When The Dung Adds Up

There is a saying in German, it goes a bit like this:

“Little livestock also creates dung.”

What it refers to is the fact that over time, little things start to add up and therefore shouldn’t be neglected.

And this, of course, is valid for positive and negative things.

And, it is something that I have neglected for far too long.

When I started out writing, I tended to trying to create the perfect writing environment for me before I could start.

I had to be calm and in the mood, without distractions, in a place that I like, knowing what I wanted to work on, have at least an hour or more time, and so on and so forth.

But over the years, can you imagine, how much time I lost, just by waiting until the circumstances were perfect?

I’ll never know but it reminds of an english expression, “leaving money on the table”. What I did was leaving time on the table, so to speak.

It took me a while to learn that it doesn’t help to wait for inspiration to come in order to get to work. It’s the other way round.

But also, that I should take more advantage of the little times lots I can find here and there.

If you break it down, writing is taking thousands of decisions, very little ones. So, why not use little time for one or some of those little decisions. Or even just a couple of notes.

Or making just one sentence better. Or one paragraph.

Everything you do instead of doing nothing is good.

So, how do you find those little time slots in your day?

– when you’re waiting for public transport

– when you’re on public transport

– when you’re waiting for a friend that is late

– instead of checking your social feed the 100^th time this day

– queuing in the supermarket

– waiting until others log on to the zoom call

– …

The list goes on.

It’s like having a Netflix or Spotify subscription that you don’t use. You pay $10 a month, which is not a lot, but in a year that’s $120. And in ten years that’s $1200. 

Imagine what you can create with the time you “leave on the table”.

More tactics to put your inspiration to good use and create faster: