How To Go From Writing Nothing to Writing Something
It’s no secret that my productivity is at an all time low lately.
Well, that’s not exactly true. I’m still putting in 40 hours at my job every week. I’m still taking care of myself and my dog. I’ve been going on weekend trips, talking with friends and family, and partaking in activities like reading books and watching shows on Netflix.
But my side hustle, or my writing business, is where I’ve been seriously lacking motivation.
At the beginning of the year I started a word count spreadsheet where I began tracking all of my fiction writing for the year. For the first couple of months of 2020 I was writing approximately 30,000 new words every month.
But then things got weird. I started working from home because of the virus. I started getting depressed thinking about politics and my country’s future. I started staying inside more and missing my family and friends.
2020 has really been a year, hasn’t it?
But I don’t want to just sit around and get nothing done. I want to write. I want to self publish my fiction. I want to share experiences and stories on my blog.
So here’s what I’m doing to try and get myself into the writing groove again.
Create a daily list of things I want to accomplish
I can’t help it. I just really enjoy to-do lists. I love looking at a list of things that I need to do and checking them off, one by one.
Does that make me weird?
Maybe.
But if you don’t already create a daily task list for yourself, give it a try. It’s one of the best ways that I’ve found to self motivate.
Start small and give myself room to build back up
I can’t just jump back into the writing pace that I was at before. It’s not realistic. To try and go from doing none of the things to all of the things is just going to leave me overwhelmed and stressed out.
Instead, I’m dividing my goals into smaller chunks. I’m using my bullet journal to assign myself small things to accomplish each and every day.
At the end of Monday I felt like I hardly did anything.
But now it’s Thursday and over the past four days I’ve put together the pieces for a blog post. While one day was outlining and one day was photographing and the next day was writing, I’m now on day four and I’m getting ready to hit publish on my latest blog entry.
Start small, because every accomplishment must come from somewhere.
Dedicate time to play catch up
I’m going to be honest with you here. I don’t check everything off of my to-do list each and every day.
Gasp!
I know.
As hard as I try, there are some days where I just can’t do it. I’m tired or my dog has a grooming appointment that I have to drive across town for or my parents invite me over for dinner or I get too caught up in a Netflix show.
It happens to us all.
That’s why I’m taking time each week to dedicate to catching up. For instance, this Saturday I have in my calendar that I will be “working” from 9–12. That means catching up on things that I meant to do earlier in the week, as well as planning for next week.
It’s not a perfect plan.
But I’m human. And I’m doing the best to build a side hustle and write my way to a life that I love.
