Get in Lockstep with Just One of These Writer Practices to Boost Productivity
There was a time when I used to look for the worst in everything. Chalk it up to living in a fractured family, not knowing what emotional upheaval was going to land next… You name ’em.
I began expecting nothing would work out, and if it did, certainly, it wouldn’t happen naturally. Yep, “Murphy’s Law”, anything that can go topsy-turvy. will.
For many years, I adopted the belief for myself.
By not facing the challenge
Happy on the outside, terrified of the failure on the inside, I continued to write and work every day. Fearful I only pretended I could write.
Because I believed if I could just be productive enough, assignments would magically line up.
And magically, I would magically nix any indolent productivity with a practiced hand (like ‘Mickey’ in “Fantasia”).
The heavens would open up and everything would turn into a Happily Ever After writer place.
What happened, instead…
- I didn’t finish all my assignments “on-time” (although, I’d never let myself turn them in late)
- Not one of the tasks I assigned myself to do ever got the work finished
- Damn the torpedoes, while I spent more even time worrying why I could never ‘make’ myself step-to.
Why couldn’t I get my stuff where it needed to be when it came to productivity?
Was it because I wasn’t fast enough at writing, all-savvy, good enough..?
Recognize it’s about making a choice for your ‘better’
I was laboring under a wrong belief nothing would ever go well.
But what I really hadn’t admitted to myself…
Was that I was scared.
Not of failing but of success.
If I got all the work done, I thought, I’d never need to look at my real fears which sounded like:
‘What if I get more assignments?’
‘How will I get them done?’
‘Why if I just think that I can write?’
What I had to learn was all of these couldn’t have been further from the truth,
Because my fears were actually forms of faith that somehow I had learned to use in reverse.
It was my oh, wow moment.
What you can do about facing change — Six writer practices that have worked for me
So my wish for you, my friend, and anyone who has ever believed, “I’m just not enough”, I am here to tell you:
You are.
How did I break through this impenetrable wall of fear?
I made a choice (six, actually).
Some of them came from changing the ways I think about life and how they apply to writing.
While others stemmed from practices that I hope you can add into your own writing mix…
Six writer practices you can work on starting today
- Happy on the outside, not so much on the inside? Say, “I am a writer. ”
After practicing it, I found that I now speak ‘the positive’ about some aspect in my life every day.
The change didn’t happen overnight… But it did happen.
- How it can work for you: Try saying something life-affirming for yourself once a day, for a couple of weeks.
- The time of day doesn’t matter, only that you say something good about yourself.
- It may not take long before you find yourself saying a positive expression on autopilot.
Words have power, and the subconscious mind accepts everything we put into it.
Why not place something with a positive energy, in our worlds, if not for any other reason, than to have a potentially brighter day..?
2. Write every day:
It doesn’t matter how many words you pen. I read something by Paul Ryburn, we can write however we can.
“Understand that one big “mo” — momentum — leads to another big “mo” — motivation If the thought of reading a 330-page book seems daunting, I ask myself, can I at least read 10 pages..?
“I may not have had the motivation to do these things when I started. However, taking on a bite-sized piece of the work to be done gave me momentum, which brought me the motivation to keep going.”
Whether or not we are inspired. Action leads to momentum, not from ‘motivation’.
And I include this practice in my writing, too, whenever I need.
When you should write?: Once a day, one-time per week… three times, five times or more.
Whatever time you can fit in that serves your greater purpose: improving your craft.
I can tell you for sure: It works.
3. Do it scared (no, really, write):
Writer/Blogger Ruth Sukoup notes in one of her podcasts that 60% to 55% of our lives are ruled by choice.
It also means there’s another chunk of creative real estate inside you that can you tap to become greater and wiser writer.
How: For me, it means investing in myself by reading about others and the moments in their lives. That have helped to shape, change or challenge them toward reaching their higher selves.
There will never a better time than now to become better writer. So…
Do it, scared.
4. Have a little faith:
There’s a parable in the Bible that faith is seizable, even when it is small as a mustard seed. But it can grow to a breadth of 20 feet and a height that rivals some trees.
How: When you write, remember that we all begin from the same place. Your writing will always improve. Growth comes from doing (or have another look at item 3).
5. Exercise your writer practice muscle regularly:
Not a cheesy sentiment. You lift weights because of the stress it applies to your muscles. Those tissues break down and when you rest, your body repairs.
When: The same muscles strengthen in time. It’s how you also build stamina for yourself and for your regularly self-scheduled or hired-to writing.
This is what you will need when you want to be a working, and paid, writer.
6. Write smartly (learn to write well):
Writing is enjoyable if you’ve got the writer’s bug. A thing to remember is that writing happens the same as it does when you do a new thing.
How you do it: By learning, and applying what you’ve learn, and then practice.
Where to start (or, to write from or reboot)
There are no ways around self-improvement: and if you want to write, you’ll do the work.
You can:
- Know you are a writer.
- Write (a lot).
- Do it scared (no, really, write!).
- Have faith you will succeed (don’t think like the old me).
- Keep exercising your writer muscles — practice: Learning from others — that may also yield some hard knocks, but a lot less of them as you continue to grow), and,
- Write well!
What to also remember
Everyone starts from the same place. My wish is this information helps you to think about why you write. And to signal any areas inside or around you that may be telling you it can’t be done.
It can. And if you’re reading this, there is hope you will get to business right now.
There’s a parable that is also a scripture I remember to say to myself if writing seems more like work than growth.
It comes from Hebrews 11.1 in the Amplified Bible, and says ‘faith perceives as real fact what is not revealed in the senses’.
And what could be more magical in the Earth, than this force called, faith?
The idea being there are things we can’t see that in fact exist.
And I believe we can each take the best of what we dream and make it the highest expression of our highest selves.
After all, isn’t it part of what writing is about? Acting on our beliefs so we can tap our inner creator.
Say this, “I am a writer.” (Geeky as it sounds, I still do this.)
Now you’ve gone and done it — You’ve affirmed (or reaffirmed) you are a writer!
You show up for yourself in bad times like you do when they’re good. It’s essential that you treat yourself like a business.
And if you happen to fail at any of these? Writing rarely is perfect. Improving how you do it is the true perfection.
So if you fall, get back up, and go at it again. Because, you’re worth it, and so much more.
Writing is about the process of putting down thoughts. But they happen first, from a thought-life you creative that’s positive.
Nail any of these six writer practices and you will ixnay that sluggish productivity.
Now go forth with your unique gifts, and make the world a better place.
