On the State of Your Writing Space

I’m often asked how I can work at home and be productive. Many tell me they would never get any work done that way and need to be in an office environment with colleagues so they’re not lured away from work by other things, like shopping online or catching up on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But I get at least twice as much work done at home as I ever did in an office. I’ll tell you why.

My home office is relatively neat and organized for how I work best, with a desk calendar (yes, it’s paper), a file rack for things I often need at hand or that need to be taken care of within the work week, and a “sticky note” on my computer desktop that outlines my main goals for my clients for the week, including any deadlines, meetings, etc. I work at the time of day when I’m most motivated (usually in the mornings, but also at other times of the day when inspiration strikes), when my family is otherwise occupied (at the beach, playing golf, or doing their own projects), and with only the sounds of the birds and the breeze through my windows (no TV, radio, or iTunes). I’m seldom interrupted at home, which is one of the things that irritated me most when I worked in an office and can irritate me still when it happens here.

Dinner plate hibiscus
Photograph by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

Notwithstanding a recent New York Times op-ed piece touting the virtues of a messy office space (by Kathleen D. Vohs titled, “It’s not ‘mess.’ It’s creativity”) I work best in an orderly environment, and, dare I say, I am more creative in it. In fact, one year, although I was the executive editor of two medical journals, I shared an office with a freelancer who worked there when I worked at home. (I insisted that, when I went back to fulltime work, all job offers would enable me to work at home at least two days a week and found little, if any resistance.) Initially, I would return to that shared space finding a ravaged mess, with the desktop full of open journals, reference texts, and loose papers, and still open file drawers. One day I needed to be in the office the same day as that freelancer, who I politely asked to start leaving my office the way she found it. In response, she called me something with the adjective “anal” in it. I paused. Then, looking around the office at the state it was in, I said, “Where’s the virtue in this?” She was at a loss for words.

And when I am in a messy office, it’s me who is at a loss for words. My writing dries up, my thoughts don’t cohere, I can’t lay hands on what I need when I need it, and I produce less in a given timeframe. I’m not saying that everyone will find that to be true or that it’s best for everyone, including my office mate. But it is important for you to designate a workspace that amplifies your ability to write and produce good work. Don’t be cowed into working in a messy space or a neat space, an office environment or a home one; find what’s best for you and make it happen.

The Hazards of Over Researching

In some earlier posts on conducting interviews, particularly the one on Developing Interview Questions, I stressed the importance of doing your homework beforehand. Every writer has to be knowledgeable about a topic to begin writing, and often this requires some research. Occasionally I see the opposite problem, however; some writers let their enthusiasm for a topic lead them to research too much. Any topic can spark further ideas that point to more information, but unless your project is going to be book length, stay focused on the main points you want to articulate.

Glacial ice, Canada
Photograph by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

Some dangers of over researching include asking interviewees too many off-topic questions, amassing so much information that you lose your article’s focus, or creating a lot of editing work for your editor. In these cases I’ve found myself cutting the writer’s word count, refocusing the article, or, worse, rejecting it. You can also alienate professionals who have little time to give to interviews. So gather enough information to write an informed and intelligent article but beware of drowning yourself, or your readers, in it. Clarity is everything. 

Your Favorite Posts of 2012

I just looked back on the stats from this year and found that three blog entries got the most hits from readers. What do these posts have in common? They all address the ABCs of starting to write. Gathering Story Ideas encourages nurses to keep a file of nursing care events they can write about, How to Be a Good Freelancer lists some simple Dos and Don’ts for the independent writer, and Letting Go briefly discusses editing your own work but then realizing when it’s time to, well, let it go.

Framed view along Grand View Point Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

I’m encouraged by the hits here, because the popularity of these posts means my blog readers really do want to write. I don’t have profiles of who is doing the reading, but I can assume most are nurses, based on the title of my blog. Please continue to read, and let me know what other topics might help to nudge you along the writing path in 2013. And Happy New Year!

Little acts of rebellion

A UK Nursing Times headline caught my eye today: “Nurses left to fill gaps in cleaning.” Just seeing it even now makes my blood boil and brings an early clinical nursing experience back to mind. After graduating, I worked the 3-11 shift as a GN and then as an RN, on the telemetry unit of a community hospital. Staffing was sparse, then as now, and we nurses cared for about 12 patients an evening, with the charge nurse doling out meds to all the patients on the floor. But not only nursing was short-staffed, so was housekeeping. And one of the duties I was told I had to do on my shift was empty the patient room garbage bins, because there was not enough housekeeping staff to do so on every floor.

Thus, only a few weeks into my new career, I launched my first rebellion: I told the nursing supervisor that I had not gone to college for a BS, RN, to empty garbage cans. That it was a waste of my education and talent. That she should put her foot down with administration and stand up for the nursing staff. That if they needed more housekeeping staff, then the hospital should hire more, but nurses should not be doing garbage detail on any shift; we should be taking care of patients.

My colleagues were surprised, if not shocked, by my audacity in bucking the system. And keep in mind that baccalaureate education was not, in the early 1970s, viewed as particularly valuable regarding “real-life” nursing experience; the diploma RNs had much more in-depth clinical experience than we did at the time. But to their credit, those other nurses did see my point, they knew I was right, and they didn’t like emptying the garbage much either.

Also to her credit, the nursing supervisor agreed as well. It took several weeks—of leaving those garbage pails out in the halls for the morning housekeeping staff—for our point to be heard, and several weeks of the nursing supervisor saying to administration, “What can I do? They won’t empty the garbage!” The hospital simply couldn’t afford to fire all of us.

Chicago skyline from Michigan City, IN
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

So to my colleagues in the UK, I say: Doesn’t this make your blood boil? State your case calmly but firmly and put a stop to this nonsense. Rescuing other departments from their responsibilities does no one any good in the long run. 

Gathering story ideas

When I tell nurses they have stories to tell, I can practically see these cartoon text bubbles over their heads. Yet ideas are everywhere in your practice. Just saying this evokes stories from my CNS and ER days: a patient with spina bifida who figured out how to keep coming back to the hospital because it was her only means of socialization; the 19-year-old MVA we could not save in ICU; the father who did not make his 8-year-old daughter wear a helmet when he took her out for a ride on his motorcycle; the man buried in a construction accident…you get the idea.

One way to keep track of these stories is to keep a file, whether on your computer, smart device, or on paper. When you think, “This would make a great article,” write it down somewhere and file it. Then dedicate time in your week or month to review those ideas and start writing.

Writing With Political Purpose

Nurses have a well of political power that, for some reason, we rarely tap as a group. That’s partly because of our lack of a unified professional voice. (Think of the splintered representation we have via the American Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and the myriad other unions nurses have elected to participate in.) But if you are a writer (and even if you are not) you do have a political voice, and there's really no excuse not to be heard in the United States. Here’s a small personal example:

University of Virginia library
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

The law in the state of New Jersey does not permit me to purchase a health savings account (one of the less expensive forms of health care insurance) because I am the sole proprietor of my own business. So when Assembly Bill No. 2171—the New Jersey Health Benefit Exchange Act—was due for consideration by Governor Christie, I let him know I wanted him to support it. He did not, but to his credit, he sent me a letter explaining why. I did not buy all of his arguments, however, and I wrote back to tell him so.

Will this particular dialogue with my governor, which I expect may be ongoing, have any effect on my ability to purchase an affordable health care plan? Perhaps not, but imagine if every RN in New Jersey spoke out about this issue or about other issues in health care? And what if nurses all over the country participated in letting their state and national representatives know what they thought about health care reform in general and the importance of nurses and nursing to patient care, community health, and disease prevention in particular?

If you feel uninformed about ways to communicate your views, teach yourself about the political process. If you want to know what is going on in your state regarding health care (or any other issue that concerns you), use the National Conference of State Legislatures website to find out. If you don’t know who your state Congressmen are, you can learn on the US House of Representatives and the US Senate websites.  Then write to them and let them know what you think.

Even a single nursing voice, when gathered with others, can create a powerful chorus. Start singing with your pen! 

Move writing to the top of your to-do list

Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park, WA
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA 

Writing is something very important to me, yet it often falls to the bottom of my list. Sound familiar?

While I have learned that lists keep me organized and help me get things done, sometimes I let them overwhelm me. When that happens, I often refer back to a book I read some years ago: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey. For me, the most useful thing Covey does in this book is to distinguish between what’s important—those things that contribute to one’s long-term goals (the big rocks in the jar, he calls them)—and what is urgent—matters that seem to require immediate action but end up being mere distractions (those pebbles that could really fit in anywhere). At times these two categories converge, but as he points out, most often urgent matters are not the same as important ones.

Think about this when you feel inundated with things to do, and you put aside your goal to write. Then make some decisions about what’s really important in your life. If writing is one of those things, it does not have to be urgent, but it does belong in that important category, which demands that you make some space for it. And it should go on your list first. After all, it's a big rock.

What have you found useful for moving writing to the top of your list? Do you have a tip to share?

Portions of this blog entry first appeared in my column, “Your Space—Taking Care of You,” in the June 2010 issue of AJN eNews.