How Housework Helped Me Write a Book: A Guest Post by Kathleen Stone
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How Housework Helped Me Write a Book: A Guest Post by Kathleen Stone
I once attended a workshop on time management for writers. The teacher asked us to track our activities, and she handed out grid-lined forms so we could monitor ourselves throughout the day. She was sure our time was out of whack, with too much attention paid to housework and not enough to writing. We'd be more productive if only we let the dishes stack up, left the bed unmade and ignored the dust.
This advice did not sit well with me. Okay, I have been known to leave breakfast dishes in the sink and Marie Kondo would blanche at some of my closets. But once I close the closet doors, the visual order of the house gives me the psychic calm I need to get to get to my desk and stay there.
My book project was in its infancy when I attended that workshop, and I felt conflicted. Maybe the teacher really did know the secret to completing a manuscript, something that I, a first-time author, most certainly did not. Maybe, despite my feminist principles, I too readily embraced the outdated sexist trope that responsibility for the household lay with women. But then I found a way to embrace housework like never before, and also finish my book.
The pomodoro technique is a time management strategy that has you work for twenty-five minutes straight, then take a five minute break. After four segments, you will have completed 110 minutes of work, with a longer break ahead. The trick is to silence the phone and turn off the internet, including during the five-minute intervals. As hard as it is to resist the temptation of internet-borne distractions, it's important not to stray. That's where housework comes in.
I found that a simple activity, away from the desk that got me up and moving, is what I needed. For me, laundry was ideal. In a little over five minutes, I could grab the basket, separate lights from darks and put in a load. On a later break, I could transfer wet clothes to the dryer. Later still, I could fold in five minute increments.
By the time I heard about the pomodoro method, I was far along in my book project, with a publisher and a deadline. My husband knew I was under pressure, and he tried to help by taking over the laundry. Wrong. Back off, I told him. His helpfulness would upset my carefully calibrated writing process. When I ran out of laundry, I crammed other small cleaning tasks into my five-minute breaks. With a few squirts and a paper towel, I could clean the mirror and sinks in the bathroom. A spritz and a dust cloth was enough to spiff up the dining room table.
During these short bursts of activity, I let my mind wander. Sometimes I hit upon a way to rewrite a sentence. Sometimes I remembered something I had meant to say. Being away from the screen and engaging in simple, methodical tasks allowed my mind to hover over the work from a distance and see it afresh.
All the while I was working on a book about women who defied the prevailing stereotype of women as housewives. The women in my book had become doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals in the mid-20th century, a time when American culture glorified housewife as the highest and best use of female talent. These women had faced hurdles, on the job and sometimes at home, steeper than anything I had experienced in my own career. Yet here I was, fending off my husband's help and keeping housework for myself because it bolstered my writing practice.
My book released on the first day of Women's History Month. I smiled, knowing that housework, the bane of many women's lives, had helped me tell the stories of women who had broken away from conventional expectations. Now my husband is back to doing laundry, and I really do plan to clean out those closets before starting my next book.
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Kathleen Stone is the author of They Called Us Girls: Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men (Cynren Press, 2022). She holds graduate degrees from Boston University School of Law and Bennington College, and divides her time between Boston, Massachusetts and Pemaquid, Maine.
How Housework Helped Me Write a Book: A Guest Post by Kathleen Stone
