PREPTOBER 2022 | Prioritizing Your Well-Being

In a previous post, I mentioned your health as one of the five categories that will help you conquer your NanoWrimo goals. As a refresher, those five categories are: health, support system, writing, accountability, and fun.

Health should be at the top of your goal list for November because you can’t complete NanoWrimo without it. Oh, sure, you may be able to power through a cold or exhaustion, but what about your mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing during all of that?

Anytime I’ve ever tried to ignore my health just to get my other goals done, I’ve failed in some form or fashion. Learn from my mistakes. Do not go into NanoWrimo thinking that you need to power through and ignore your health. Taking care of your health during November will help improve your chances of finishing NanoWrimo strong.

Get Your Body Moving

If you have writing as your career or your side hustle, then you’re most likely sitting for the majority of the day. I know that when I find myself sitting for an entire day with no real movement, my body starts to feel restless and I can’t focus on my writing. Studies have shown that moving your body can actually get your creative juices flowing.

Every day in the morning, I have carved out time to workout. It varies by intensity from walking the dog to attending a HIIT workout class at my local gym. I do this because I know that if I do not do my workout first thing in the morning, it is not going to get done. It’s not a lazy thing or a lack of willpower––I just know myself. Come five o’clock after a workday and my NanoWrimo writing still needs to get done, the last thing on my priorities list is going for a workout.

I recommend writing down what works for you. Your exercise goal may be setting a timer every hour to get up and go for a two minute walk to stretch your legs. It could also be to go for a lunchtime jog just to break up your day.

Point is: get your body moving so your creative juices can flow.

Fuel Your Body

Something else you may want to consider is fueling your body. I know a lot of people resort to ordering takeout during the month of November just to get through it, but takeout is not usually what’s best for your health or your wallet.

I recommend planning out your meals for the month in advance and meal prepping. Both of these combined will help combat what is known as decision fatigue. Your decision making and focus should be on your writing during the month of November, not what you’re putting in your mouth or how you’re going to make sure your fridge is fully stocked.

If you already do most of the cooking in your household, then you’re already ahead of the game. You’re in the position where you already know your grocery budget, what to make that is quick and easy, and you may already have a meal plan in place that is ready to go.

For those of you who are not used to planning out your meals, take it step by step. When I first started getting my meals together, I used to make only enough for one or two servings. Now that I’m a seasoned cook in the kitchen, I try to make enough servings to feed myself for days on one meal alone. That doesn’t mean I’m eating the same thing every day, but when I make my meals, I am looking at them not only as my dinner but also my lunch for the next week.

Put your planned meals in a calendar. I use my iCalendar on my MacBook so I know when exactly I’m going to be eating. I plan out what I’m eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to any snacks I’ll be munching on during the day. Again, the goal here is to take ourselves away from opening the fridge door and wondering, “Hmm. What am I going to eat today?” and moving that thinking power towards our writing.

I want to make it clear: there is nothing wrong with ordering takeout. If you do plan on ordering takeout during the month, make sure you map that out in your plan and make the decision of what you’re ordering ahead of time to take away yet another decision.

If you’ve never meal prepped before, don’t worry. You can take your regularly cooked meals you do throughout the week and instead cook them during the weekend. If you’re worried about freshness, I recommend at least chopping up your potatoes and vegetables and then putting them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them.

Since my weekends are usually packed with writing, I tend to do my cooking during my lunch break every day. I use a lot of meal recipes from places like Green Chef and HelloFresh so I know I’m getting a starch, vegetable and protein at every meal.

Once you’ve planned out all of your meals, you can take things a step further by getting your weekly grocery lists together for the entire month of November now. Then, designate someone in your household to go pick up the ingredients on a weekly basis for you while you write. Those two hours you usually spend at the grocery store could go to writing your novel if you plan it out right.

The key thing when fueling your body is this: keep it simple, eat foods that will make you feel good during NanoWrimo, and plan everything out in advance. Your future self will thank you.

Sleep is Your Friend

When I first started doing NanoWrimo, I didn’t have a plan. Every night, I was up until two in the morning trying to get my daily word count in. I burnt out. Fast. I was groggy, my ideas weren’t organized, and I found myself running into writer’s block all the time because I just couldn’t think. It’s because I didn’t make sleep a priority during the month of November.

Our creative minds cannot function if we’re only getting four or five hours of sleep every night. Oh, there are the few people that can do that. But they are very rare. If you’re one of those rare birds, skip this section and jump to the next.

But if you’re like me and need at least seven hours of sleep on a regular basis to keep functioning, then keep on reading. Sleep is where dreams are made. No. Literally. It’s where our minds our free to rest and can gently process what happened during the day.

Our brains need sleep in order to operate properly. Have you ever gotten less sleep than you need and then have to rely on coffee all day to get you through the day? Then by the time three o’clock in the afternoon roles around, you find yourself in a slump. You drag yourself to the end of the day, look down at your to-do list, and realize you’ve only checked off maybe one item that didn’t even matter that much to you.

Before November hits and we’re in the throes of NanoWrimo, I recommend you write down your ideal sleep schedule. Maybe you want to go to bed by midnight every night after writing for hours because you’re a night owl and are most productive late at night. Or, if you’re like me and you’re a morning person, then you might need to shift your sleep schedule a bit so you can wake up before the sun rises to get your writing done.

Write down the time that you want to go to sleep at night and the time you want to wake up in the morning. Then look at how your sleep schedule is right now.

Recently I’ve been staying up later than I’d like to during NanoWrimo. Instead of going to bed around midnight, I need to get back to a sleep schedule where I’m in bed by eight o’clock at night and falling asleep by nine. Around now, when it’s the middle of October, is when you should start adjusting your sleep schedule to meet your needs during NanoWrimo.

If you’ve ever had to adjust your sleep schedule because of time changes when traveling, then you know the first time you are forced to make that adjustment can be the hardest. Suddenly forcing yourself to go to bed earlier when you’re not tired after getting used to staying up until all hours of the night can seriously mess up your energy levels.

Which is why now, when it’s the middle of October, is the perfect time for you to adjust your sleep schedule. If you’re a couple of hours off like me, then adjust your sleep schedule week over week by thirty minutes to an hour. So if you want to go to bed at nine o’clock like me but you’re usually up at midnight, set a goal for yourself this week to go to bed by eleven every night. Then, the next week, go to bed by ten every night. By October 30th, you should be able to go to bed by nine and you’ll be aligned with your goal.

It’s also important to start setting your alarm for when you want to wake up. Then, actually wake up when you say you’re going to wake up. Just like how you’re adjusting your evening sleep routine by half an hour to an hour, you should adjust your morning sleep routine accordingly.

Mental and Spiritual Well-Being

Let’s say you have your physical needs met through your daily form of movement, your meals, and your sleep schedule. How are your mental and spiritual goals looking?

Maybe you need to meditate to get in tune with your spiritual well-being. Or maybe you have a therapist you see once a week for a mental health check-in. Is journaling more your thing? Do that.

Just like your body needs some love, your mental and spiritual well-being need some love too. Make a plan for how you’re going to take care of yourself during NanoWrimo based on your needs. Be honest with yourself and make sure you have exactly what you need.

Remember to take care of yourself throughout NanoWrimo. With your physical, mental, and spiritual needs met, you’ll find that your creativity will skyrocket.