Butt-In-Chair: A No-Excuses Guide For Writers Who Struggle To Get Started
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Knowing the most important tasks I need to complete helps me stay focused and get my writing done.
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
How has the 3 MITs exercise been going for you?
What has worked well with this process?
What doesn’t work for you?
*Keep A Daily Accomplishments List
A daily accomplishments list is a great way to see just how much you actually get done in a day. I bet you’ll be amazed when you see the results.
Here’s how it works: At the end of each day, write down everything you accomplished. Write everything—even things you might not consider accomplishments, like eating a healthy breakfast or taking your dog for a walk.
I have an accomplishments journal where I write my list every night before I go to bed. It’s become my routine for decompressing before I fall asleep.
Here’s a sample accomplishments list:
January 23, 2010—Today’s Accomplishments
* Made dentist appointment for next week
* Took dog on an hour-long walk
* Ran 1 mile
* Turned in article for freelance assignment
* Wrote 500 words on my fiction story
* Wrote a 1,000-word blog post
* Cooked a healthy dinner
* Ate healthy at breakfast and lunch
* Spoke with mom on the phone for 20 minutes
* Bought groceries for the week
* Ordered flowers for mom’s birthday
* Updated Facebook group page with new content links
* Brainstormed initial content for new blog
When you keep track of everything you accomplished in a day, you start to see how much you actually get done, and that becomes really motivating.
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
How has keeping an accomplishments journal been for you?
What have you noticed?
How have things changed since you started working with this productivity tool?
What works well with this tool?
What doesn’t work well?
*Pat Yourself On the Back with Productivity Rewards
When a Girl Scout does everything required to earn a particular badge, she is rewarded with the badge. When a writer works hard to market herself, she will be rewarded with more exposure for her writing. When a musician plays his heart out at open mic nights a few times a week, people will start to take notice.
Knowing that you’ll be rewarded for all your hard work makes you want to work hard, doesn’t it? So when getting writing done comes with a reward that speaks to you, you’re going to actually sit down and write, aren’t you?
Rewards can be very motivational, as long as the reward fits the person receiving it.
For example, if you love to read (can’t get enough of it; can’t go a day without it), you can use reading as a reward for writing.
Using this example, here is how rewarding yourself would work:
* You set a goal: Write for 30 minutes.
* When the 30 minutes is up, you would reward yourself with some reading time.
Rewards can also work the opposite way: If you make a goal of writing for 30 minutes, but then you procrastinate and don’t get any writing done, you forgo your reading session for the day.
A consequence—not being able to read that day—will help you make a habit of writing when you say you’re going to.
And if you do this properly and truly withhold your reading session when you skip your writing session, you’ll begin to realize that 30 minutes of writing is nothing worth procrastinating over when it gets you 30 minutes of time to curl up with your favorite book.
Here are some additional ideas for rewarding yourself:
* Take a walk around the block.
* Play with your dog.
* Watch your favorite TV show.
* Read a magazine.
* Read a book.
* Watch a movie.
* Hang out with friends.
* Hang out with your family.
* Grab a smoothie or a latte.
* Play a video game.
* Buy something off your Amazon wish list.
* Get a manicure-pedicure.
* Get tickets for a sporting event.
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
Make a list of rewards that you can give yourself?
How has the rewards process been going for you?
What has worked well?
What hasn’t worked so well?
Which rewards are most effective for you?
[Productivity Methods]
There are tons of methods out there to help you get your writing done. I personally recommend six of them, which I will detail here.
Keep in mind these are just suggested methods. No one method will work for every writer. The idea behind productivity methods is to try each one out and see how it works for you.
You may find one method works best out of them all or you may find a combination of methods work for you.
Before you say, “This doesn’t work,” try it! Don’t tell yourself false statements, like “I can’t write for only 20 minutes.” That’s just another excuse not to write. Give it a try because you just never know.
Finding what works for you is all about trial and error. And getting writing done.
*30 Days To A Better Writer
I came across an interesting method of productivity on Copyblogger that I think is a great way to accomplish your writing goals. Post author, Sonia Simone, called it 3 Sure-Fire Steps For Beating The Boring Content Blues; I call it 30 Days To A Better Writer. (It is also known as The Seinfeld method of productivity.)
The entire method involves 3 easy steps:
1. Write Every day–This means every day! For the next 30 days (or longer if you can stand it). And you can write anything you want: a scene in your novel, an act in a play, a blog post, a journal entry.
Get a calendar and a marker. Then draw an ‘X’ across each day that you write. The idea is to not break the chain, and if you fall off or miss a day before you reach 30 days you start over.
You don’t need to write all day, just set aside at least 20 minutes.”Practicing every day will create breakthrough improvement–if you do it enough days in a row,” Simone says. “It will give your work a depth it didn’t have before, a maturity and a new clarity.”
Turn off your inner editor and give yourself permission to write crap. Sit down and write a crappy chapter in your novel.
“Crap is just fine,” Simone says. “Skipping a day is not.”
2. Post On Your Blog Every 2 or 3 Days; Polish Your Work At Least Once A Week–You probably won’t publish every post you write, but try to publish every 2 or 3 days. This will keep your content fresh and your readers coming back.
If you don’t have anywhere to publish your work right now. Try to go through and edit your writing at least once a week.
3. Capture Two Ideas Every day–Every day, write down two ideas for a blog post or a scene in your short story or a verse of a poem. Make sure you have easy access to this list of ideas. The ideas don’t have to be good ideas; many will likely be pretty bad. What’s important is that you’re capturing lots of good ideas mixed in with the bad ones.
“If you get completely stuck on ideas for the day, think of two different angles on the post you just wrote,” Simone says. “Or riffs on two current events. Or load up magazines.com and capture a couple of Cosmo headlines.”
A wise writer once told me: “Everyone walks past a thousand story ideas every day. Good writers see five or six; most people don’t see any.”
Two ideas a day keeps the writer’s block away.
So, Why Does It Work?
Simone says it works for a couple reasons: “First, you can’t write well unless yo
u can learn to ignore the part of your brain that wants things to be perfect.” and “Second, you’re learning a habit not only of writing daily, but of original thinking daily.”
The Most Important Thing To Take Away
“You’ll learn what every serious writer knows–there is no such thing as inspiration,” Simone says. “There is work and there is a commitment to show up, and then there is the alchemy that lets you create better writing than you thought you could write. These things are a result of daily commitment and practice.”
The best part of all of this is you’ll have some “reserve writing” for days when you just can’t think of anything to write about or need an idea starter.
And remember, you don’t have to continue this forever…just for 30 days. Unless you want to…
So what do you think? Can you commit to 30 days of writing for at least 20 minutes a day?
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
How has the 30 Days Method worked for you?
Were you able to stick to the 30 days without missing any?
If you missed some, why and what happened?
What worked well with this method?
What didn’t work very well?
How much writing were you able to get done using this method?
*Writing In Blocks Can Help Keep You Focused
It’s often difficult for writers to find large blocks of time where they can sit down and write. It also tends to be difficult to stay on-task for long periods of time.
That’s where block writing can be an extremely good method of getting writing done.
Here’s how block writing typically works:
Sit down and write for an allotted block of time (Usually ranging from 30 minutes to 120 minutes, depending on your schedule) without stopping (This means no surfing the Internet, no checking your e-mail and no walking away from your computer).
After the time you allotted is up, take a short break. This is also a good time to reward yourself for actually sitting down and writing. A reward can be anything from 30 minutes of TV time to an ice cream sundae to going for a walk. Whatever makes you feel rewarded.
Go back and write again for an allotted block of time. (A second block of writing time depends on your schedule, of course.)
Another method of block writing includes scheduling blocks of time throughout your day/week. So for example, maybe my schedule has me writing for 30 minutes at 11:30 a.m., for 30 minutes at 8:45 p.m., for 20 minutes tomorrow at 4 p.m. and 60 minutes on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Writing in blocks can make it easier to stay on task because you know that you only have to write for a short amount of time before you get to take a break (and get a reward!).
Block writing also works well for people with schedules that only allow them to have small blocks of time available for writing.
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
How has the block writing method worked for you?
What worked well with this method?
What didn’t work very well?
How much writing were you able to get done using this method?
*Assign Point Values To Your Writing To-Do List
As a procrastinating writer, it’s likely your writing to-do list is pretty long: articles to write, poems to finish, short stories to finally get down on paper. Your procrastinating behaviors are weighing you down and you almost feel like at this point, you’ll never get your writing done.
Don’t fret. You may just need a little more motivation than most writers.
Rather than giving up on your writing dreams, try assigning point values to the items on your to-do list. Then reward yourself when you reach your point-value goal.
A little confused? Here’s how it works:
* Take out your writing to-do list (or make a writing to-do list if you don’t already have one)
* Decide on a point-value total
* Go through the items on your writing list and assign a point value to each one. The more pressing projects get assigned higher point values.
* Once you complete each writing project, write the points at the bottom of your list.
* When the points add up to your predetermined total, reward yourself.
For even more clarity, here’s an example:
Let’s say you have four tasks on your writing list–two freelance articles that are due in a week, a short story you need to finish and a poem you want to write. You decide that your point-value total is going to be 10.
Since the freelance articles are due in a week, those are the most pressing projects, so you assign them each seven points. You want to submit your short story to a writing contest and the deadline is three weeks away, so you assign that piece of writing five points. Your poem is just for fun, so you assign it three points.
As you complete each project, write the points down. When the points add up to your predetermined total (which in this example is 10), reward yourself (see the list in the above section for ideas).
Anytime you add something to your list, assign a point value to it.
By using this productivity method, you can effectively motivate yourself to get your writing done.
Sit Down and Write!
In your journal, respond to and reflect on the following:
How has the point values method worked for you?
What worked well with this method?
What didn’t work very well?
How much writing were you able to get done using this method?
*Set A Word-Count Goal
While some writers work well with timed writing goals (i.e.: write for 30 minutes today), others have an easier time when they focus on a word-count goal (i.e.: write 500 words today).
Having a daily (or weekly) word-count goal is an excellent way to get writing done. For many writers, it’s the most effective way to get writing done.
Here’s how it works:
Choose A Word-Count Goal—Your goal should be something that’s doable for you. For many writers, 500 words a day is an easy-to-reach goal. For others it’s 1,000 words every day. If you’re a beginner, I recommend you try for 250 words a day, and then when you’re consistently writing that many, increase to 500 words a day, and so on.
The trick is to pick a word-count goal that’s small enough to not be intimidating and something that you can achieve even on your busiest days.
1. Know What Your Goal Looks Like—If you know what your word-count goal looks like written out, it will usually make the task of getting the words down on paper much less intimidating. For example, 500 words is two pages; 1,000 words is four pages.
If you feel yourself wanting to skip your writing session, pull out two pages worth of writing and remind yourself how easy it is to write two pages.
2. Hit Your Goal Every Day—Once you know what you’re working toward, it makes it easier to sit down and write. Schedule in your word-count goal every day and when you sit down and write, don’t stop ‘til you’ve finished.
3. Keep Track of Your Sessions—Using a calendar or planner, write down every time you hit your word-count goal. You can do this by marking an ‘X’ on the date or using some other kind of indication. Seeing that you’ve been getting writing done will help keep you motivated to hit your word-count goal.
Variations: There are a couple variations you can use with this method:
Have a weekly word-count goal—Instead of having a daily goal, have a weekly goal. For example, maybe your goal is to write 3,500 words a week. Or maybe it’s to write 1,000 words a week. This type of goal works well for writers who don’t like being on a writing schedule or who don’t have the desire to write every day.
Have a page-count goal—Rather than counting the amount of words you write, count the number of pages. Maybe your goal is to write 14 pages a week. Or maybe it’s to write five pages a week. Once again, the goal should be doable for you wit
hout being intimidating.
Regardless of the type of goal you set (word count, page count), you’re still essentially accomplishing the same thing—writing regularly. How you get there isn’t nearly as important as getting there.
Ideas for Accomplishing Your Word-Count Goal
Write your daily word count first thing in the morning before you do anything else.
Write your words on your lunch break.
Write them before you go do your fun activities.
Make a deal with yourself. For example, if you write your 500 words, you can watch your favorite TV show.
Remind yourself that it’s only 500 words and then you can move on with your day.
Use productivity rewards to your advantage (see the “Productivity Rewards” section for more details).
Sit Down and Write!