Okay, so as I mentioned in my post about prioritising your priorities, I’m spending much of this summer editing my novel into shape. That’s because I now have a literary agent, which is very exciting, although not what this post is about.
If you’d like to know more about that, you can do so by going here and I’ll no doubt be blogging about it on Write for Your Life in time. There’s lots of good stuff in the pipeline, so don’t go away!
CCTV = productivity
Anyway, I’ve spent most of the weekend in the kitchen with my laptop, notebooks, various drafts and a cup of tea. Yesterday went pretty well and I got quite a bit done. Today though was much more sluggish and I found myself really struggling to, you know, ‘get my head down’.
Then I had an idea. A silly idea really, but one that helped force me to stay in one place and get on with my work. Essentially, I filmed myself writing. More than that, I filmed myself writing with the promise (to myself) that I would show the results to other people (that’s you).
And it worked out pretty well! Knowing that I’d get caught out if I got up and did something else for half an hour, I more or less rooted myself to the chair. Of course, there were natural breaks, including cat feeding, phone answering and toast making, but on the whole, the experiment was a success.
The results can be seen by watching the video above. It was filmed over roughly three and a half hours where I got more work done than in the rest of the day put together. Obviously, it’s rather boring viewing, but that’s not the point. It helped improve my productivity at a time when I was struggling.
How did I do it?
Well, I have an iPhone (sorry), but not one of those fancy new ones with video capability. So instead I found an application called TimeLapse, which can be set up to take still images at a set interval. Stitched together, those images provide a cut down version of events.
Obviously, you can also use a normal camera to create similar time-lapse videos, so long as it has the ability to automatically take snaps at set intervals. You could also just film yourself with a normal video camera or phone with a video recording function.
Over to you!
So what do you think? Might self-inflicted CCTV help you with your writing? The key thing is that promise. If you don’t commit to showing other people, you could still take your half an hour breaks and no one would be any the wiser. For me, the filming worked because it created that positive pressure.
I’d be really interested to know if you have a go at this yourself. In fact, I actively challenge you to do so! You never know, together we could create the most boring, yet potentially fascinating video gallery in the world. Posssibly. Maybe.
Share your thoughts using the comment section below.
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20 July 2009
I’ve been thinking about this lately too. In my work in education, I’ve live-streamed as I worked and it’s definitely helped with the productivity and accountability. What I would really like to do, is time-lapse screen capture so others can see exactly how I write and revise. Thanks for sharing your process!
21 July 2009
Iain,
What a fantastic idea! Catching the body language glimpses was priceless! I think it’s a very unique and inventive idea. It sounds like you had a lot of fun doing it as well!
George
21 July 2009
Interesting idea. But if you were the Barbara Cartland type, you’d probably spend six hours prior to the filming sorting out hair and make-up.
You’ve got to be pretty techi too, which sadly, I am not.
But it’s good to have a broad range of ideas floating around that help some whilst not so much others. Now, when I retreated to the writing retreat for a rather long and expensive weekend (300 is a lot to invest on catchup) I found the most effective solution to my problem. I immersed myself in the company of enthusiastic, committed, hard-working writers and felt so guilty, just sitting staring hopelessly at the wall whilst all around fingers feverishly tapped on keys that all their energy kicked me into action.
So, when I have room, I intend filling my house with writers and setting them to work.
21 July 2009
This is interesting – most notably, how little actualy typing you do. But it also made me feel mildly stalkerish. And in my own writing practice, it would be simply impossible due to my aversion to combing my hair when I am deep in a project. Although it would also afford me a nice opportunity to record my collection of indoor scarves.
21 July 2009
This is a nice article about cctv… very interesting….
roshid
21 July 2009
So you’re using social accountability like this
What might work even better, is live CCTV, where your camfeed is going directly to one or more productivity buddies who also want to work during that period. If someone strays, the group returns him/her to work.
It’s like an online studygroup
Good thinking, might need summa that as well
21 July 2009
Love this idea, it really made me hoot! A silent invigilator, making sure you keep working and don’t succumb to the imp of the perverse!
But staying at the keyboard isn’t everything. What you also need is a keystroke spy – to detect the sneaky breaks for google browsing, the emails to friends, the ideas for blog posts when you’re meant to be building your wordcount.
21 July 2009
Leechblock can also help in avoiding distraction.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476
And Writeroom, which all writers on Macs are probably familiar with. http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
22 July 2009
Thanks for all the great responses everyone, I’ll respond to you all properly soon – I’m currently editing… privately!
24 September 2009
I do something similar myself! I have Y-cam IP camera setup (http://www.y-cam.com) in the corner of my den… Only the missus has access, kind of “big brother” style… If I even think she is watching, i don’t DARE to mess around! haha
25 September 2009
@Jim Hello Jim and welcome. I think your solution sounds even more bonkers than mine! What happens if you get caught??!
25 September 2009
haha – but it works!! The earful I get from “she who must be obeyed” just isn’t worth slacking!!