The winner is…

While I’m still a long way from finishing the report, I’ve made progress on it, and your suggestions helped. Actually, just writing about it on the blog has helped keep me accountable and working on it instead of avoiding it. However, it’s very slow going because I only average about 15 minutes of reading a day. I’ve read about 59 pages in approximately four hours. That’s just sad, but it’s not regular reading—it’s “editing” reading, which does and should take longer. I have about 70 pages to go on the hard copy. Then I start the soft editing, which might actually go faster since I think I’ll have an easier time focusing on that part of the task.

Something I didn’t figure into the process, which made it hard to follow the “buckle down to it” advice, is that after reading for five minutes (or sometimes as long as ten), I’d come to something, a sentence, an oft repeated word (these writers are particularly fond of “initiative”), an unchanged-after-many-suggestions passage, and I’d get so angry I couldn’t see clearly and I’d have to stop reading. I’d take a walk and if TR was around, I’d kvetch to him for a minute about how frustrating the whole process was. The reason I hate this task is not just because it’s inherently hateful, it’s because it’s the third fucking time I’ve had to read this report and they STILL didn’t make the changes I requested.

I’m so exhausted today, I didn’t have the energy to get frustrated and I was marginally more productive than usual—a whole 30 minutes of reading! I’m into the “back end” (the case study summaries) and expect it to go more quickly from here. While this part of report is longer, it’s also less important than the front sections and requires less attention. I hope.

In the interest of not leaving you in suspense, and with the caveat that I didn’t time myself so I’m not sure which of these truly netted more report time, here are the winners:

First Prize: Nicky.
I adored this idea and I have been using it. Getting to color in the little circles is a wonderful feeling. In addition, it helps me keep track of how much time the task is taking and I have a tangible record of the work done. I didn’t follow the suggestion to the letter. My circles are lopsided and the result isn’t pretty, but it works for me. (Your prize is the CD. However, if you strongly prefer the book, it’s yours.)

Second Prize: Dee.
Several excellent ideas, however, I only used one:

Go to a coffee shop, get a good brew, listen to your ipod, enjoy the scenery and finish it! Women are natural multi-taskers.

It worked! (Your prize is the movie passes. But if you don’t live in the DC area, you can have the book.)

Third Prize: Study Skills Master.
I tried the idea of reading a page and then rewarding myself. Even though it didn’t work that well, I still like the idea and never would have thought of it. (Your prize could be the book, the CD or the movie passes, depending on what is awarded to the first and second prize winners. )

Honorable mention: Ross.
His idea to outsource made me laugh out loud. What is awesome (or sad) is that I could have done it! What a world. I owe you another beer.

To the winners: please email me (jamy dot barab at gmail dot com) with your prize preference and mailing address. I’ll do my best to get the prize to you in the next week or so.

Thanks again to everyone who played. It was fun!

Grateful for: helpful internet friends.

Contest update

No time to write, since I'm working SO HARD. (Telling myself not to blog has produced several pages of potential blog material. Why am I so perverse?)

Thank you so much for all the good suggestions. I should also tell you, my general approach to this report is to read the whole thing through, once, in hard copy, making the easy changes and marking the places where I'll spend more time rewriting on the soft copy. This is my usual approach and it nets me good results. Better than doing the whole thing electronically, because I can carry it around. When I get to the electronic edit, things will go marginally faster.

What's worked so far from the suggestions:
Working in a coffee shop
Listening to music
Treats after reading a page

What I'm going to try:
The late suggestion of the circles and colored pencils. So fun! I'm not spending money on nice supplies though--we have a full set of colored pencils in our office, and now I have a use for them.

What I tried inadvertently that worked:
The metro. Maybe I should get on the train and go out to the end of the line and back. No real distractions, but enough people around so it's not lonely (one reason it's hard for me to work at home). For $1.35, it might just be worth it.

What I won't try:
Postponing all other work in favor of this project. This isn't my most important project, it's just the one most likely to fall through the cracks because it lacks a hard deadline. I have other tasks with real deadlines that I can't ignore.

Thanks again for the support. I'll have another request for practical advice in the queue because y'all are really good at this!

Grateful for: new ideas.

Contest!

Contests are fun, right? (Scroll down for an update.)

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered three CDs from Amazon. One of the CDs was defective and I returned it. Instead of sending me a new copy of the defective CD, they sent me a second copy of one of the good CDs. I wrote to them and explained what happened. They wrote back, "...you may keep the incorrect merchandise with our compliments. Perhaps you can donate it to a school, library, or some other facility in your area." Plus, they're sending me a replacement of the defective CD--all at no extra charge. This may be the best return experience I've ever had.

Instead of donating the CD, I thought it would be nice to give it to one of my readers. But to whom would I give it? Who would want it? A contest, of course! But what kind of contest?

Today, yet again, I managed to stay busy while avoiding my single most important task. The task in question is to edit yet another poorly written report. A report we commissioned, the contractor wrote, which I have to fix. I've already done a couple of rounds on this thing and I'm sick of it. This is the last edit, it shouldn't take very long, but I can't face it. I even gave myself a deadline (6/29) and shared it with the boss, but for the last two days I haven't read one word of the report. Today, I was determined to spend at least an hour on the report, in 15 minute increments, but that didn't work either.

Whoever comes up with a technique that will help me get this report read, edited and out the door wins the CD.

Leave your suggestion in the comments. I'll try each suggestion for at least one day. Whichever one nets the most time spent working on the report wins! If you are an out-of-towner, I'll mail you the CD. If you're local, I'll bring it to the next happy hour.

The CD is "Lottery Winners on Acid" (an EP) by The Crimea. The music is melodic, moody, indie-pop.

Help me and win a CD! Enter a fun contest! Who doesn't love a contest?

***UPDATE***
Pele is pitching in a second prize--which is great because there are so many good ideas, I was considering adding another prize too. Her prize is a book, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (she bought it for me because I'd read something else by the same author that I really liked--but, in the meantime, I bought a copy too--so there is an "extra" copy floating around in our world). I'm also going to throw in a third prize--two free passes to the AFI Silver Theater. Woo hoo!

Also, a little more detail on what I'm doing: the document I have to read/edit/revise is about 130 pages long. It consists of 11 pages of executive summary, 39 pages of "body" and 86 (!) pages of case studies. This will be the third "draft" I've read and it STILL needs heavy editing. So frustrating.

Thanks in advance for all the great and funny ideas. I'm off to try some out right now....

Grateful for: help.