Every Little Step

The 10 minute timer has made me focus. I’ve also added more structure to my editing. During my previous unstructured attempts at editing, I’d eventually degenerate into busy work. I decided not this time. I did a read through a few weeks back flagged the worst scenes (i.e. full author’s notes or disconnected bits of text, etc.). During the timer, I pick a scene in the triage list tackle one of the big problems with. My goal meaningful edits not typo fixes.
In cases where I goofed off or got so distracted I only squeezed 10 minutes worth of work, I wanted to make it count. My general rule is during the timer I make a meaningful alteration. This entails tasks such as
• eliminating a gap in text
• addressing and/or removing an author’s note or highlighted text
• removing placeholder text

It’s good to feel productive again. The 10 minute timer has made me focus. During the timer, I pick a scene in my triage list and tackle one of the big problems with it. My goal is meaningful edits not typo fixes. With only 10 minutes, I want to make it count.
If it’s a sucky change I’ve been avoiding (lots of work or clueless how to fix), the timer makes me work on it but with the consolation I only have to endure it for 10 minutes. It’s permission to move on while also not goofing off.