Poems, Pomodoros, and Productivity

My salvation? Source

I woke up this morning after having a very strange and exciting dream wherein I was nearly devoured by a lion and a tiger. It inspired me to write a poem, but after I began writing I realized that there were really two distinct stories that came out of the dream, and that although I wanted to, I really couldn't justify cramming the whole bit into one poem. It wouldn't make sense if I did. So, I wrote a rough draft poem about the first part of the dream (the part about the jungle cats) and decided that the second half of the dream - the aftermath - would be best served in the form of a villanelle.

I love villanelles. They are the only type of form poetry I can even tolerate, and my affection is truly a love for the ages. There's just one small problem with villanelles . . . they're a bitch to write, as they are the most restrictive form of poetry. I have been working for over an hour on the first three lines. While part of the beauty of the thing is it's economy of language, that's also the trouble with it. You have to pick the exact word you want to convey your meaning. And that word has to rhyme. And the whole thing has to sound right with some sort of meter. It's tedious. But! When you get it right, it's oh so satisfying. Hopefully, I'll have two finished poems for you by the end of the week. We shall see.

In other news, I have recently discovered the Pomodoro Technique thanks to Sarah Von at Yes! and Yes!. She casually mentioned it in a post last week, and I was intrigued. What is a pomodoro? Well, a pomodoro is literally a tomato. However, with reference to the Pomodoro Technique, it is a tomato shaped kitchen timer as well as a unit for measuring time. Just as one minute is sixty seconds and sixty minutes is one hour, one pomodoro is twenty five minutes. It's actually much more simple and much more complex than that, but I'll let you read about it at the web site if you are interested. I'm only mentioning this because I think it's a great method for increasing my own productivity, mainly because I had this same idea when I was in college.

Back in the halcyon days, I used to tote an egg timer around with me. I would set it for different amounts of time, but the idea was that I would focus on the task at hand until the timer went off. This is the basic idea behind the Pomodoro Technique. So, since I've already used it to great effect, I'm going to try it again. Only this time, I'm going to keep track of certain things, like how long it takes me to complete a task, how many interruptions I encounter, and how I might streamline the process in order to further increase my productivity. The garage will be cleaned, poems will be written, cookies will be baked, and clothes will be washed - all thanks to a humble tomato. Or, in my case, a strawberry.

What else have I got for you, dear friends and gentle readers? I have taken to eating raw, soaked, oat groats which are lovingly referred to as "scroats" by j^C. Laugh if you want, but they don't taste bad and they are proving to be both nourishing and satisfying. Although, I wonder if they aren't messing with my brain . . . I've been in total bitch mode and on the verge of an anxiety attack for several days now. The only thing I've been doing differently is eating the groats - perhaps I should look into this. This could be the cause for my lousy attitude yesterday, which, by the way, I am so sorry about. At least it was short, and we're moving on to  more pleasant pastures today. Yeah. Off to walk. Ciao!