My Favorite Software For Writing The Work

scrivener — The distant smell of cigarette smoke wafted under my door as I lay there debating whether to get out of bed. I was visiting at my step-dad’s home, and the phone had been ringing non-stop for at least a half hour. In fact, I could almost hear Jackie’s businesslike voice answering the calls three floors below.

“Doctor’s office!” I had seen her many times before. Managing the blinking, multi-line telephone with ease. Running the postage meter on outgoing envelopes. Staying on top of bookkeeping and billing without a computer. And never forgetting a birthday.

Jackie ran my step-dad’s office for decades with the utmost efficiency and organization. And she made it all seem easy.

That’s Because Jackie Was Organized

With so many patients coming at her, she had to be.

And I have to be too. At least when I’m dealing with my own stressful thoughts.

I find that being a bit organized is quite helpful when doing The Work of Byron Katie on an ongoing basis.

Sometimes Stressful Thoughts Come Fast And Furious

And having an organized way to store them as they come in is really helpful. That’s where a computer program can come in handy.

But which one to choose?

There Are Many Ways To Do The Work On The Computer

For example, you can use a simple text editing program. Or you can use your email program to write out The Work. But keeping things organized can get cumbersom with these methods.

My favorite program for writing out The Work is called Scrivener. It is a program designed specifically for writers. Writers that write long books, containing many chapters.

For these kind of writers, organization is essential because there are so many parts of a long book that need to be kept together in an organized and easily accessible way. This is where Scrivener shines.

Scrivener Allows You To Keep Many Chapters Together In One Document

This means you can keep all your Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheets together in one place, each in it’s own chapter.

Whenever I encounter a new stressful situation in life, I type my Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet directly into a new chapter in my Scrivener journal. Then when I have time to do The Work, I go back and start working the stressful thoughts that I have written down.

This forms a kind of queue of worksheets, so I don’t feel overwhelmed with so many things to work. I simply add new situations when they arise, and work them as I have time.

And I Can Do The Work Itself In Scrivener Too

Because each Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet is located inside a separate chapter in Scrivener, there is plenty of room to do The Work in written form right there within the chapter.

Writing out The Work is one of my favorite ways to do it. You can be as uncensored as you like. You don’t have to worry about confidentiality. And you can take as long as you like to answer each question.

Also, I use a template that I made with the four questions and the turnarounds. When I want to do The Work, I simply copy and paste the template and start answering the questions. There is no need to retype “Can you absolutely know it’s true?” each time.

You could even make a template of the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet itself, so you have the questions in front of you every time you want to fill out a new worksheet. I haven’t done this yet, but I think I will.

So I Invite You To Give It A Try

Scrivener a very professional word processing program that can keep your worksheets organized, and save paper too.

If Jackie was doing The Work, I think she would approve of Scrivener. Though she’d probably wonder why it can’t keep track of birthdays too!

Have a great week,
Todd

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