City Rain

My sunglasses are gathering dust. It's rained for days, but it's seems like weeks. While the gloomy weather has encouraged me to stay inside (and "work"), it's left me unmotivated to get out of bed. Self-discipline is the key to a successful stay-at-home career and while I've had a couple of weeks to feel out my new found freedom, it's hard to get a routine down.

Earlier this month, I interviewed travel writer Polly Evans for The Standard. We spoke about her daily writing routine and I was impressed by her strict daily schedule. By no later than 8:15 she is down the hall in her study writing. After a few hours of solid writing, she'll go for a jog, come back, have lunch and do administrative things like respond to e-mails, send mailouts, make phonecalls, etc. I've been thinking a lot about what she's said, not as a model of how I should work, but as a reminder of the need for structure. Afterall, she's currently writing a book about dogsledding in the Arctic and I am a freelance journalist who writes feature articles. We still have to research and write, but the process is different.

I will have a routine down soon and things are slowly falling into place. Thanks for your support.

If you find yourself under grey skies, here's some more summer music that might help:

Manic Street Preachers - Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

Ryan Adams - City Rain, City Streets

Photo: I took this photograph from a balcony in the building I lived in when I first arrived in Hong Kong. It had just rained and the clouds were clearing just in time for us to see the sun going down. I couldn't see it though, I only had a view of the east.

Comments

[sarah]

yeah, I'd never be able to stick to that schedule. that's awesome though. she is my idol. you too are my idol, but for different reasons... :)

[nik]

keep at it. and let me know how it goes. god knows i don't have the discipline...