On an e-mail list for writers that I’m on, the women have been discussing whether or not they get dressed for work, considering they’re going to be keeping a computer company all day and probably not see anyone more exciting than the mail carrier. Some did get dressed, others kept the comfort level high with sweats. However, the one common chord among the writers who got their work done during the day was a change in attitude, sometimes brought on by their change in attire.
I work a job that allows me to be as lazy as I want. Heck, the only one who’s going to know is the cat and she really doesn’t care, as long as there’s food in her bowl. I can blissfully spend eight hours curled up on my sofa, watching reruns of “ER” and “Judging Amy” and eating whatever I can find in the fridge. When my husband comes home, I can tell a pretty convincing lie about my busy day (I do, after all, write fiction for a living).
If I’m being honest (and where better to be honest than in front of the Web world?), I do have days like that. Days where I don’t get a single damned thing done. Most of the time, it doesn’t bother me, but sometimes, I do end up feeling like that lazy slob on HBO’s “Crashbox.”
I have found, however, that the more often I treat my job like a job, the better I do at it, even though there’s no one watching or caring. If I take a shower, fix my face, put on something reasonably decent, then go down to my computer, I tend to work harder. For one, sitting on the sofa would get dog hair on my pants, which would mean washing them again. For another, if I laid down, my makeup would smear all over my face and make me look like a swamp monster gone horribly awry.
Not to mention the fact that both those things would be telltale evidence of a day of a sloth.
When I dress for work, I tend to sit up straighter, to speak more professionally on the phone, to plow through my pages so intensely that I often forget lunch. It’s amazing.
It’s also weird. I mean, it’s just clothes, a little Loreal and some hairspray. But it’s enough to switch my brain from “lazy” to “productive.”
The only problem? After a day like that, I need another one to recuperate. 
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I agree completely that treating my writing as a job increses productivity. If I was at work I would get dressed, clean my face, style my hair and put on some shoes and that really does prepare you for for the task ahead. If your job is to sit a computer and write, it should be no different.
I got this advice from a great website (although it is scary from the point of view it’s run by Bree VandeKamps) called Flylady.com, and ever since I read that same advice there.
I’ve put in into practice and I do feel much better about myself. Wearing sweats all day, starts to change a person, so proper attire is most definately required for this job.
I’m stunned I’m the only comment this received, It’s a great wee bit of advice.
Hey, maybe there are just a lot of other closet sofa dwellers out there
Thanks so much, Lyvvie. I have been to the Flylady site before and while I don’t do the daily e-mail thing from her, I agree with her philosophy that a couple of clean areas really starts your day off right. My sink is nearly always clean, because dirty dishes make me feel overwhelmed (when you add them in with the mountain of laundry and other stuff) and a clean desk…a rarity, honestly…is also a nice boost.
Shirley
Shirley,
My sister always insisted on getting up, pressed, dressed and ready; and she was a SAHM. When I was younger, I thought she was nuts, down right crazy. Who wants to go through the poofing and the primping, and waste it on no one but your four walls? I did the opposite, and I found that my writing was getting swilled down a throat of routine abandon.
“Hey, I’m a writer, I don’t need to get dressed.”
I spent my days in flannel, with unkempt hair and Grinch clippers. My page count plummeted. Often, the sofa and Jerry Springer were a combination to which I succumbed.
I have found, if I treated my writing days like my sister treated her days, dressed for battle in the trenches of modern mommy mundacity, I WAS more productive.
::imagine that::
So not every day, but most, I try to tame the hair and resist the Grinch slippers. I still spend a great deal of Fall and Winter in flannel, but a girl has to have her vices.
I am always better at what I do, if I focus on doing it. If I prepare myself, and act serious about writing, then I write seriously.
For me, it depends on the season — during the summer, putting on something I’d be willing to step out of the house in is what I needs to get going if I’m writing at home. In the winter, however, I can do quite well if I’m curled up on the couch in fuzzy socks, PJs and a robe — on those days, it feels delightfully decadent, as if I’m somehow playing hookey from everything I’m supposed to be doing.
There is something in general to be said about getting up and getting dressed for clicking your mind into “work” mode.
I don’t watch much tv, and when it’s on it’s either the kids watching kids shows or the husband watching boring documentaries.
Right now, I still write predominently at night. My struggle is trying to stay up until 11 every night so I can get in two hours of solid writing time!
But when I’m on deadline, I take the two little kids to a babysitter. My motivation is not how I look or if I’m missing a good show on tv. It’s–heck, I’m now paying someone to watch my kids, I’d better be productive or I’m wasting my money (and feeling guilty that I sent them out of the house for a couple hours.)
nice site =):roll::wink::smile: have a nice day =)
I’m this way about showering in the morning. Technically, most days I don’t have to go out of the house much longer than it takes to drop the kids off at school, so I could put off showering until whenever I felt like it, even at night before bed.
But I feel like a sloth before I shower. So I make myself get up half an hour before everyone else, take that shower and get dressed (even if it is only jeans and sweatshirts or sweaters). Having showered makes me feel like I’m ready to be a part of the world, which is key to getting work done.
Too, I think as writers having a place in the home that is a designated writing place helps productivity. Just as you “go to the office”, going to a quiet desk or room or whatever puts me into writing mode. When I camp out on the sofa with the laptop, I end up channel surfing way too much.
Absolutely spot on! Except — this is the kicker — I actually leave the house to write. If I’m at home, on the computer, then I’m probably online. But this morning, as with most mornings now that my youngest is in preschool, I put on decent clothes and some make-up, then I headed out to a local coffee shop as soon as I dropped him off. I wrote 5 pages before I had to pick him up!
This works best for first drafts since I’m working on my Alphasmart, but it works. I’m not about to mess with success.
I know Cherry Adair swore by this method. She said in one of the RWA chats that she got up every morning and dressed like she was going into the office to work. She put on full makeup and jewelry, then walked into her home office. She also made sure she arrived at the same time everyday. (Something Stephen King insists gets you ready to write.)
What I wear doesn’t really matter because I’ve done jobs that were jeans jobs and jobs that were dress jobs. So specific types of clothing dosen’t put me more or less in “work” mode. So, I throw on jeans and a T-shirt, and I’m good.
Dedicated workspace and -times help you and everybody else to draw lines – if I’m working at the office, I cannot go shopping, do the dishes, clean the windows, weed the garden…
If I’m working in my office which happens to be opposite my bedroom, I can’t either. And it’s not just other family members who sometimes find that hard to accept (after all, ‘I am at home’), but _me, too_.
I can, however, work split shifts – three hours in the morning, use the daylight/shop opening hours for errands, *then* work again, which makes work from home very rewarding indeed.