It’s Summer Time!

It’s summer! (Or is it?)

I never know what time of year it is, because I live in Florida and all the seasons feel the same, with minor variations in heat, humidity, and tourist levels. 

However, it must be summer in Florida because 1) there’s less traffic everywhere and it’s possible to walk into a restaurant and get a table any night of the week, 2) it’s gone from “wow, it’s hot out here” to “Oh my God it’s like the surface of the sun out here”, 3) daily rain showers, and 4) there seems to be a “I’ll have so much time to get writing done this summer” vibe out there.

Alfa & Romeo like to hang out on the outside patio (supervised), but I prefer the air conditioned inside. 

My friend and colleague Cara Finnegan wrote about this “summer math” fallacy last week in her newsletter. She’s an academic and is on the academic calendar, which on the surface looks like “summers off”, but it really looks more like this: 

“During June and July my goal is to write for 1-2 hours per day, three days a week. Subtracting a vacation and a few days here and there when I know there won’t be any writing, the math left me with between 18-36 total hours of writing over those two months. Compared to the academic’s fantasy of “I have all summer to write,” that’s not a lot of time.”

So let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that “once we have ALL THIS TIME available, THEN we can write.” Because there never is ALL THIS TIME. There is only the time we make for it.

Real talk, friends: We either make the time or we don’t. It doesn’t “happen”.

Now: what can we reasonably expect to accomplish?

I recently read Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke, not because I’m planning to quit anything any time soon, but because I (and I bet you too) often weigh pros and cons of taking on new things – but we do it wrong, and we end up taking on or sticking with things for the wrong reasons. Here’s the best summary of all the points Duke makes, but I highly recommend the whole book because she teaches (and she knows because she was a professional poker player) how to make good decisions.

That being said, it’s good to have goals! It makes us productive. It makes us optimistic. As Cara says,

“Still, I know I can do some good writing in those hours. And I know that if I calibrate my goals to the reality of my available time, those 18-36 hours will be enough. Ultimately, I’d rather congratulate myself for what I was able to do rather than cling to the fantasy of the fuzzy math inside my head.”

So, what are your writing goals for the summer? If you need some realistic yet meaningful guides for productivity, may I suggest my $17 DIY Writing Retreat Planner?

Enjoy the warmer months safely. Like I tell the cats, hydrate and take breaks. And feel good about what you do!