pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire...

In the first stages of writing the People’s Institution Manual I find myself floundering through the sea of information I have and not knowing what to grab on to first. So, this morning I have allowed myself to take a deep breath and think about those things that motivated and helped me through writing my senior level English papers. One thing I know is that, the hardest thing about getting a project done is starting. What is most important in overcoming this initial overwhelmed feeling is taking the proper preparations. And what helps most, I’ve found, is to put off the actual act of beginning a project by occupying yourself with seemingly productive activities. I have my own special repertoire of these essential tricks:

#1: Make lists (mostly of things that I’ve already done or that require no action).
#2: Organize all loose papers (first alphabetically and then by size and color).
#3: Clean the working area (because heaven forbid that would distract me later on).
#4: Read the assignment over and over between breaks to make something to snack on (because I wouldn’t want to have to stop in the middle of my work to eat). It also helps to color in all the “o”s on the first page of the assignment while you read it.
#5: DJ duty A…flip through cds deciding just what music will best encourage a working mode.
#6: DJ duty B… organize cds alphabetically and at right angles (for easy access later on when I need more musical motivation).

And the most crucial step… Stare into space for at least a good hour in total I do this to collect my thoughts and ideas and mostly my mind runs a bit like this…
”I should start on this it’s going to be great I have so many good ideas I wonder what’s on TV I bet there is a good previously viewed movie on sale at Blockbuster maybe I should go see that would require putting on my shoes man this paper is going to be killer I can see it already I wonder if I ate my last can of tuna is ten percent Tuesday the first or second week of the month I can never remember I wonder what it would have been like to see the Beatles live how many feet of wrap are on a saran wrap roll I bet it says on the box where did I put my mittens at the end of last winter what was that one great quote I found about that guy who did that thing did I do laundry this week maybe I’ll go over to the school and see if someone there knows what day ten percent Tuesday is I really like folding clean clothes which is so strange considering my usual messy scattered self maybe it’s some sort of psychological phenomenon in me maybe I could use that in my paper I should go check to see if my camera battery is still charging I should buy more candles I never buy candles I’m so glad I get to write about something so interesting I love getting into my projects”