minutes where we just hang out, sometimes discuss self-publishing, but mostly just lift each other up with our usual cheek and bad jokes. Please join us – either on our facebook page or our new You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCckftViKM301hH_MYlFUxXA

This was a scary move for us all. We’re used to talking on our podcast now, but didn’t have the some confidence about “putting ourselves out there” on camera. Every day we do it though, we’re a little bit more relaxed, so it’s been a good thing that’s come from this disrupted New Normal, I believe (Shar). The best thing for us has been hearing from our community members and we so appreciate your comments (and Subscribes to our channel!). As an experiment, we also recorded the video of this podcast episode, so if you’d like to check that out too, please head over to our channel.

Ways to help deal with a disrupted schedule:

-Ease pressure on yourself by pushing your own deadlines (communicate them early to service providers if you can’t meet them).

-Acknowledging and accepting something has changed, and that it’s ok to be off-balance.

-Create a new schedule by looking at your circumstances and adjusting.

-Don’t beat yourself up because you are not doing the amount of work you were before things changed.

-Find a space to work among the chaos and away from other members of your household

-Life gets disrupted regularly and the tools / skills you figure out now will help in the future when the “usual” disruptions happen – eg holidays, school breaks, illness, travelling etc.

-Don’t overthink things. Change is happening, and roll with it, make the best of it. People will be reading more than ever, so remember that positive!

-If your allotted work/writing time is small, then hit the ground running and be productive while you can. Ten minutes a day can still be productive.

-If the words don’t come, then accept that for now and pivot to doing something else for your author career – e.g. watching a craft tutorial, learning a new skill or tool like canva, reading business / writing books

-As much as possible, focus on positive news and people. Set boundaries on news intake / social media scrolling. Try hard to stay in touch with people that lift you up and in turn be of service to others.

-Romance writers (and other writers) are fulfilling a very real need as a way for people to escape via books – be proud of what you’re doing!

Visit our website for all our podcast episodes and show notes at:

www.spagirlspodcast.com

You tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCckftViKM301hH_MYlFUxXA

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast

503 - Life After Lockup (s4e16) “Lost and Found”