Streamlining and Focusing

I’m on a mission to focus my mind and become more productive. But there are hurdles. And the biggest hurdle is email. I’m not talking about personal emails from people I know or from those who want to invite me to speak to their group or who need to contact me personally for some other reason – I love getting those! I’m talking about all those email lists I (willingly!) signed up for which send me down a rabbit hole of clicking whenever they arrive in my inbox.
I’m immediately drawn to the prospect of a holiday in the sun, a designer handbag at a bargain price or the ‘last’ chance to secure £60 off a spa weekend experience. I can spend a good fifteen minutes drilling down into all the detail and then always decide the offer is not as good as the headline promised.
And I’m addicted to those emails filled with writing opportunities and competitions. There is always the feeling that this could be the one action I need to take to catapult me to stardom. So I read all the entry requirements, debate with myself over the entrance fee and then try to work out whether there is enough time to craft something new before the deadline. After wasting all that energy I either decide against entering or I write it on my ‘To Do’ list and don’t look at the list again until the closing date has passed.
If those offending emails never arrived in my inbox, think how much time I would save and how much more productive I could be!
So I am now in the process of unsubscribing as each time-wasting missive arrives. However, the ‘unsubscribe’ option is always buried somewhere near the bottom of the email and I have to try to scroll past all the enticing stuff to get there. I fear it won’t be a quick job.
Please tell me that I’m not the only one who has this problem?

In other news, my author talk, ‘Richard Osman and Me’, is now up and running. It’s gone down well with the community groups I’ve visited so far and some of them even bought books (which is always good). I talk about the real-life inspiration behind Little Museum of Hope, my roller coaster journey to traditional publication and about writing in general. There’s a photo of me in action at the bottom of this post (courtesy of Conrad Palmer).
And today I received a surprise parcel from my publisher ChocLit – a bright new mug to celebrate the bright new cover on Little Museum of Hope (and, if you’re quick, you might catch the Kindle edition still on offer at 99p).

Finally, if you’re passionate about libraries, here’s a competition for you (and, yes, it came from one of those pesky emails!): The Europe Challenge Writing Competition is an opportunity for fiction and non-fiction writers on the theme of ‘How a Library Changed My Life’. 3,000 words maximum and there are 5 prizes of 500 Euros plus the possibility of travelling to Amsterdam for an event and book launch in September 2024. Closing date is May 20, 2024 (so not long!)