Further along in the Fluency chapter, Boice provides some suggestions for putting his advice into practice. I feel like he's starting to push us a little bit more in this chapter, and asks that we do the same with ourselves. I feel like his tone is less compassionate in this chapter, but not in an offputting way. I actually appreciate the way he is pushing us to put all of the various advice, rules, practices into our own routines.
As for me, I am going to focus my own efforts on 4. Establish moderately undisrupting conditions at your writing site (106-7). For his suggestions, Boice suggests that we take precautions for productive conditions. Here are some that I am going to use:
- Arrange a regular work site where you do writing and little else: I can definitely do that. I have a desk in an office, but that darn thing is so covered in piles of newspapers and old student folders, I haven't seen the top of it in weeks. But I'll do the Boice, and start digging so I can have a space of my own for writing.
- Keep interruptions at a minimum: This will be trickier. I am around amazing people (one in particular) a lot of the time when I'm trying to work. However, I was really moved by Boice when he said that "other people will look for clear, unambiguous signals from you about how important your writing is to you." YES! Part of the reason she's amazing, is because she's really smart and recognizes my signals ONLY when they're unambiguous. I think I can make this work.
- All non-life-threatening emergencies can wait until the BDS has been completed: Okay, yes. But this seems to sort of push against the other rules Boice has meticulously laid out. If we claim to moderately prioritize writing, then I would say there are many things that would warrant a break in the BDS. But oh well, hopefully nothing comes up that even makes me choose.
These suggestions are all geared to increase FOCUS. Something I think I could really benefit from.
Focus -----> Fluency ----> Confidence------> Productivity
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