If you’re a writer, you probably want to know how to stop procrastinating and get some writing done.
Well, the best way to start getting procrastination under control is to make a plan.
You’ve heard this quote many times – those who fail to plan, plan to fail – or something along those lines.
1. Make a plan.
Set a goal.
Set several.
A long term goal, say five years down the road – where do you want to be in your life, your career?
Set a midterm goal, say the end of this year.
Then set a goal for this week and one for today.
Then plan the steps you’ll need to take to get there.
Start today!
Make a plan or plan to fail.
2. Draw up a simple contract with yourself.
Just for today!
I will write for five minutes today about______________ (if you are or want to be a writer).
Whatever your goal, do the ONE THING today that will move you closer to your goal.
A baby step—not a giant leap.
Remember Neil Armstrong, the astronaut, stepping out onto the moon’s surface?
“One small step for…”what will your one small step be today?
You want to have the cleanest house on the block?
What one room will you thoroughly clean today – and which room tomorrow?
One small step.
You want the best organic garden in the country?
Pull the weeds in one section today – one small step.
You want to have written the next breakout, best-selling novel ever?
Write one page today.
One Small Step.
3. Find a friend, someone who you’ll share your goal with.
Someone who will hold you accountable.
It needs to be someone you trust, and someone who isn’t afraid to ask you the tough questions – “Did you clean, weed, or write, study, today?”
4. Read Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy
This book will really get you to see procrastination as a albatross when it’s so easy to cure.
It may sound a tad off-putting but, it’s one of the surefire ways to swallow procrastination.
If you haven’t seen the book, go to your library or bookstore and check it out.
Tracy says do the thing you most dread doing FIRST, then the rest of the day will be a gravy train of ease and productivity.
5. Set a timer for five minutes so you won’t be checking the time constantly.
Write (or do that first project, that first step) until the timer buzzes.
On those days, and I doubt there will be many once you get started, when you can’t think of a thing to write, write that. “I can’t think of anything to write.”
Write it over and over and over until you either suddenly realize there is something to write or the timer goes off.
Bum Glue, butt in glued to the chair, Ribe Tuchus, whatever phrase resonates with you…stick with the sitting until you get the five minutes in.
Five minutes is not a long time, television commercials run for 15 to 30 seconds.
Look how many they can cram into five minutes between the scenes of your favorite television show or sports game.
Test it out and then just do it!
6. If you want to know how to be successful in any field, read biographies or autobiographies of people you admire.
Not just one, but several versions and several people’s in your chosen field.
If you want to run for congress, who, in your mind, did the best job at being a congressman/woman?
I challenge you to find one field where there isn’t at least one successful person you can follow.
If you find there is that empty slot, you could conceivably be the first, but you have to take that first small step.
When you find several biographies, study them.
What motivated the person?
What made him get out of bed those mornings when he was too tired, too distraught, felt too hopeless for whatever reason?
What actions did he take?
How did he start?
Step 1, step 2, step—however many it took.
The man who wrote Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, was challenged to study the lives of x-number of successful people to find the keys to their success by Andrew Carnegie because his goal was to be successful and work with him.
Not under him, not as an employee but a partner or at the very least a contemporary.
What he did was take one small step at a time.
Did he succeed?
Yes, beyond his wildest dreams.
And you can, too.
Look at those who are successful.
Chart your path to follow their footsteps until you make your own path.
7. Do one thing every day to move closer to accomplishing your goal.
If you want to be the next James Patterson, or J.K. Rowling or anyone else…you need to write everyday. (or step toward your goal in whatever career you aim for EVERY DAY.)
If you write for just five minutes every day, the number of pages will accumulate.
A page a day for a year is 365 pages of a novel (but then you knew that; you did the math already).
It’s the same with whatever your career or life goal might be.
Do it every day, that one small step you need to do! EVERY DAY, without fail and you will succeed, guaranteed!
Try it!
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