Here’s a handy tip for those of us looking to improve our habits: re-place. Enjoy the link below and then I’ll apply it to writing.
http://jonathanvieker.com/how-to-read-more-and-waste-less-time/
So, in your writing, what can you re-place? Consider your work space and take a minute to see whether you can re-place discouraging things (bills, to do lists, alarm clocks) with something better. Re-place the notes you’ve taken for different projects and let yourself have the actual, physical space to work on a single project.
In your notes and paper edits, are you mean to yourself? Do you slash yourself red with a reckless abandon, hating yourself even though you are striving to do something good? Re-place by seeing if a different method may translate better into an improved work ethic and focus on topic.
Consider if you’re always looking at your phone or a clock and decide if that’s really what you want to do for the ten minutes of quiet you might have to write. Or, are you so distracted you fail to look at almost anything? Then now’s maybe not the time to write—spend time with an actual human being or in nature.
Writing cannot replace the relationships God has given us, either with people or this world. Our goal can be to organize and declutter so we can work to enjoy and improve both.
It might sound crazy, but I have reassuring art in my bathrooms. For that moment, I remember bigger picture things: God, grace, unconditional love, and the beauty God gave to humanity though so often we try to thwart it. Place beauty in your life. Pursue moments of rest and peace. Allow them space or search for a place!
I like the idea of gracious sayings in the bathroom. I have contemplated hanging up a picture board from Walmart, that has some lines and clips across it, so you could hang pictures, children’s painting and sayings on it, and also change them easily, but I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I will now.
In University, the bathrooms doors had blackboards on them and chalk provided. There could be a nice place to have a good thought and write down without wrecking property.
believe we have good example in Martin Luther, in this regard, too, who is said to have had such good thoughts in cloaca that the reformation was literally launched there… Keep up the good work. 🙂