Work

I've been doing the devotional Thessalonians: A 5-Day Reading Plan by NewSpring Church on the YouVersion Bible app, and today's devotional (day 5) and Bible reading was really good for me.

Lately I've been disappointed with my work output, my number of hours worked per day and my words written per day. I think I'm comparing myself to other writers who are so much more focused and disciplined than I am, and have insane word count outputs, and are making six figures a year. I'm also trying to achieve the same number of hours worked as when I was a biologist, but biology work was much less mentally strenuous than writing has been.

So I've been struggling to improve my focus and my discipline, but I get lazy very easily. God has given me this gift of working from home, so I should take advantage of it, right? But just yesterday I really didn't want to work, and since I'm home all day there's no one to notice if I slack off.

The devotional made me remember that I've lost focus on the reason I'm writing--God told me to write, and this is the job He's given to me. I need to JUST DO IT and not forget that He is the reason I write.

Do you struggle with work? How do you deal with it?

Comments

Sarita said…

I struggle with motivation some times and it is so easy to get distracted. When I find myself in this mode, I try to remember that verse: Everything you do, do it as if you are doing it for God. This and setting small goals. For example, work an hour on this then take a 5 min social media break.

Mon Oct 26, 07:11:00 AM 2020

Camy Tang said…

Thanks Sarita! That's a great reminder!

Mon Oct 26, 08:40:00 AM 2020

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Excerpt - A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS by Nicole Seitz

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.05.2009 Update: Sorry, this giveaway is closed. A Hundred Years of Happiness by Nicole Seitz A beautiful young woman. An American soldier. A war-torn country. Nearly forty years of silence. Now, two daughters search for the truth they hope will set them free and the elusive peace their parents have never found. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, a young mother named Katherine Ann is struggling to help her tempestuous father, by plunging into a world of secrets he never talks about. A fry cook named Lisa is trying desperately to reach her grieving Vietnamese mother, who has never fully adjusted to life in the States. And somewhere far away, a lost soul named Ernest is drifting, treading water, searching for what he lost on a long-ago mountain. They're all longing for connection. For the war that touched them to finally end. For their hundred years of happiness at long last to begin. From the beloved author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass...

Z Sales Meeting

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My trip to Grand Rapids: My trip went so great! I’m hoping I remembered people’s names correctly. I arrived in Grand Rapids around 3 in the afternoon, and Joyce Ondersma (Author Relations) picked me up at the airport. I’d met Joyce last year at ICRS and she’s a wonderful person. She has glorious red hair that I totally envy. We had dinner with Sue Brower (Senior Editor) and Sherry Guzy (Marketing Director). I also met Marla Bliss and Karwyn Bursma (Marketing Director for Fiction Inspiration) and Joe Questel, who’s part of the Sales department. We had these Bang-Bang shrimp appetizers that were a blast! (heheh) They were really spicy but really good. I fought Joe for them. The day at Zondervan was fabulous. First I was shown to a separate “author lounge.” Now isn’t that just way cool? They actually had my name on the door—well, underneath John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian church (I had gone to Menlo Park Pres a few times when I was in college) ...

I GOT A 3-BOOK CONTRACT WITH ZONDERVAN!

Captain's Log, Supplemental My agent called me today with the great news! Zondervan has contracted me for another three books! Right now, they’re all stand alone books—not a series. The first book is slated to release May 2010 and is tentatively titled The Year of the Dog (they’ll probably change it). It’s a women’s contemporary novel. Here’s the back cover blurb from my proposal: Tessa Ota, a professional dog trainer, is having a bad year. While moving ahead with renovation plans for her new dog kenneling and training facility, Tessa needs to move in with her disapproving mother and her antagonist sister. She convinces her ex-boyfriend to take her dog for a few months … but discovers that his brother is the irate engineer whose car she rammed a few weeks earlier. Charles Bretton has enough problems. His mama has just shown up on his doorstep all the way from Louisiana, and his brother has to move in with him after being kicked out of his apartment—with a dog in tow. And guess who...

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

Search This Blog