(or: a counterintuitive way to succeed)
Our goal-oriented, fast-paced, and productivity-minded culture frowns on introspection.
We all want to know how to get things done. We want to know how to get them done better, in less time, and with a bigger impact. Doing doing doing.
This is especially true during the end-of-year holidays. Wouldn’t a few worker elves be great?
Unfortunately, completing a book doesn’t always work this way. Sometimes, we need to stop writing and literally spend time staring into space, or playing. What better time to remember how to stop and take a breath than during what is meant to be a restful and celebratory time of year?
Completing a book doesn’t always work like ticking off a to-do list. Sometimes, we need to stop writing and literally spend time staring into space, or playing. Share on XThe writing habit
If you’ve been on my blog before, you’ve read about the single best way to write your book, which is to write (see: “pretending you don’t need to work on your book every day”).
Write every day. Make writing a habit.
You’ve read this before and now you’re wondering why I’m telling you to stop.
Writing sometimes means doing things that don’t look exactly like the activity we all know as writing, and it sometimes means letting go of being “productive.”
Writing sometimes means doing things that don’t look exactly like what we know as #writing, and it sometimes means letting go of being “productive.” #writerslife Share on XWriting is a creative act
The act of writing may feel like a business item or a job to you, but a part of it is always a creative exercise. Because of this, truths about creativity apply, even when you write a book about dog-training or how to grow a business.
One of these truths is: sometimes you have to do nothing for a while, to get something done.
Tell me whether you’ve had the following experience: you have a looming deadline. For days, you struggle with the final tasks and doubt you’ll ever meet the deadline. There’s one especially thorny issue you can’t figure out. After putting in a fourteen-hour day (or what feels like it), you give up in disgust and leave. You go home and vent to one of your friends or your significant other. A few more days go by while you play ostrich with your deadline. Instead of working on it, you clean the house, organize your desk, and buy greeting cards for your second cousins once removed in Singapore whom you haven’t seen since you were eight years old.
The next day, you realize you know the answer to the problem, and nothing has ever been so easy.
This is how writing often works.
Writing is always a creative exercise. Truths about #creativity apply, even when you write a book about dog-training or how to grow a business. One is: sometimes you have to do nothing for a while, to get something done. #writingcommunity Share on XThe secret is that when you stop focusing on being productive, and let your mind wander, you’re more receptive to solutions that sit outside your current line of thinking.
Stop being productive
You might find yourself in front of the computer, producing nothing, and growling under your breath from frustration. If this happens while are you trying to get into a writing habit (see link above), I recommend you power through. Your best plan of action is to sit there for the appointed time, and suffer. Eventually, you’ll be writing.
If this happens in the middle of a productive stretch and after you’ve made writing a habit, I recommend that you take a break.
Step away from the computer, and do something else—preferably an activity that lets part of your brain roam free. Good activities include going for a walk, doing the laundry, sweeping, mowing the lawn, playing with the pet or the grandkids…you get the idea. Bad activities include complicated work of any kind, or watching TV/Netflix.
Do not try to be “productive” during this time. You’ve already thought a lot about your writing. Now let your subconscious have room to breathe. You could be surprised with the results.
The bottom line
There’s something about endings that makes us a little crazy. The end of the year, end of the quarter, end of the month… At this time of year, when it seems like all our schedules are blowing up and absolutely every known errand in the universe needs to be done before December 25th or 31st, STOP.
If you haven’t started your writing habit yet, this time of year is a tough place to start.
If you’ve got a good writing habit going, it will survive the next few weeks.
The more you force the issue, the less joy you’ll have in the process of writing, in the idea of your book—and more importantly, in your life and in whatever holidays you celebrate. It may be you need to stop writing now, in order to finish your book later.
I’d love to hear how you might cultivate your writing habit with a spirit of rest, this season. Leave me a comment below, or drop me a line. Then enjoy the break!
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