The Creativity Project: Kitchen Timer Method
Trying out new ways to focus
I am a serial procrastinator and I hate it. If there was a 12 step program to fix it, I would go. Sometime. Later.
One of the biggest places my procrastination kills me is in my writing life. I get distracted easily and will spend most of my writing time doing other things. Because writing’s hard and YouTube’s full of fun videos to watch.
I heard about The Kitchen Timer Method from one the author’s I follow, Kate Cavanaugh. Coming off of a long weekend of not writing, I decided to see if I would restart my writing routine.
The rules are simple: buy a timer, decide the night before how many hours you are going to do the next day, and shut off all distractions during your time block. That means no phones, no music with words unless it’s in a language you don’t understand, and no desk tidying. For that hour (or whatever unit of time you set your timer for), you are either working on your chosen project or writing in your journal. That’s it.
I didn’t realize I could change the amount of my timer when I started, so I did go for full hours.
Day 1- 2 Timers
The first timer, I kept looking at it every 10 to 15 minutes and couldn’t stay focused. When I did my second timer, I was a little more focused but still was fidgety.
Day 2– 3 Timers
During my first timer, the first half hour flew by, but then my focus kept shifting (it didn’t help that I needed to use the bathroom). I got more done than I normally would in that hour so I was proud of myself. The second timer, I edited more in my book than I planned to do for the entire day, but had to pause the timer to let the dog out. The third timer got interrupted 7 minutes in by the dog and I forgot to restart it after I sat back down so I went over my hour.
Day 3– 2 Timers
My first timer was super distracting and I ended up pausing it to address the ton of messages coming through my messenger (I forgot to shut Facebook off on my computer before starting). I didn’t get as much done as I would’ve liked. The second one, I went over time because I was one chapter away from finishing edits on my book and just wanted to finish.
Day 4- 2 Timers
As always, that first timer is the roughest. I was still getting more done than normal, but I couldn’t stop getting distracted. The second timer was better, but still not laser focused.
Day 5- 2 Timers
I needed to accept that the first timer of the day was just going to be unfocused. I don’t know what it was about that first hour that my brain wasn’t catching onto, but it was frustrating. The second timer always goes smoother, but I can’t seem to find a good flow state.
Takeaway
While I enjoyed the structure of knowing that for a set amount of time all I have to do is write or edit, an hour block might be too long without something to break it up. Most of what this taught me was to set writing appointments with myself and KEEP them. So often I’m like, “I need to write today,” and then it’s 10 PM and I still haven’t written a single word. I may redo this experiment in the future just to see if I can improve, but for now, it is not the method for me.
How do you keep yourself focused when you are writing?
