Man, I need to do something about this website. Look, I’m juggling, and sometimes one plate spins in the background, while I’m mixing my metaphors. Never mind the disarray, I’ve got news! I’m a few thousand words away from finishing the draft of The Specter, book four in the Emergence series. Finally. And you know why? Because of an amazing group of writers and readers who gather every weekday morning to work together to be productive.
We’re called the Morning Time Pirates because we steal time from our mornings to work on the projects we care about. Mind you, not all of us are in the US so it’s not morning for everyone, but the name has stuck. We’re an active and important part of the Cursed Dragon Ship crew. Together we help motivate each other, celebrate our accomplishments, and curse the people who wrong us. I mean, we are pirates after all. But mostly we’re productive for 30 minutes, then break for 10ish minutes. Rinse and repeat three times, then we set off on our separate excursions for the rest of the day.
That’s one of the things that isn’t often addressed for stay-at-home parents or the self-employed or perpetual volunteers: everything we do, we have to motivate ourselves to get done. There’s no boss to yell at us. There’s no threat of firing. By having people online every morning waiting for you, it makes a huge difference in pushing forward. When others are facing those same challenges and they’re getting stuff done, it makes it so much easier to get your stuff done too. Body doubling is effective for most of us, especially for many neuro-atypical brains. These morning sprints give us the perfect opportunity to take advantage of this. We’re big on checklists in this community. There are few treats more satisfying than sharing that you got it done. (I can’t wait to tell them I wrote this blog, which I’m doing during Morning Time Pirates.)
Another issue that’s harped on often, though solutions are rarely offered, is the isolation that comes when you work from home. Even introverts have social needs; it’s a human truth, unavoidable. Knowing that likeminded people will be online at the same time every day makes squeezing in that social time more approachable. During our breaks between sprints, we chat. It’s kind of like having our own cultivated break room. We did the thing or made progress on the thing; now we get to share. Or the manuscript is driving us crazy and we need a sympathetic ear to vent our frustration, then back to work for the next sprint. It’s useful and healthy and I find it quite motivating. Plus, we’ve gotten to know each other over the last few months. So we ask about each others’ families and pets. We share book recommendations and software hacks. It’s more than just an anonymous online site; it’s where my friends hang out.
So if this sounds like something that appeals to you, join us. We meet every weekday starting at 8am Central on the Cursed Dragon Ship YouTube channel. We’d love to recruit you to our crew as we thieve a bit of time to make our week better. ARGH!
