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WordPressers, day in and day out, you entertain us, you make us think, you make us laugh, and you make us grateful to be exposed to so many voices all over the world. It’s a pleasure to read what you’re writing. Like everyone in the community, we value that feeling of connection that comes from reading something that speaks to you, that resonates, that makes you feel not so alone.
For this edition of Freshly Pressed Faves, we’re looking at three posts that do just that, all around the idea of “busy-ness.” Modern society seems to embrace the idea that unless you’re “swamped” or “super busy,” you just aren’t being productive enough. Free time? Fill it up, preferably with something that pays! This attitude permeates children’s lives, too, with scheduled after-school dance classes and soccer practices and violin lessons and foreign language tutors. The idle hours that once allowed kids to daydream seem to be no more. When’s enough enough, though?
Author Tim Kreider believes ‘Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.’ We feel we are nothing, not worthy, unimportant or left out if we have nothing to do.
But there is another aspect to it. Perfectionism – that shadow from our childhoods. We want to be excellent – because if we are, we will be worthy of love. So we take on anything and everything that is thrown us. Even when we are aware we are overwhelmed, we find it hard to say ‘NO’. Because we fear that if we do – people will think less of us. So we end up doing more than our fair share.
Sofagirl at Campari & Sofa writes eloquently about her own fight with the “busy” beast and the scary personal episode that drove her to question it all. Weaving in others’ research on the topic, she presents a compelling argument for taking a step back — and a deep breath — and for refusing to participate in the tyranny of “busy” any longer. Bet you’ll find it difficult to disagree.
As kids we could come up with 16 ways to put our lives on the line using the jungle gym in ways no designer ever intended. They were days when we simply looked at clouds and imagined animals (or teachers or, for the juvenile delinquents, body parts) hiding in the puffy expanse of the heavens. … We were bored, but no one was ever bored enough to learn something.
Except it appears, according to recent research, that boredom is good for the brain. Evidently, boredom switches our brain’s little buttons and the synapses and neurons start firing on more cylinders, pushing us to creativity and intellectual growth.
John Wegner of Consistently Contradictory harkens back to a time when “boredom” and free time were acceptable and even encouraged, when we didn’t rely on technology and scheduling quite so much, and when we allowed our brains to wander. Are we losing the benefits of this today? Should we re-introduce some “slack” into schools? Read John’s convincing and thought-provoking post and you’ll probably be answering “yes.”
When I was a kid, Dad made it clear that ‘mere play’ was being idle—something lazy people did. And boy, you couldn’t get lazier than me.
Michael Maupin from Completely in the Dark takes us back to his childhood and the lasting effects of not being encouraged to “play.” He explains, “As a shadow, it darkened the room, filling me with anxiety and self-doubt: ‘What am I doing now? Is it practical? Is it useful? Shouldn’t I be ashamed?’ … For years that sound, that shadow, was all around. It blocked up my writing, my artwork, my self-esteem — everything. I was psychologically held at gunpoint by an ethic that carries little currency in my world.”
Not one to be bullied, however, Michael has found ways to protect and embrace his natural tendencies towards “play and reverie.” Read his post, and you’ll be inspired to do the same.
Did you read something in the Reader that you think is Freshly Pressed material? Feel free to leave us a link, or tweet us @freshly_pressed.
For more inspiration, check out our writing challenges, photo challenges, and other blogging tips at The Daily Post; visit our Recommended Blogs; and browse the most popular topics in the Reader. For editorial guidelines for Freshly Pressed, read: So You Want To Be Freshly Pressed.
I used to set ambitious New Year's goals every year ("I'm going to write 2000 words a day, every day!") but then get discouraged when I inevitably realized that, once again, I had set a goal or goals that were unrealistic. Or that had originally realistic but then got put on the back burner because of circumstances out of my control that had to take higher priority.
This year, I'm taking a different approach. While I am going to set some realistic work-related goals (to be posted on the MiG Writers blog) which I have tried hard to make realistic, I'm also going to work toward an overall goal:
Make more time to read and create books.
It's so easy to say, "I wish I had more time to xxxx" but the truth is that it's up to me to MAKE more time for what's important to me.
One of my tendencies is to want to do everything. I want to write (and illustrate!) more picture books. I want to work on my new MG and YA novel projects, because I know my writing and knowledge of the industry has improved over the years and I'm much confident about getting these newer book projects published. I have some fun nonfiction book ideas for grown-ups that I want to turn into book proposals so I can start pitching them. I'm thinking of self-publishing a compilation of my writing comics, but I also know that self-publishing requires a lot more admin/promo/marketing time. I want to keep all my webcomics updated but know I have way too many webcomics to keep updated. I want to improve my German language skills before Jeff and I attend Essen in late 2013. I want to improve my French language skills before Jeff and I visit French-speaking friends in late 2013. I want to write a new song for my music group to perform in our concert at FilKONtario. I want to reorg my home office. I want to learn more about non-digital art techniques like ink and watercolour, acrylics and multimedia textural art. I want to turn some of my cartoons and daily doodles into greeting cards. I want to help beef up content in my various collab group blogs. I want to improve my Photoshop skills and also go through Lynda.com tutorials on various creative software packages I've purchased in the last year. I want to write more songs.
I could go on and on and on. Clearly, I can't do all the above. I need to let go of many of these goals, else I know I'm going to end up not attempting any of them very well. So again, I've decided to focus on the following:
Make more time to read and create books.
Throughout this coming year, in addition to my regular Inkygirl.com posts, I'm going to be sharing my experience in trying to make more time to read and create books.
My first steps:
1. Managing my email more efficiently.
2. Being more aware of how much time I'm spending on social media.
I'll report back on both of these first steps in upcoming Inkygirl posts, so stay tuned. :-)
A book published in 2008 made the claim that, in order to be great in any field, you needed to put in about 10,000 hours of practice. It applied to musicians and writers and doctors–anyone wanting to get better in their chosen field.
However, in a recent newsletter by Scott Young, he pointed out that the author’s research has been misinterpreted. (The book was Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.)
Young makes a very good point, one I had suspected for a long time. It isn’t just about putting in the hours working. It is about practicing our craft.
Aren’t They the Same Thing?
Working and practicing are NOT the same thing. That’s why 10,000 hours of writing might turn one writer into a mega seller, and the other writer might still be unknown.
What you do with those 10,000 hours (or however many you spend writing) makes a lot of difference.
Work vs. Practice
What is the difference between work and practice? According to Young,
Many professionals confuse the two, and as a result their skills stagnate even though they’re investing considerable time.
Elite athletes don’t get better at their sport just by playing a lot of games. They do drills. Drills are highly focused activities designed to rapidly build proficiency in one minor detail of their sport.
Violinists don’t play every song start to finish to practice. Instead they identify the hardest sections and practice them endlessly until they’ve mastered them.
Yet, when we want to be a better programmer, writer or designer, what do we do? We just work. We don’t practice the highly specific, immediate-feedback oriented tasks necessary to cultivate mastery.
The fix is simple: if you want to get better you need to adopt the mentality of an elite athlete or musician and actually practice (as opposed to just work).
Get the Most from Your Writing Time
None of us have much time to waste. We want to make the precious hours we save for writing really count. How do we do that?
First, much of your writing time will be working time (planning and writing rough drafts and revising).
However, you’d be wise, if you want to be published and build an audience and sell lots of books, to set aside a portion (the bigger, the better) of your time for honest-to-goodness practice. Like the pianist and violinist who practice the hard parts over and over, we writers need to do the same thing.
Tasks to Master
We probably all could name several writing areas where we are weak. If we don’t know, we can ask our critique people. These are the areas to practice.
For example, one of my weak areas is writing figurative language. If I think of one original figure of speech per book, I’m doing well. So what’s my plan?
I’m going to take regular time to practice, using Cindy Rogers’ excellent book, Word Magic for Writers, which is chock full of exercises in every chapter. For feedback, I’ll probably ask a writer friend to look at my exercises (a writer who is especially good at figurative language).
Target Your Practice Time
If we spend our writing time doing the same kind of writing in the same kind of way, we can’t expect to improve very quickly. But if our practice time is intentional–if we target specific weak skill areas–we’ll make observable progress.
How about you? Is there one specific area you could study that would make a big difference in your writing? Or two or three areas that could become goals for 2013? Please share!
Well, we’re officially two-thirds into 2012. My daughter has gone back to school and as she starts classes, for me that marks a new beginning as well. Plus the busiest time of the year is upon us. Halloween…Thanksgiving…Christmas….New Year. Today I sat down with my calendar and looked back at what I accomplished and looked forward to what I need to do. It all boils down to this:
Where in the heck did all that time go and why aren’t there more hours in a day?
As a writer, I spend so much more time researching, calling, writing, editing, posting than it appears I do. All the reader sees is the final product, and I suppose that’s true with all types of work. I often challenge the time consuming process of writing and search for ways to improve my productivity. I recently came across this fantastic article on NerdFitness.com with tips on being more productive. You’ve got to read it! It really gets to the heart of what causes us to slow down and forces us to take a look at how we waste time and how to change it. Now I must begin to implement the article’s tactics. The author of that article insists that after implementing productivity tactics and staying focused, he now has more time than ever to enjoy his life.
A while back I reviewed Seth Godin’s Book “Linchpin,” (note that mine remains the top read review on Amazon!) and what I learned from that book is that we all have a “lizard brain” at times that slows us down and makes us lose focus. It’s a constant battle not to repeatedly check for new emails, log into social networking sites and just get sidetracked on the internet.
So now my goal for the next 4 months is to step up the productivity and reduce the time I have this Apple computer on my lap. Now that I’ve made a public promise, I’ve got to follow through with it.
The most common question I get during the summer deals with productivity–or the lack thereof.
If that’s your struggle this summer, I found some things you might want to try!
Help is On the Way
Do you need to put the “prod” into your productivity? Then I’ve got the little tool for you! It’s called Write or Die, and there is an online version or a downloadable version. Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.
Focus Booster is a free download that helps you focus! You can also use it online if you don’t want to download anything. “Focus booster is a simple and elegant application designed to help you eliminate the anxiety of time and enhance your focus and concentration.”
And if those don’t work for you, there are half a dozen MORE apps to help you focus on your writing in an article called “Quit Wasting Time Now”. Some are free, and some cost a small fee.
Fun? Effective?
If you try any of these focusing helps, please report back to us on the pros and cons. I’m willing to give almost anything a try, if it will help me focus on my writing better!
I was recently asked this question: How do you get so much work done?
What have you found to be the single most important element to boost your writing productivity?
Office hours. About 8 years ago, my husband and I bought a 3-story Victorian house in downtown Little Rock. The bottom two floors are my husband’s real estate appraisal office, but I got the attic. I go to work. When I still had kids in school, it was 9-3 office hours; however, if the family needed something, well, I am self-employed and could take off. Just not too often. Now, my office hours are more like 8-4. If you’re at home with small kids, though, you can do office hours, too. 1-3 pm while the kids sleep and 9-10:30 at night. Just DVR that great 9 pm program and keep your office hours.
What are your three greatest productivity challenges and what ways have you found to counteract them?
Being self-employed is the biggest challenge, how to stay motivated when no one much cares what you do, except you. This Fiction Notes blog, gives me an audience, readers who expect me to post on a regular basis, at least 2x/week. I get regular feedback on the blog, so it’s not just shooting things out into space. In other words, I’ve found a real audience (YOU!) for something small, yet useful. If I am productive here, it carries over to the bigger fiction projects. Find a real audience, doesn’t matter where. It might be reading your fiction to your child’s class once a week, or writing the newsletter for your church. Real audiences motivate.
The second challenge is that as a freelance writer, I must juggle many different projects at once. I’ve tried without success things like calendars, online project management software, and finally went low-tech. I have a yellow legal pad that I turn landscape (sideways). Across the top, I hand write categories of things to do: speaking, writing, blog, PR, friends, publishing, other. Then, each week, I jot down tasks in each category. When I finish a task, I cross it off and look over the tasks written there to see what to tackle next. In other words, I am not saying to myself that I must do this first, then that. Instead, I list the range of tasks to be done that week and over the course of the week, try to make sure it all gets done. What doesn’t get done is carried over to a clean sheet for the next week and mentally, I prioritize those tasks. Notice that I have a category for Friends: It’s just as important for me to critique my friend’s manuscript as it is to write my 750 words. Or to meet a friend for coffee. I try to stay balanced, yet get things done.
Third, the challenge is that as writers, we work alone, with only our own thoughts for company. On days when I’ve gotten a rejection, or I have a cold, it’s hard to stay upbeat and productive. For those days, I talk to friends both on and off line. They keep me sane and working. Thanks, gals!
How do you organize your writing day?
Organized? Me? I just go with the flow of the day. My yellow legal pad is my only organization.
What does a productive writing day look like to you?
I usually start by answering emails, because that gets me writing. Next, I try to do some rough draft writing. Since January, I have been using 750words.com to make sure
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| oddly, this accidental screenshot was taken when my screen was actually busted and looked totally nothing like this. iphone magic, i guess. |
My iphone died today. I dropped it on a tile floor. I drop it all the time, but today I guess I dropped it in some extra-special way. All the stars aligned, and the screen totally went. I watched in horror as it happened—I actually felt like I was in a movie. I think that all speaks volumes to my iphone attachment, for better or for worse, and how, maybe (and I'm looking for the silver lining here, but
just maybe) it's not a bad thing for me to view this whole debacle as an opportunity for a little self-examination.
For one thing, I do not NEED to use my phone as much as I do. Yes, it is an indispensable tool. Yes, it is the biggest technological revolution since the computer and the internet. Yes, I do
need it—there is no getting around that— it's the swiss army knife of productivity for me.... BUT (you knew this was coming!) the iphone does not have a conscience. It does not have an opinion. It can't tell me what it thinks I should or shouldn't spend my time doing. (Kazoo, anyone? Flinstones?) It can only go where I tell it to go, do what I tell it to do. That, unfortunately, can sometimes add up to a fair amount of time goofing off. Time that would be much better spent with my sketchbook, or my notebook... or even just hanging out with my dog more. I'm certain of this. Sure, I mostly use it for productivity-laced activities.
I read helpful e-books on it. I have so many tools on it that help me communicate with others, deliver files to people, and generally keep things running well. The phone itself even assists me with off-line creative work in several ways.
And when I do play a game, it's often Draw Something, which I consider a casual but engaging creative exercise, not a waste of time.
But... my iphone can't tell me to knock it off when I take the off-ramp into junkdom (Hello, Us Weekly!). It can't coach me to curb my Instagramming. (Hey I love Instagram, but I also love pie, and if I ate pie the way I Instagram..) It doesn't set a timer when I'm making photo collages in PicFrame, my latest obsession. (Think they should make an app for that?)So, I'm coming clean: On some level, my iphone addiction actually
bothers me! Yes, It
is an uber-productivity tool, but it's also an uber-
time-suck-and-goof-off tool if one is not really careful about it. This is something I've been aware of. It's not a secret. But here I am,
now, in
this situation. And it's really a great, gifty opportunity to investigate my phone habits and take steps to revise them where needed. I'm not saying it's great that I dropped and accidentally killed my phone. But I
am glad that I'm self-aware enough to see this as a chance to make some small changes that I think will add up, and eventually improve— ironically—
my productivity. Definitely, when it comes to sketchi
Change the Default "Save File" Location for Screen Shots in Mac OS X:
Does part of your creative process involve taking lots of screen shots for reference? This handy tip helps you keep them organized automatically.
A guest post by Carol Tice
Does this happen to you? You’ve got an article assignment, and you’re all excited.
You get your research organized, and interviews if needed. You feel like you’re making good progress.
Then it comes time to write it up.
And you freeze.
That blank page is just mocking you.
Nothing.
And that deadline is looming in your face. Soon, you’ll have to face your editor and tell her your piece isn’t going to be ready on time.
What’s happened here?
You’ve got a complex.
You know your topic…and yet you can’t seem to organize all the bits and pieces of information into a coherent whole.
You can’t find the starting point.
You’re dead in the water.
How do I know about this? Well, I am the queen of this non-starter complex.
Especially if it’s my first article for a brand-new client. Massive, massive complex.
Much woe and teeth-gnashing ensues, and/or compulsive inhaling of entire bag of dark-chocolate Lindt truffles.
Fortunately, I know how to snap out of it and get the article done — even if the piece has a ton of different interviews and research I need to weave in.
Here are seven strategies for cracking the blank-page problem and getting your article written, and written well:
- Re-read the publication. You probably looked it over when you researched this market, but crack it open (or read it online) again now. Study their articles — how do they start? What’s the tone? How do they use quotes? Subheads? How do they end? Now, close your eyes and imagine the piece you’re writing in this publication. Often, you can envision the opening immediately by doing this.
- Start anywhere. Don’t get hung up on the first line or sentence. If you know the end, write that. Got a section of bullet-points in the middle that are easy? Knock them out. Now, you’ve beat the blank page and are well begun.
- Read and highlight notes. If you’re nervous about whether the material you need is all there, read and highlight all your notes. By the time you’re done, you’ll know whether you have all the information you need — or if you’re stumped because you need to find an expert to interview because you don’t know enough about your topic yet.
- Create an “idiot’s outline.” Making a real outline, where you graph what points will go where, has always seemed like a time-waster to me, especially for a 500-word or shorter article. Instead, create a source outline — simply list each source you have and the most important points they make, in any order. List any important stats you want to use, too. Now, you have a pithy list of the most important things to say in your article. Put them in order of priority, and you’re ready to write.
- Set the quotes. Sometimes, it helps to pull out the few great quotes you know you want to use and write them out. Then, start writing the lead-up and follow-on paragraphs that go around it…and by then, you’re well on your way.
- Write without notes, exact quotes or attribution. One of the biggest writing problems comes when we stop and start all the time to look up facts and name spellings and the precise wording of quotes we want to use, and other trivia. Instead, let all the fine details go and simply begin to tell the story. Let i
Freelancing pretty much defines lack of control: We don’t directly control when we get assignments, how much money we make, and even when we get paid. It certainly gets frustrating at times, and can lead to a lack of motivation and, ultimately, burnout.
A few years ago I wrote a post called How to Gain Control Over Your Freelancing Life, which included several ways to control your work and your workday.
Since writing that post — which is one of the most popular ones I’ve ever written — I’ve come to realize that even if our freelancing life is objectively going well, if we feel out of control in other areas of our life, it will leak over into our work life.
The “broken window” theory says that when a neighborhood has a house with a broken window that the owners neglect to fix, it starts to attract vandalism and other crime; people assume no one cares, so they treat it that way. The same thing happens in our lives: We let bills and laundry pile up, we skip out on exercise and binge on mint chocolate chip ice cream, we put off getting the car inspected — and suddenly, our freelance writing work becomes out of control too. (Or, really, it just feels out of control, because our perspective has shifted that way.)
So…I’ve come up with 7 more ways to gain control over your freelancing life — most of which don’t actually have anything to do with work!
1. Clean something — anything!
Recently I had several (too many!) article deadlines, and I started freaking out. Sources weren’t getting back to me, one article required me to reference a book I couldn’t find, and tasks on my to-do list were mounting. So what did I do?
I cleaned out the pantry.
Even if I can’t control when sources get back to me, I can at least control my own pantry. Out went the expired Annie’s Bunny Pasta with Cheese. Out went all meat products, since we’re now vegetarians. What was left, I organized nicely.
Suddenly, my workload seemed a lot more manageable. Just knowing that one area of my life was unarguably under control helped me feel more in control of my work. Remember, a lot of feeling out of control is just that — a feeling. If you can shift your perspective with some quick cleaning, the problem is solved.
So pick one small thing and clean, organize, or polish it. Clean out your junk drawer, organize your clothes closet, go through your stack of mail and toss the junk, scrub the coffee stains from your mugs, or even clean up your computer desktop.
2. Don’t check e-mail first thing in the morning.
Checking e-mail as soon as your eyes open in the morning is a good recipe for a frazzled day. You wake up, and instantly you’re on call and responding to other people’s emergencies.
I’ve found that when I hold off on checking e-mail in the morning, even for only an hour, it sets a calm, controlled tone for the rest of my workday. In that first hour I may have breakfast, enjoy a cup of tea, read a book, or play with my son before he goes off with my husband or my mom.
Afraid you’ll miss something important? Me too. But when I hold off on e-mails, I find that when I finally do check, none of the e-mails waiting for me are all that urgent.
3. Create a “What I Got Done” list.
Recently I posted about the value of keeping a
“Here’s how it works. He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing (or drawing, painting, etc…), I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.” “Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.”
- I had forgotten about this blog post of mine. I added the “or drawing, painting, etc…” part for a little clarity, and to show it can apply to anything you wish to apply yourself consistently to. I need to put this into action once we get back in Vancouver next month.
Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
(via luclatulippe)
I have my mentoring clients fill out a form for each session. Many clients tell me that what they love most about the form is answering the question, “What did you accomplish in the last week?”
Why? Because many days we feel like did nothing but spin our wheels, but when we write a list of what we got done, it’s always more than we think. Nothing boosts your confidence more than feeling productive!
I was talking about this with a client today and she came up with the idea of a daily “What I Got Done” list. Instead of simply crossing things off your to-do list as you complete them, you would enter them into your special “What I Got Done” list.
I thought I’d try it today because, funnily enough, I felt like I was putting out fires all day and getting zero done. I started work at about 10:30 am, and here’s what my “What I Got Done” list looked like by the end of my day at 4 pm:
* Answered e-mails.
* Sent source bio to my editor.
* Prepared for two mentoring calls.
* Did two 45-minute mentoring calls.
* Discussed new teleclass with Diana Burrell.
* Wrote up teleclass schedule.
* Reserved space on the teleconference line.
* Wrote up copy for the Renegade Writer website teleclasses page.
* Posted on the Renegade Writer blog about the teleclass.
* Sent an e-mail about the teleclass to more than 2,000 e-mail list subscribers.
* Fielded dozens of RSVPs for the teleclass.
* Went for a half-hour brisk walk.
* Cleaned the house. (Except vacuuming — that’s hubby’s job today!)
* Scanned the Freelance Writers Den for new questions and answered a question.
* Discussed new assignment with editor via e-mail. (Yay!)
* Wrote this blog post.
Wow…I felt a lot better after writing that list. A day I thought was wasted was actually quite productive.
I invite you to add the “What I Got Done” list to your to-do list and see if it improves your mood, confidence, or productivity.
How about you…do you like to write down what you got accomplished each day? Why? [lf]
This is a guest post by Steph Auteri.
How many of you are wearing slippers right now? Let me get a show of hands. How many of you rolled out of bed at 9 a.m. or later? How many of you are nursing your first cup of coffee, torn between writing that blog post, playing Spider Solitaire, or seeing what’s on the DVR queue? (Me.)
When I first started freelancing full-time, I struggled with my motivation levels. I wore fuzzy, Cookie Monster pajama pants 24/7. I watched all-day America’s Next Top Model marathons and, when it came to a decision between Spider Solitaire and work, the card game won every time.
Five years later, I have a much better grip on things. After going through a period in which I never stopped working, I’ve settled into something that looks a lot like success, coupled with a healthy work/life balance. What was missing before? Accountability.
My motivation and accountability come from my writing partner, who sends me threatening emails every week. But there are so many ways to find that same sense of accountability. So where can you go to ensure that your writing goals are met, thanks to a mix of motivation, camaraderie, and abject fear?
1. Month-Long Writer Participation Events
Fiction writers have NaNoWriMo, during which they can go all in on that large project they’ve been daydreaming about for eons, a built-in support network (and hard-core accountability) just an email or dedicated forum away. For bloggers, there’s NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. (Both are in November.) Or there’s Michelle Rafter’s annual WordCount Blogathon, in May. And those are just the more well-known ones. You can search for blog carnivals within your specific niche at this handy-dandy online directory.
2. Professional Organizations
Once upon a time, I was a member of Freelance Success (FLX). One of my highest periods of productivity ever was during their twice-a-year Query Challenge. Participants were split into teams and pitted against each other, earning points through queries and LOIs, and through the assignments that resulted from them. Team members had to report their points once a week, and team rankings were sent out in the weekly e-newsletter.
There’s nothing like some healthy competition (and the fear of letting your teammates down) to make you sweat. Of course, you could also find accountability on the member forums of a variety of professional organizations. I list the benefits of membership in ASJA, EFA, NWU, and others over here.
3. High-Stakes Writing Applications
There are several sites and applications that target your writing productivity, and that can be used year-round. 750 Words is one such resource. It’s a site on which users aim to write at least 750 words a day and, for their troubles, receive points for their progress, and stats about what they’ve written.
Or there’s Write or Die, for those who work best under pressure. It tracks your writing and, if you pause for too long, you either a) receive a gentle reminder pop-up, telling you to stop being such a goddamn slacker (gentle mode), b) are subjected to an “unpleasant sound” that only ceases if you continue writing (n
By: Linda Formichelli,
on 2/5/2012
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As you may know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, I have ADD. Because of this, I tend to attract mentoring clients who also have ADD and who are frustrated with their inability to focus or to stick to a writing schedule.
Well, I’ve tried creating schedules for myself in the past. I’ve paid coaches good money to help me figure out what I’ll be doing during which hours and on which days; for example, most recently I decided to do wellness coaching and mentoring on Mondays and Wednesdays, and writing tasks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (I typically take Fridays off.)
I was all psyched to get started on this new schedule — and it lasted exactly one day. Not even one day, in fact. I had to face it: If I’m not interested in writing on a Tuesday, then I’m not going to write. And if I’m suddenly struck by the urge to work on an article at 8 pm on a Wednesday, then that’s what I’m going to do.
Last week my partner for the Freelance Writers Blast Off class, Carol Tice, said something during the class that articulates exactly how I work: “I always do whatever I’m most passionate about every moment of the day.” I had never thought about it in those terms before, but that’s precisely what I do.
For example, Monday might find me writing blog posts all day. On Tuesday, I might work on an article that’s coming due for a little while and then follow up on some old LOIs and then implement some crazy e-course pricing scheme I came up with five minutes ago. Then, on Wednesday I may be in one of those moods where I just can’t get any work done…so I don’t. But as soon as our 3-year-old goes to bed, I’m inspired to finish that article I started on Monday.
This always felt just wrong, but when I thought about it, I realized it’s always worked for me. Everything gets done, and it gets done on time. So I’ve come to trust the process and let it go. I have one ADD mentoring client who is religious, who originally wanted me to help her come up with a schedule, and the saying that resonated with her was “Let go and let God.”
This tactic also works well with the typical ADD sufferer’s problem of being unable to force himself to focus on something he’s not interested in. If I’m trying to write an article when I’m not really inspired to do so, it’s torture and I click away every paragraph or two to do something more interesting, like check my e-mail. But when I am inspired to write, well, get out of my way!
Some people with ADD actually tend to hyper-focus on things they’re interested in and block out all distractions (including people trying to get their attention, police sirens, and other important events), and working on what you’re most interested in every minute is one way to take advantage of that.
Of course, if you decide to go this route you need to take a small leap of faith to test it out and make sure everything does get done. We’re all different, and some writers simply need to create and stick with a schedule.
So, all you writers who are ADD or even just easily distractible — have you ever tried to force yourself to stick to a writing schedule? Did it work, and if so, how did you do it? If it didn’t work, did you manage to come up with a better plan? [lf]
luclatulippe:
Henry Miller had the same issues focussing on productivity in 1933 as we do today. Of course, he had the added advantage of living at a time without Facebook or Tumblr.
I particularly like no. 7.: “…drink if you feel like it.” Oh wow! I do that!
(Thanks to my husband for finding this!)
One of my writing goals for 2012 is learning how to recapture the “fun” of writing. I love having a writing career and being published, but sometimes I long for the days when it was simply enjoyable to write.
I remember the days of getting into my fiction simply because I loved the character and I wanted to tell her story. No deadline. No contract. Just a story to tell. I’d get immersed in my fictional world, lose all track of time. Then I’d hear a baby wake up crying, and be shocked that ninety minutes had passed!
Getting into the Flow
In order to recapture this “timeless state of writing,” I’ve been reading books like The Art of Relaxed Productivity e-book and Drive: the Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us and a few blogs. I found many references to “flow” and the “flow experience.” It reminded me of a book I read years ago incorporating the principles of “flow” (from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.) That book is Writing in Flow by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. I’m re-reading it now, and I think the topic is so important that I’ve decided to do a blog series on it.
We all want to be more productive as writers and make the best use of the little writing time we have. And we all want to ENJOY it more. We want to relax and lose ourselves in our writing. This is true if you’re a student working on your first lesson or a much published writer in an established career.
Defining Flow
What is writing in flow? According to Perry in Writing in Flow, “You know you’ve been in flow when time seems to have disappeared. When you’re in flow, you become so deeply immersed in your writing…that you forget yourself and your surroundings. You delight in continuing to write even if you get no reward for doing it…”
Apparently we writers have a lot more control over getting into this “flow state” than I used to believe. There are habits and rituals that can help you get into flow. We don’t have to wait for the muse to appear. I’ve been trying the author’s advice this month on how to write in flow more often, and it works for me. There are things to watch out for and avoid, too, so that you’re not jerked out of flow once you enter it.
One condition to be aware of resonated with me. Apparently I’m not alone in needing to get through an entire draft or two before showing a manuscript to anyone. “The optimal conditions for creativity (and thus for flow entry) include a condition of psychological safety from external evaluation,” Perry says. “Tell yourself that no one has to see this, that you can decide afterwards whethe
I caught this video from illustrator Will Terry this weekend, and it's got me thinking. He talks about how his studio workflow is now basically paperless. He's been using a regular computer and Photoshop to render the final illustrations, naturally, but he's always used good ol' pencil and paper to do any sketching.
Now, it seems, he does that digitally, too. He uses his iPad and an app called Brushes and his finger. Yep, not a stylus—his finger. Give this a watch and he'll explain why, as well as take you through his process:
I can definitely sympathize with a lot of the frustrations he mentions about sketching on paper. Not just running out of room, but I might sketch one thing just the way I want it, but the rest would need to be re-done, or one thing's the wrong size, etc. etc. Rather than mess with all the tracing paper and light table crap, I'd scan it and play with the sketch in Photoshop until I got all the pieces the way I wanted them.
Once I got a Wacom Intuos pad, I tried doing my sketching on that for a while. It was nice to be able to skip the scanning process, but I still felt somewhat of a disconnect between what my hand was doing and where my eyes were looking. Drawing the old fashioned way—pencil on paper—gave me better, more natural results.
After seeing this, however, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't give digital sketching another try. Like Will mentions, there's bound to be a learning curve drawing with a finger instead of a pencil or stylus, but if one could get over that with a little practice, then maybe all the benefits he mentioned are worth it.
One side note: He mentions emailing the images from his iPad to his computer, but if you have iOS5 and Mac OS Lion, I would think the automatic syncing should take care of that. If not (I haven't tried it), I've used an app called PhotoSync to transfer images between iPad, iPhone and iMac that works pretty smoothly.
Anyone else tried this?
Marla Beck is a certified Life Coach for writers who has an MFA in creative writing. She’s been mentoring me as I work towards my wellness coaching certification — and I can’t say enough good things about her! You can connect virtually with Marla in December through her Two Days to Write group coaching program — two fun, focused and productive days of writing…no matter how scared, busy or overwhelmed you are. (That’s my affiliate link; if you decide to check out or join the program, I hope you’ll use this link. Thanks so much!)
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a coach?
It was pretty natural for me to begin working with writers. When I got trained as a Life Coach I had the opportunity to think through the kinds of people and the kinds of challenges I wanted to work with. I’m trained as a writer; I have an MFA in creative writing with a specialty in poetry, and I’ve worked writing press releases, profiles, and grants for arts and nonprofit organizations.
I felt like writers are the people that I understood. I really know on a heart level what it’s like to struggle with productivity, life balance and entrepreneurial challenges too.
After graduate school, I worked for a while with at-risk youths. I loved the job and it was very meaningful to me, but I knew I needed to move on and I realized that the skill set I was using was coaching more than educating and teaching. So that’s what made me decide to be a Life Coach. When I got started I just put the word out to folks in freelance writing communities and things have been going great ever since. It feels good to be doing work I love.
What do you think is the biggest thing getting in the way of success for aspiring writers?
There are two mindset pieces that I think people overlook the importance of. One is making a very clear decision to be successful. I’m not trying to come off like a Tony Robbins, but we really do have to think about our mindset when we start a project.
And part of what gets in the way for aspiring writers is that we also have to believe in ourselves and give ourselves permission to envision ourselves as successful. So you need to be able to make a clear decision: “I am going for this. This is meaningful. It’s worth it to me. I will find the help I need to get there.” You need to believe that it’s possible and worthy and you need to give yourself permission to step into that bigger vision of yourself.
On top of that, it can be hard as a freelancer to find time to do the big picture business-building or portfolio-building activities because you are a professional responder to the market. You’re trying to figure out how you can fit into the needs of the marketplace, and to really be successful you also have to learn how to be self-directing.
How can writers change their mindset?
Many people thrive by working with a private coach. So I just plugged my business! It’s a great way to get custom tailored help. It’s like having a personalized self-help book or someone to really help see your particular challenges and help you rewrite your narrative in your mind.
Also, accountability can be really helpful. If you have a group of peers who are striving for the same thing, and you think they’re positive people who will support you and challenge you in a good way, that’s another way to support yourself. Also, journaling, self-reflection, and affirmations can be helpful. There’s a whole host of tools for
Become a God of Learning Your Trade:
“Do it in public, and get immediate feedback.”
I’m back from my writing sabbatical! Thank you for being patient with me as I ran reprints on the blog. Now, it’s time for more original posts from yours truly and my guest posters.
As you probably know — because I never stop talking about it — I’m now a wellness coach. I offered 50 lucky people a free wellness coaching phone session to help me towards my certification (I’m full up, by the way!), and many of those people happened to be writers because they responded to a post about the offer on the Renegade Writer Blog.
As I coached these writers on their wellness, I started to see an amazing trend: These writers’ health woes were directly related to the state of their writing careers. For example, one client was an emotional eater who reached for sweets whenever she felt she wasn’t making enough headway on a writing project. Another blamed problems ranging from allergies to liver issues on the fact that she deferred her dream to be a writer due to a lack of time. And there are more examples.
It’s no secret that stress and emotional disturbance can lead to health problems. I’m not sure whether everyone’s job is so closely linked to their health, but I’d wager that the connection is stronger in creative professions where we consider our careers our passions — our very lifeblood.
So how can you improve your writing career — and your health?
The biggest obstacle getting in the way of most would-be professional writers is that between their regular jobs, their families, and their other obligations, they can never find the time to build their writing careers — time to brainstorm ideas, time to write, time to market.
The trick is to make the time — don’t find it. Many writers moan that they can’t find the time for their writing — and their frustration leads to health issues ranging from anxiety to emotional eating. The trick is, you can’t just find unused time lying around waiting for you to come along and use it for writing — you have to make time.
Ask yourself this super-secret coaching question: If your doctor told you that you had to work on your writing career right away or you would die, how would you do it?
I’ll bet if this happened, you would manage to carve some time out of your schedule. Maybe you would cut an obligation or two out of your schedule. Or ask your spouse for one kid-free hour a day. Or start ordering more take-out meals (healthy ones!) so you don’t have to cook and clean every night — or even take advantage of the many meal-prep places that are popping up. Or get up an hour early (or stay up an hour later).
See? There’s no shortage of ways to make time if you really, really had to. And trust me — you have to. If you’re a writer, your health depends on it. [lf]
As I am a generous and merciful Viking Warlord, I'm all about helping my fellow creatives keep from falling on their own swords. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Not much I can do about warriors who are just plain clumsy. They sort of weed themselves out, far as I'm concerned.
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| Hey, who left this sword just lying around, pointy side up? Wait, that looks familiar... |
See, one of the most important life skills we could ever learn—one of many that, for some unfathomable reason, were never taught in school—is avoiding self-defeating behavior. Or, from a more positive slant, how to stop sucking and be more awesome.
One of the biggest, sharpest blades upon which we continually impale our own productivity and creativity is trying to do too much at once. In fact, for a while there, the idea of "multi-tasking" was actually championed by motivational and organizational snake-oil salesmen as one of the sure-fire keys to success, riches, fast cars, perfect shiny white teeth, and whatever else.
Turns out, that's all bunk.
This time around, folks are actually relying more on something called "scientific evidence." Let's have a listen to Jonathan Fields, shall we? (I've taken the liberty of emphasizing a few bits of my own accord to help drive home my point.)
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| Stop listening to self-proclaimed self-help gurus and learn from the greatest warriors in history. |
"Multitasking is out. Turns out this badge of honor from the ’90s is more fiction than fact. Our brains don’t multitask, they just rapidly switch between tasks, sometimes fast enough for us to believe we’re doing many things at once.
"Problem is,
every time we switch, there is a “ramping cost” in your brain, it takes anywhere from a few second to 15 minutes for your brain to fully re-engage. This makes you feel insanely busy, but simultaneously
craters productivity, creativity and increases feelings of anxiety and stress.
"Multitasking also requires you to hold a lot of information in your working memory, which is controlled by a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex (PFC). But the PFC is also responsible for will-power, and for keeping fear and anxiety in check.
Multitasking increases the “cognitive load” on the PFC, overwhelming it and effectively killing it’s ability to keep fear, anxiety and the taunt of distraction at bay."
The simple solution? Do one thing at a time, but in deep, focused sessions.
4 Comments on News flash: Multi-tasking is bogus, last added: 10/3/2011
“Here’s how it works. He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.” “Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.”
- Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
(via luclatulippe) 
By: Kirsty,
on 6/13/2011
Blog: OUPblog
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Economics, Religion, bible, productivity, morality, Wall Street, Czech Republic, vaclav havel, keynes, *Featured, Business & Economics, economics of good and evil, gilgamesh, tomas sedlacek, sedlacek, tomas, keynesianism, czs6eeagcui, 3n07bflxbdg, Add a tag
In Economics of Good and Evil, Tomas Sedlacek asks: does it pay to be good? In order to answer this question, he looks at the way societies have reconciled their moral values with economic forces. He explores economic ideas in world literature, from concepts of productivity and employment in Gilgamesh to consumerism in Fight Club. In the videos below Sedlacek talks about why he wrote the book, before going on to explain ‘the story of Joseph and bastard-Keynesianism’.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Tomas Sedlacek works for the National Economic Council in the Czech Republic and is a former economic advisor to President Václav Havel. The Yale Economic Review called him one of the ‘5 Hot Minds in Economics’. He will be talking about his book at the RSA in London on Thursday 16 June.
View more about this book on the  
Ok, I gave up on the idea of staying offline in the mornings.
Reason: Because of my Market Watch column for Writersmarket.com, I need to surf the Web for publishing industry info each morning. I tried to make notes of stuff that would be good tweet and blog post material later in the day, but found that the info always seemed stale later on, plus distracted me from whatever else I was working on.
For me, it makes sense to do the info sharing while I'm online doing the research; I'm just being more careful about how long I spend doing this. Right now, I'm keeping a detailed time log about how I spend my time each day. I don't plan to do this indefinitely, but it's certainly helping me see where and how I spend my time.
My new plan: To stay completely offline from noon until 3 pm. Thanks to those of you who suggested Freedom, a Mac productivity app that cuts you off from the Internet for scheduled amount of time. The only way to re-enable Internet access is to force-quit the app or reboot. How are the rest of you doing with your productivity goals?
 Many of my mentoring clients have so many ideas and projects that when they try to decide what steps to take next, they feel stuck. They want to start a blog, break into the women’s magazines, do copywriting, and write a book proposal. They want to know, where should they start?
I have to admit, I have the same problem. Sometimes I have so many writing assignments (not to mention my e-course and mentoring session to prepare for) that no matter what I choose to do, I feel like I should be doing something else. And when I do that thing…well, you get the story.
One day I told my co-author Diana about this, and her advice was this: “Pick one thing and do it. It doesn’t matter what you pick — just pick something.” She’s right. If you let yourself go in circles trying to decide what to do next, you get stuck. But if you choose something, anything, you’ll be one more step towards completing one of your projects and you’ll build forward momentum to help you get the next step done, and the next.
In some cases, a certain project is a priority — for example, you have an article deadline in two days — and of course, you should work on that before you do anything else. But when all of your projects seem to have equal priority, it makes sense to pick a random part of any one of your projects and just do it.
For example, if you want to write a book proposal but don’t know where to start, just work on the marketing section. When you’re done with that, move on to the competitive analysis. It doesn’t really matter what order you do the sections in, and if you pick a random section every week, soon you’ll have the whole proposal done. Not only that, but once you have that marketing section done, you’ll be motivated to write the competitive analysis — and so on.
As another example, say you want to start a writing blog but don’t know where to begin. Start with writing your About Me page. Then read a WordPress tutorial. Then buy your domain name. As long as you get these things done, you can do them in any order.
But what about if you’re trying to decide among different projects altogether, like your book proposal versus your blog? The same idea holds: Pick one project, any project, and take one step. When you finish the marketing section of your book proposal, you can work on another part of the proposal, or write the About Me page of your new blog. Whatever you choose, you’re moving forward. [lf]
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Thank you WordPress for drawing the attention to our blog. On behalf of sofagirl and I, we are forever indebted (she is busy answering comments)
I have such a hard time being inactive because I feel guilty if I am not doing something constantly.
I love this. Sometimes I do so much and feel like I’ve done nothing. I’ve done nothing fulfilling. That’s why I take out time to read these wonderful articles and look at the reader to see what’s on. This is something I can enjoy and learn from.
Really interesting piece. I’m such a daydreamer and am often bored in my day job so encouraged to learn that this may be boosting my creativity!
LOVED the comments about kids’ play and need for time to ‘do nothing’. There really isn’t enough of that in most people’s today… not in the ‘western’ world at any rate.
I read all three and love the premise. It’s just been in the last few years that I have learned to relax and stop being so driven! It is very difficult to be surrounded by people who constantly “do” and maintain my sense of confidence in going at my own pace. Might I be thought lazy? I had to learn to do this in order to accommodate the ebb and flow of my daily life with kids and keep my sanity.
I have been accused, at many points along the line, of being lazy, unmotivated, uncaring, inconsiderate of other people’s needs, distracted, distractable, useless, shiftless, and other things as well.
My immediate response: Your point is?