How I Improved My Productivity in Two Easy Steps

You may think that headline is clickbait-y, but I did indeed improve my productivity this week in two easy steps. One of the steps was free, and one was not. The free one, actually, was harder. Here they are, in numbered list form so you can follow along:

1. I got a robot vacuum. Believe me when I tell you that I do not spend an hour every day vacuuming or sweeping my house. But writers, hear me out. You know how clean your kitchen is when you have a deadline? Or how much laundry gets done when you don’t know how to start the next article or story? Or how the floors sparkle when your other choice of activity is revision? Well. This little guy (an EcoVacs N79, if you’re wondering) runs every morning while I work and removes a chore from my list of procrastination tools. The side effect is a floor that is free of cat and dog hair, even in spring, also known as shedding season. I come in at lunchtime with a writing task complete and no fur sticking to my bare feet. It’s delightful.
2. I deleted Two Dots. You probably have your own game like Two Dots on your phone; if it’s not Two Dots in particular, I bet it’s 2048. I deleted that one too. I was really good at Two Dots. I had completed hundreds of levels. But I was neither writing what I wanted nor reading what I wanted, so it had to go.

What have I completed this week? I turned in an article on a hair-band mystery and a roundup of auto financing deals for the month of June, and I completed a very long outline for a 10,000-word article due in a couple of weeks. I also finished a line edit of another author’s book and sent it to the proofreader then wrote this little blog post for y’all.

These are all tasks I’d have to do for my job anyway. But getting rid of two big procrastination tools meant I did these things with less foot-dragging, sighing, and generally fucking around. I just did what I needed to do, and then I read the London Review of Books. Which I am behind on. Because of Two Dots.