Caesar needs advice

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

So, I just finished writing my first ever musical yesterday, and I'm almost kind of like: "What now?" I was working on a book prior to the musical, and it was my longest book yet. However, I realized that the idea of the book was kind of stupid... So, now, I'm kind of unsure what to do. Do I take a long break? Do I try and salvage one of my old books? Do I rework an old premise/idea that I developed? Or do I start a new book entirely?

I'm like very bored, because normally, I only watch YouTube or other streaming options when I have something important to do. It's like my way of distracting myself... So, it kind of feels like I have nothing to do at all.

[Frederick the Great]

Maybe you should revisit an old book and develop it further, or start a new book if you're into that

[Tolbethessar]

Jan 26, 2020 14:57:28 GMT Gaius Julius Caesar said:

So, I just finished writing my first ever musical yesterday, and I'm almost kind of like: "What now?" I was working on a book prior to the musical, and it was my longest book yet. However, I realized that the idea of the book was kind of stupid... So, now, I'm kind of unsure what to do. Do I take a long break? Do I try and salvage one of my old books? Do I rework an old premise/idea that I developed? Or do I start a new book entirely?

I'm like very bored, because normally, I only watch YouTube or other streaming options when I have something important to do. It's like my way of distracting myself... So, it kind of feels like I have nothing to do at all.

Firstly, don't ever distract yourself while at work (even more important if you work at home!). Just DON'T ever.

Taking a timed break is fine if you're disciplined to return to work and if you had been already working for at least an hour. The purpose of a break is not to disengage your mind, or an interruption, but to actually rest in order to restore so you can get back to working single-mindly.

"But I'm multi-tasking I shouldn't be so single-minded." No single human on the planet in the entire history of the humanity ever had truly accomplished multi-tasking. Either you are doing one of the tasks poorly (or both), OR one of the tasks are so trivially simple enough to not draw much on your attention anyway (which isn't what you would term as true multi-tasking).

In fact, scientific research has proven over and over that every time a worker (especially at a white collar job -- more mental-intense rather than more physical-intense) has to switch from a task to a new one... he is underperforming for at least 30 min or more until he is fully integrated into the new task, but the average span of time between interruptions in an office is 18 minutes (yikes).

So yes, working single-minded is the effective choice for yourself. Hippie gurus be damned, the data is there whether if they feel like it's true or not.

---

Secondly, I happened to stumbled across this article about careers a month ago. (Lucky, it was still findable in my web history)

It's quite an interesting read:
getpocket.com/explore/item/if-you-want-to-be-an-author-don-t-start-writing-and-other-strangely-useful-career-advice

Not just about writing but rather about careers in general, because the writing career was just a specific example in application of the principles. You might also find this interesting as well, who knows?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Jan 26, 2020 16:14:41 GMT Tolbethessar said:

Jan 26, 2020 14:57:28 GMT Gaius Julius Caesar said:

So, I just finished writing my first ever musical yesterday, and I'm almost kind of like: "What now?" I was working on a book prior to the musical, and it was my longest book yet. However, I realized that the idea of the book was kind of stupid... So, now, I'm kind of unsure what to do. Do I take a long break? Do I try and salvage one of my old books? Do I rework an old premise/idea that I developed? Or do I start a new book entirely?

I'm like very bored, because normally, I only watch YouTube or other streaming options when I have something important to do. It's like my way of distracting myself... So, it kind of feels like I have nothing to do at all.

Firstly, don't ever distract yourself while at work (even more important if you work at home!). Just DON'T ever.

Taking a timed break is fine if you're disciplined to return to work and if you had been already working for at least an hour. The purpose of a break is not to disengage your mind, or an interruption, but to actually rest in order to restore so you can get back to working single-mindly.

"But I'm multi-tasking I shouldn't be so single-minded." No single human on the planet in the entire history of the humanity ever had truly accomplished multi-tasking. Either you are doing one of the tasks poorly (or both), OR one of the tasks are so trivially simple enough to not draw much on your attention anyway (which isn't what you would term as true multi-tasking).

In fact, scientific research has proven over and over that every time a worker (especially at a white collar job -- more mental-intense rather than more physical-intense) has to switch from a task to a new one... he is underperforming for at least 30 min or more until he is fully integrated into the new task, but the average span of time between interruptions in an office is 18 minutes (yikes).

So yes, working single-minded is the effective choice for yourself. Hippie gurus be damned, the data is there whether if they feel like it's true or not.

---

Secondly, I happened to stumbled across this article about careers a month ago. (Lucky, it was still findable in my web history)

It's quite an interesting read:
getpocket.com/explore/item/if-you-want-to-be-an-author-don-t-start-writing-and-other-strangely-useful-career-advice

Not just about writing but rather about careers in general, because the writing career was just a specific example in application of the principles. You might also find this interesting as well, who knows?

I never said it was healthy that I was getting distracted... I've heard another statistic that multitasking reduces productivity by 40%, which is a huge number if you actually consider it. I don't have a job at the moment, so at least I'm not getting distracted from that. I mean I have enough going on in college as it is... 

[Tolbethessar]

Jan 26, 2020 17:54:08 GMT Gaius Julius Caesar said:

Jan 26, 2020 16:14:41 GMT Tolbethessar said:

SNIP LONG QUOTE

I never said it was healthy that I was getting distracted... I've heard another statistic that multitasking reduces productivity by 40%, which is a huge number if you actually consider it. I don't have a job at the moment, so at least I'm not getting distracted from that. I mean I have enough going on in college as it is... 

Fair enough, at least you recognize it too. Just consider this admonishment as yet another reason to get rid of distractions and change your routine, there you go.