Pockets of Time are Not Enough for Meaningful Writing - Looking for Longer Moments
writing·@winstonalden·
0.000 HBDPockets of Time are Not Enough for Meaningful Writing - Looking for Longer Moments
## It's getting really hard to sit down and gather my thoughts these days. I'm still loving [the new job](https://steemit.com/life/@winstonalden/at-home-in-the-smoke-shop-the-new-job-i-absolutely-love). In fact I still have a hard time believing I get to work in the one place I've ever *actually wanted to work* - and... maybe that's enough? But the other goal has always been *to write,* and for about a year I was making a decent go of that. And I just realized it's been an entire week since my last post! Here's the thing. My posts consume *a lot* of time. I thought I could make the process a bit more efficient, but it's just not happening. I need about an hour of uninterrupted time to pour some coffee, light a pipe, catch up on the feed, leave a few comments, and get my mind in gear working over something that seems worth actually sharing with other people. Writing anything meaningful takes a couple of hours after that. Then there's editing. Plus, what's a post without pictures? Got to select, crop, adjust, and upload. <center></center> Being an unemployed NEET fed into this process nicely. Now I've got an eight hour work-day book-ended by two hour commutes. I can get a spot of reading and writing done on the train, at least in the morning. That's where most of my commenting and voting happens. But to be honest the return trip has mostly been given over to napping among strangers. (Which is a pleasant experience and worth a post of its own, when I can get to it.) What does that leave? Let's see: Mornings: Wake, pour coffee, feed the cat, let the dog out. Groom and dress and knot the tie. Sometimes I can manage an hour of uninterrupted writing time before I head out the door, doing my best to ignore the caterwauling of an attention-hungry cat and a couple roosters just outside, eager to start their day. Evenings: Catch up with The Wife. (This is important, as we hardly see each other now.) Discuss the news of the day. Maybe watch a couple short British comedies or something on Netflix. Prep the coffee pot and plug it into a timer for tomorrow. I might find an hour (as I have now) to sit at the computer and get some writing done before sleep overtakes me. Weekends: Laundry. Mow the lawn. (Gotta fix the mower - busted a blade on some rocks that got mixed in with what looked like a perfectly safe pile of branches to mulch.) Maybe visit with mom and sis. Dump run. Pay bills. Smoke a pipe and stare at the ocean. Maybe have a couple drinks on Saturday afternoon. Turn on the computer and wonder: what happened to all those ideas I used to have?  You'll notice there's no time allotted for eating. Food happens in the city. Breakfast is part of the commute - and not on the train, because I don't want to waste *that* precious time. No, I'll pick up some pork-stuffed buns in Chinatown and eat them on the walk. I'll grab my main meal of the day during a lunch-break. There's too many great, affordable places to eat within two blocks of the job for me to be messing around with prepping food and lugging lunch on my back like a camel. Dinner might be a handful of chips or peanuts during the family TV hour. Or, if I'm feeling ambitious, a big bowl of popcorn. Food has always been more of a chore than a pleasure for me anyway, and frankly, I just don't care enough to spend time on it. So yeah. I'm not complaining. Just reflecting on how much a full-time job and a long commute impacts "the writing life," whatever that is. Maybe I'll figure out how to better integrate the two. Or maybe, again, just throwing yourself into a job you love is enough. We'll see. Life does seem to be missing something without the regular clack of a keyboard. How many of you work full-time jobs? I'm impressed at anyone who can work 40+ hours and still manage to produce and interact regularly on here. And if you've got kids in the mix too, man, my hat's *really* off to you. <center></center>