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How did you react? In my experience working with writers, there are three responses to this. The goldilocks responses.
Hey, what does one day matter? You’ll hit it tomorrow. But tomorrow comes around, and you know what? You missed it yesterday and the world didn’t end, what’s another day? You’ll get to it tomorrow.
This is simple enough to rationalise out. If you don’t care enough, you won’t get back on the wagon.
Anything that takes effort and motivation that can be missed without consequence (even self-imposed) WILL be missed. Because we’re all sloths that can’t really be bothered to write today.
So you missed your daily writing target. Now what? It’s over. The book probably wasn’t any good anyway.
If you beat yourself up too much, you won’t get back on the horse either. How did your last diet go? I suspect (although there are of course, exceptions to every rule) that it went well at the beginning, then a couple of days slipped. One unplanned cheat meal, and before you know it, you’re back to your old habits.
Being a tyrant with yourself is not a good long term strategy. Sure it works in the short term, but before long you begin to resent the task (daily writing target). You miss a day and nothing bad happens, the tyrant is absent. Maybe you don’t need to listen to that guy after all? Life can be peaceful and easy again!
But wait, you’re not writing anymore.
Finally is, in my opinion, the ideal response.
It does matter that you missed it, you do care, but you don’t react so negatively that writing quickly becomes a chore to be avoided.
Regardless of where you currently sit on the reaction spectrum (patent pending), you can move yourself to a more harmonious and productive state of mind.
Lots.
I have explained some productivity techniques that I have implemented with authors and had great success with. Hopefully, by following some or all of these, you will learn to manage your internal sloth without becoming a tyrant, and ultimately, improve your overall productivity.
If you have decided to write a book. Fantastic, welcome to the club!
You are unlikely however to go from 0 words per day to 1000 words per day, at least not for very long. You will probably hit it for a few days. Maybe a few weeks. But eventually you will miss it, for one reason or another. And here we are, the tyrant’s target was missed but life is going on…
Start small! Build it up!
Open the document. Spend 15 minutes thinking about it. Write 50 words.
Keep it small. Keep it going. Then, after a while, increase it a little. Some days you will smash it. Other days it will be difficult to hit. But HIT IT. You will keep momentum and quickly build a habit. Enough easy days in a row and you will really start to see the progress.
Building a success streak works well with the writing microhabit you have now developed, but can continue on once you have a more mature, established routine.
Print a calendar, put it on the wall, perhaps in your workspace, and mark the day when you meet your target.
It sounds silly, but it works. Looking at four ticks in a row, are you really going to drop a day because you can’t be bothered writing?
On the other hand, look at that MAGNIFICENT 20 strong streak. Life is good! Putting that tick in the box becomes a little daily boost. Building a win streak feels great, and it gets you where you want to go.
Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to get up for that 6am alarm when you know your friend will be waiting? How it’s easier to make yourself go to the Jim because you agreed to meet gym there?
This is the big bad ‘peer pressure’ that your parents warned you about. It’s what has been making 16 year olds drink cheap beer and terrible vodka since time immemorial.
But like most things, it can be channelled for good.
Find yourself an accountabilibuddyTM (it’s not really a trademark). Find someone else who wants to write a book. Speak regularly and check-in on your targets. You will find motivation from them and they will get some from you. Everybody wins!
This is by no means a foolproof method. Maybe your buddy is a flake, maybe you’re a flake? The take home message however is that having a regular check in with a person, particularly someone who cares if you are hitting your targets (because it will motivate them to hit theirs), will have a profound effect on your productivity.
It will also help with getting back on the wagon if you fall off as you will have at least one cheerleader.
A coach has experience not only defining, but also increasing daily targets as the habit of writing becomes established. They will track your streak (and give you props) and act as an accountabilibuddy you absolutely know you can rely on.
There are lots tools for this kind of thing, but in my most humble of opinions, nothing replaces good old fashioned peer pressure.
Until next time,
Rick
rick@bookonedone.com