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When working under a writing deadline, what do you put on “pause”?

Something’s gotta give!

Recently I was reading an article about working under a deadline – be it a work deadline, writing deadline or other assignment. The advice given by the article’s author was to write a list of the things in your life that you can “temporarily put on pause” to make time for whatever you are under deadline for and make it a priority for a limited time.

It makes perfect sense right? You’ve got to find more hours to put into something new in your life, so something old is going to have to give.

Pause under writing deadline

I’m ashamed to admit these outloud, but here are my “pauses”!

– Ironing. I’ve never been a huge ironer anyway, but when crunch time is on, you can bet my writing clothes are wrinkly!

– Cooking sophisticated food. It’s a good job my husband isn’t a fussy eater. Most nights when I’m writing, I throw rice, veggies and some seasoning into the rice cooker and hope for the best. A huge time saver as I can leave them to steam away while I get back to my desk – and healthy too!

– Correspondence. This is probably my saddest “pause”. With friends in the UK, Japan and all over the US, I love to stay in touch with letters, postcards and email. But under a writing deadline, writing anything else seems to be a huge chore!

Ok, your turn! What do you put on hold when working under a writing deadline?