We creative types can be pretty rebellious against ourselves, can’t we? Giving in to a myriad of fear-birthed, “what ifs,” we let our inner resistance get the upper hand. We fight and sabotage the very thing we want so desperately:
To write!
photo credit: h.koppdelaney via photopin cc
Well, let’s combat all that nonsense, shall we, with two of my favorite tips to trick us into getting down to writing business.
I call them macro and micro deadlines.
A macro deadline is about the big end goal you’re shooting for, while a micro deadline has to do with your daily steps along the way.
How to Put Macro Deadlines to Work for You
Most of us need the exterior motivation of a time frame and/or someone counting on us to get our acts in gear. It’s just way too easy to put things off otherwise! So . . .
Make it too public to back out of.
If you’re like me, making a promise to someone or better yet, making a public announcement, is incredibly effective. Tell everyone the deadline to have the first draft of your novel written by will be (pick a date). You won’t lack motivation when people begin to ask you how the book’s going. It all of a sudden becomes real. (After all, we both know that private deadlines without accountability are just pretend.)
Another way to go public is to join a writing workshop or mastermind group related to the type of writing you want to do. When everyone else around you is taking action, celebrating the completion of their projects and encouraging you along the way, it’s motivating. Besides, you wouldn’t want to waste the money you spent by not doing the work to get the best results you could from the group. Which leads us to:
Make it too costly not to have it done by the date you specify.
A writer I worked with deliberately signed up for a self-publishing contract that would expire at the end of the year. She knew that if her book wasn’t finished, edited and ready to go to print before the deadline, she lost all the money she’d invested.
When I came on board to help her find the time necessary to complete a good draft (by prioritizing writing amongst all the other important activities in her very full schedule), she only had a couple of months left before it would have to go to the editor. (I’m glad to say that after our time together, she stuck to the schedule and made it happen!)
There are limited-time mentorship or group coaching programs that are incredibly beneficial, as well. If you don’t meet your goals in the 30 days, six months, or however long, the investment of time and money on your part would be lost.
Set a date for sooner than you would’ve liked it to be.
Push yourself here. Remember how in school you had three months to finish a paper, but waited until a week before it was due to get started? You worked like crazy to get it done and you did it. So you know it’s possible.
You think six months would be a doable stretch to get the first draft of your epic fantasy novel completed? Why not give yourself four months and see how you do?
How to Put Micro Deadlines to Work for You
So much for the macro, big picture deadlines. What about the nitty-gritty, day-to-day?
When you actually sit down to write, do you find yourself overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project before you? Do you flit from social media, to Google, to texting, to maybe writing a few pages, but not feeling you’ve really achieved anything of value, and find yourself looking back asking, “What did I do all this time?” Are you then left with the feeling that you wasted a lot of time doing . . . not a lot?
You’re in good company. Many creative types are visionary, highly distractable individuals with lots of ideas, who suffer from “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome.” (They become easily side-tracked by something interesting that steals their focus away from their current task.) So here’s my shockingly simple trick to bring you back into laser-like, performance enhancing focus:
Make a plan. And set a timer.
That’s it? That’s it! (I told you it was simple.)
Decide what you’re going to work on and then set a timer at intervals of anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. I promise, you’ll be amazed at how much you get done in shorter spurts of time. Here’s why it works:
Writers without a plan are more likely to procrastinate.
The first part of your plan could be anything from a daily word count or amount of blog posts or chapters to complete.
So let’s say you know that your goal is 1,000 words. The next part is your writing interval time limit. Setting a timer coaxes you into getting started by making a deal with your inner rebel that you only have to work for, say, 30 minutes and then you get to take a break. Many people find that once they get over the hurdle of just getting started, they get so into their project that they don’t want to stop once the timer goes off.
By sticking to your writing plan, you rein in that wandering mind and stave off distraction. And if you know you’re only writing for 30 minutes, the limited time gives you that heightened focus and the assurance that whatever emails, phone calls or bright ideas you get can surely wait a half hour without dire consequences.
Bonus: You look after yourself in the process.
On the flipside, another benefit of the timer is that it keeps you from allowing hyper-focus to take over. Have you ever been so in the zone that you find yourself working on a project for hours without a break, not to mention eating or going to bed at a decent hour?
While it’s fun to be lost in a project while time whizzes by, afterward you can become moody and exhausted. Setting a time limit alerts you to just how long you’ve been at it and reminds you to look after yourself with regular stretch, food, rest and bathroom breaks.
Remember: Writers suffering from burn out end up not writing at all. For a loooooooong time. Don’t be that writer!
The writer’s life is a marathon, not a sprint.
What do you think? If you’ve tried these tips (or plan to) let us know in the comments section at the bottom.
And if you’re still trying to figure out how to even find time to put these tips to work for you, why not sign up for my free guide, How to Fit Writing into Your Already Jam-Packed Day: 21 Tips for Writers to Take Control of Their Time.
