You're Doing Just Fine

Photo credit: that.alastair on Flickr

I've seen a lot of lamenting in my writerly social media circles about how difficult creative-types have been finding it to get back to their creative work since the election. From writers saying they haven't been able to write a word since, or talking about how difficult it's been to revise, or how slow the words have come, or even how much people's reading habits have taken a hit—it's been hard for a lot of us.

I've also seen some people come down pretty hard on themselves about it, so here's a post for you: you're doing just fine.

Look, everything is hellish right now. The last week and a half of our Bully in Chief has been worse than many of us imagined. Between protests, and phone calls, and keeping informed when every hour there's something new, our political climate is really emotionally draining right now. It's not remotely surprising so many of us have been struggling to make progress.

I've written a post already about self-care in these times, so I'm not going to reiterate that, but I will say this: things are hard, and if you're lagging behind your usual output, know you're not alone.

Some things that I've found helpful in terms of boosting my productivity as of late include:

• Not checking Twitter until after I've gotten out of bed and brushed my teeth, etc. 
• Closing Twitter and turning my phone face-down on my desk when I need to focus. 
• Setting concrete tasks I need to accomplish every day and checking them off when I do them. 
• Building in extra time into my expected completion dates/self-determined deadlines. 
• Putting on headphones and listening to lyric-less music (like soundtracks) when working.

But the main point I want to make is this: whether your progress has been stalled, a trickle, or a slog, you're not alone, and you're doing just fine. We're all trying to figure this out together one day at a time. 

Finally, for some encouragement, check out the #WriteYourResistance tag on Twitter. It's beautiful, inspiring, and encouraging—which I think we could all use. 

How have you been handling your creative output since November? 

Twitter-sized bite:

Struggling to get back to your creative work since the election? You're not alone. (Click to tweet)