So you silo your work and you protect your spaces (physical and mental) carefully.

For me it’s fairly straightforward: when I’m writing a story or part of a chapter in the novel, I need to push out any lingering distractions. That’s why establishing the writing dungeon was such a high priority, and also why my best writing happens in the morning when I wake up, keep work thoughts at bay, stand over my stove until the hot water is ready to make coffee, and slink downstairs to write for a couple of hours. It’s also why my work computer has and will never cross the threshold of that room. It’s a little silly how vehement I am about that rule, but it’s served me well so far.

Of course, the fact that so many excellent writers never had the desire or the opportunity to protect a physical space for writing makes me wary of my own need, and, to be honest, makes me wonder why exactly I have that need in the first place, but whatever the case my current situation is working out and I’m not rushing to change a functioning setup.

As for Jewel, sounds like she’s looking for a way to have similar divisions online: a space for her personal writing and photography, a place for her professional consulting portfolio, and a place for her professional photography. Sounds like the same practice of division will work well for her, instead of trying to clump all of her public-facing work into a single presence (I predicted yesterday that such a clumped arrangement would lead to a persistent confusion about what projects she was focusing on when).

Anything that improves productivity, right?