“Once upon a time…” in the Land of Nascarville lived a persistent writer who was living happily ever after with her Prince Charming. She cranked out inspirational romances by day and dreamed of one day seeing her name on the cover of one of the many novels she blazed through in the evenings, sometimes two, three books a week with nary a blink.

Then, one day her dream came true. Oh, glorious day, that morning when she woke to find the email in her inbox. “We want your book!”

Suddenly, her workdays lingered into evenings. So immersed in learning the publishing lingo, diving into the world of social media, creating memes (what in heaven’s name is a meme?), and writing blog posts, the books stacked up on her kindle with not so much as a sync to load.

She crawled through books at a snail’s pace, dwindling to less than two books a month. Not so the list of books she wanted to read. Oh no, that list grew and grew, until it rivaled Jack’s beanstalk. Many evenings the laptop replaced the kindle that used to perch on her thighs.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR to me!” she screamed, upon learning that four, potentially five books would release in 2015. But, oh, what to do, what to do? Items from her to-do list ricocheted in her head, refusing to shut down. Edits. Galleys. Memes. Social Media. Marketing. Publicity. Finding a home for her latest series. Ideas for the next series, the characters crying out to come to life.

When she finally sank into her recliner most nights, she dusted off her kindle and caressed the cover, longing to fire it up, but a dozen items on that list jockeyed for position. Book? Blog post? Design a meme? Catch up on social media? So much to do, so much to do, but what to do first, and when?

She stole a glance at her prince, hoping for advice, but his head was bent over a laptop, too. 🙂

Does this hit home for you? In this age of constant connectivity with tablets and smartphones where immediate responses are expected, do you find it challenging to “shut it down?” For those of you who work from home, how do you shut it down? Do you turn off the light in your office and lock the door or shut down the laptop and refuse to fire it back up until morning? And writers, we thrive on ideas. How do you turn off the “idea light bulb” for a time? Do you use a particular toggle to switch from “live streaming” to “on demand?” Leave a comment. I’d love to know!