Category Archives: Productivity

Writing time

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Writing time. You want more of it, and you want to make good use of what you have. How?

Set a goal

I’ve been using 750words to encourage me to write daily.

Whether it’s work on my novel, a blog post, or simply journaling, I enjoy keeping the writing habit, and I find that it makes me a lot more productive overall. However you do it, set yourself a goal to write every day. If this is something you struggle with, then I’d suggest not allowing any days off for a while, until the habit is fully formed. (30 days to form a new habit).

I’d also suggest making the goal easily achievable. Mine is to do 750 words, and that’s something that’s very easy to accomplish. I’ve tried setting higher word count goals, and it can be a bit discouraging to try and fail to reach those.

Make it a priority

Make your writing time important. If your spouse or family is supportive, then enlist their help in making sure you meet your goal.

A simple way to do this is to get your writing time in as early as possible, before other things take your time. Many people like writing first thing in the morning, but that doesn’t work for me. Our dog is diabetic, so mornings are devoted to taking care of her before heading out to work. I get my writing time in right after dinner, before I tackle laundry, housework, or settle in to rest, read or watch television.

It’s also helpful to me to set a specific time each day to write. That just reinforces the habit that you’re trying to develop. Think of all the other things you do every day just because “it’s time to do it,” and work on making writing one of those things.

Make it productive

Nothing discourages me more than sitting down for my writing time and struggling the whole way through it. I feel that I’ve let myself down, and wasted my precious time, when I don’t get anything accomplished.

To combat this, I allow myself to have more than one project ongoing. That way, if I feel bogged down in one (or just not in the mood to work on it), then I can work on another and still feel that I’ve done something worthwhile. I also fall back on journaling as well, knowing that it’s a good outlet for me and a good place to toss writing ideas around.

Currently, I have a novel underway, three blogs, as well as the journal. I can always find something that I’m in the mood to write about. :-)

I also do some simple, common-sense things to ensure that my writing time is as productive as it can be. I turn off the television and other distractions. I let my family know that I’m busy writing and to try not to interrupt me.

Another trick I use is one that I’ve seen others mention as well. When I’m working on a longer project, I stop at a spot where I know what will happen next. That saves me from spending my writing time on planning or struggling to come up with something to write about.

I also keep some notes on blog ideas so that I can grab one of those and begin working. If you pay attention to keywords in your blog posts, then do the keyword research ahead of time too and note what keywords you’ll want to use in that post.

It can be hard to find time to write, especially when holding down a day job, taking care of family, etc. No matter how busy I get, I feel better when I’ve taken the time to write. I hope these tips help you make better use of your own writing time.

Have any tips of your own? Please list them in the comments.

Vampires: Banish them once and for all!

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Here’s an interesting article on the vampire legend, and how some of it may have gotten started. I was anemic a few years back and did actually crave pink steaks. So… step a little closer. I think I see something on your neck.

What does this have to do with writing or publishing?

Well… I want to talk about real vampires. They may not be pale blood suckers, but they do suck the life out of you and your work. What’s taking you away from what you love, what you enjoy? Do you ever finish out the day wondering when you’ll have time to really live, do the things you want to do and not just what you have to do?

I know I struggle with this a lot, and even more over the last couple of months. It’s too easy to let small things fill up your day and never get around to what’s important.

Time is your most important asset, and how you spend it, minute by minute, determines the quality of your life. Think about that for a second. It’s not about setting aside a week for vacation or a special evening to do something with the family. Those things are fun and important, but your life is really determined by what you do every day, minute by minute, hour by hour. Choose wisely!

Bloodsuckers

So, what’s taking up your time?

People. I’m not telling you to turn into a misanthrope, far from it. You should make time to spend time with those you love, people who are important to you. However, that might mean making less time for people who drain you, your time and your emotional resources. Do you have someone like that in your life? Someone who takes up a lot of your time and energy when you’d rather do something else of be with someone else?

One thing you can do is limit the time you spend with, and on, these people. Use your caller ID and don’t take all their calls. You don’t have to answer every e-mail, IM, facebook message, etc. Try setting aside a little time for these people and strictly limit it to that and no more.

And if you start to feel guilty, take a look at someone you DO want to spend time with, and ask if it’s fair to you, or them, that you allow someone to interfere with that.

Less important tasks

Notice I don’t say unimportant tasks, just less important. Cooking, laundry, errands, bill paying, etc. are all important. They’re just not as important as doing what you love.

One technique that works for me is setting aside a specific amount of time to do these types of tasks, and I group all of them together. For example, I might allow two hours for housework, laundry, fixing dinner, cleaning up, etc.  Let’s say you spend more time on dinner than usual. With this method, you’ll be forced to spend less time on some of the other stuff.

Again, if you start to feel bad that the floor isn’t mopped or you didn’t run every errand today, then consider if it’s worth not getting to spend time with your kids, or work on the novel, or have a date night with your husband.

Most important things first

This is the most important technique for ensuring that you have time to do the things you want to do. Set time aside for the most important things first, and then work in everything else as you can.

Want to have time to write every day? Set aside time before work, after dinner, whenever. Protect that time and fit everything else you have to do in the rest of the day. Want more family time? Then set aside time for it first and worry about housework and phone calls and so on during the rest of the day.

If you let it happen, there are a lot of tasks, and people, who will drain you of time, energy, spirit, motivation, etc. So don’t let it happen. Focus on how you want to spend your time, and practice ignoring other things, and people, in order to do that. It’s a lesson I’m still learning, but it’s completely worth it.

Writing on the go

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November is one of those months when I find myself wanting to write away from home more and more. For one thing, participating in NaNoWriMo means that I need all the writing time I can get. It’s not just that though. It’s the cold and gray I think as well. I just get the itch to go somewhere else.

So, how do you keep up with your writing when you’re on the move?

Don’t forget the old standby, pen and paper. Whether it’s a moleskine, a nice notebook or journal or something you pick up from a Dollar Store. This is a cheap and handy solution. The only problem I have with this is that I need to type it into the computer at some point. One year I did a lot of my NaNo novel this way, and my husband was nice enough to play secretary!

Almost as cheap, but higher tech, is a USB thumb drive. If you’re not sure what I mean, check out this froogle search. It’s simply a storage device that plugs in to your USB drive on your computer. This is easier for me than carrying a laptop. I attach one of these to my keyring, and anywhere I am, I can plug in to a computer and write. And since I’m saving directly to the USB drive, I don’t have to worry about uploading and downloading my files. This works great if you’re working on a computer that isn’t yours (library, office, etc.). Of course, the catch is that you need access to a computer (obviously).

A laptop is an obvious choice, and I was lucky enough to get one of the new Dell Minis.  It’s small enough to fit nicely into a zip up Bible cover!The keyboard takes a little getting used to, but after about an hour with the typing tutorial included (I got the Ubuntu version of the Mini), I was fine. Battery power is great, screen size is good and the brightness is great. It’s a wonderful little writing laptop. The one thing you might want to know before buying is that the ‘ and ” keys are in a wonky spot. Rather than relearn where they are, I simply replace them with > and << >>. Then a simple search and replace fixes all my apostrophes and quotes.

I’m almost tempted to say that this is a “woman’s” laptop because of the size of the keyboard. While I can type on it comfortably, my husband finds it almost impossible to use. His hands are pretty large, even for a man, so that’s something to keep in mind.

I’ve been able to write on the Mini for a couple hours at a time without having any problems with my hands tiring…well no more than usual. I think my speed suffers a little, but I’m a pretty fast typist. I hit around 90 wpm, but on the mini I’m probably getting 70-75 wpm. Still, that’s not too shabby, and I’m willing to take the hit in speed to get the convenience of a laptop that’s so small and light. Besides, it looks very cool too. (I’ll post some pics of it in action this week).

What kinds of things do you do to write while you’re away from home?

Goal Update

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Write 1000 words on the novel daily

I missed a couple days of writing, but I ended up with about 6000 words for the week. Right now, the novel is my top priority. I’m about 35,000 words in, and I think it’s good. I’m hoping to have it finished and ready to “rest” for a month while I do NaNoWriMo.

Write 3 blog posts for each blog

I so missed this one. I should have done nine posts; I did four.

Go through my email

I did manage to do this one, off and on through the week. That was only because I installed Digsby and was able to check my email when I’m updating twitter.

Leave 40 comments on others’ blogs

This one was way too ambitious I’m afraid. I’m not one to leave useless comments, so finding someting useful to say on forty posts is a bit much. I think I left about a dozen comments through the week on various blogs.

Spend 2 hours visiting Entrecard blogs and dropping cards

I did about an hour of Entrecard promotions this week.

  • Spend one hour on the Zombie short story I have going
  • Buy some ad campaigns for the blogs
  • Check elance for projects I might like to bid on
  • Write two articles to sell on Constant Content

I didn’t get to any of this work this week. Oh well… better luck next time.

For next week, I think I’ll keep the goals the same and see what happens.

Review

Setting goals isn’t very useful unless you review how you’re doing in meeting the goals. That’s why I post my goals publicly, and review how I’m doing publicly as well.

Even more so for me, it’s important to think about why I’m “hitting” or “missing” my goals. I think I’m simply over-scheduling myself. I work full time and have a life outside my work and writing, like everyone does. And, (gasp!) I do give myself a night off from my writing from time to time.

So why do I set such lofty goals? Part of the reason is that I believe that if I push myself, I’ll get more completed than if I don’t. If my goal were something doable, like writing 7000 words/week only, then I’d almost certainy meet the goal, but how far beyond that would I go? Honestly, I’m afraid not that far. However, if I push myself to do more than I can reasonably expect to accomplish, I do more than I originally expected to.

I realize that logic may seem odd to some people. I’m accustomed to working like that though. When I was in college, I also held down a job. I remember one of my instructors would try to talk me into quitting one each time I’d see her for registration. I couldn’t afford to quit my job, so I was frustrated that she kept pushing me to, essentially, postpone college until I could be a full-time student. I think that was when I began to push myself to do more than I might reasonably expect.

In my “real” job, I work in the IT field, which is notorious for high work loads. It’s common for me to have much more work to do than I can expect to finish in the next few days, or even couple weeks.

I think I’ve simply gotten accustomed to pushing myself to do more, and even more. The good news is that I can get a lot accomplished sometimes. The bad news is that I tend to get stressed because of the pressure I put on myself.

Anyone else have issues like these?

This Week’s Goals

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I need to get back to my goal-setting. My goal is to finish up the novel and have it ready to start looking for an agent within a couple months. I had considered self-publishing, and I may still go that route, but I think I’ll try the more traditional route first. I want to get a couple other short stories published so that I’ll have som writing credits other than my freelancing. I’ve been doing well lately with article sales, but I’m not sure how impressive that might be to a literary agent.

I’m trying to be a bit more specific in my goals as well, which I hope will help me plan things out a bit better. Also, I’m going to work on prioritizing what I need to do a bit more. I find that if I don’t, I tend to get bogged down doing the easier, but less important, tasks.

By next Sunday, before I go to bed, I want to…

  1. Write 1000 words on the novel daily
  2. Write 3 blog posts for each blog
  3. Go through my email
  4. Leave 40 comments on others’ blogs
  5. Spend 2 hours visiting Entrecard blogs and dropping cards
  6. Spend one hour on the Zombie short story I have going
  7. Buy some ad campaigns for the blogs
  8. Check elance for projects I might like to bid on
  9. Write two articles to sell on Constant Content

As you can see, I have a busy week ahead of me.

Anyone else out there want to share your writing plans?

The Zen of Productive Writing

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Welcome Problogger readers. Please subscribe to my RSS feed while you’re here.

If you’re like me, you have several writing projects going at once. A novel maybe, one or two short stories, an article, a freelancing gig or two, a blog. And if you’re like me, you find it hard to achieve balance in your work.

Maybe your freelancing takes up most of your time because it’s your money-maker, but the novel is where your heart lies. Or maybe you spend all your time blogging, and you’re not making any money from your work.

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that I struggle with just this type of problem. I have a novel in the works and a short story that’s languished for weeks. Lately I’ve done a lot of freelancing, selling some articles and an e-book. My problem is finding time to do both, to keep the paying assignments going (because the goal is, after all, to write full-time), and to make progress on the fiction.

Here is what I’ve been doing to achieve that. If you’re trying to juggle multiple writing assignments, then you may find these helpful.

Multitask

If you’re researching for an article, think about how you can turn it into two or three articles. By changing the perspective, you can reuse much of your research and knock out those extra articles in a relatively small amount of time.

Likewise, if you have to do some research for a piece of fiction, think about how you can turn that research into an article or even a blog post.

Consider writing a short story around one of the characters in your novel. It will help you to fill in that character’s backstory. You can also use the short story as a promotion tool for the novel when it’s published.

Write an e-book about something (maybe one of those topics you’ve researched) and sell or give it away on your blog. Use it as a tool to drive traffic back to your site or promote your other writings.

Eliminate other time wasters.

Right now, the television is NOT on. My husband is helping a lot with housework. I’m even avoiding working overtime at work as much as possible. Here are some ideas for making some more writing time in your day.

  • Cook more than one dinner at a time and freeze it for later
  • Takeout! There is no shame in bringing home a pizza.
  • Ask for help. This is probably the most important tip, and for some people, the toughest one.
  • Slack up on the housework or give yourself one or two housework-free days. This is one I have no problem doing.
  • Get up a little earlier/stay up later. I drag myself out of bed early and write 500-1000 words first thing. That’s a great day to start off the day.

Set specific goals.

I used to say that I’d “work on the novel.” Now, I set specific daily word count goals, depending on what other writing tasks I have going on. That goes for all my writing. My goals for the week look something like this.

  • Write 1000 words on the novel each day
  • Write and submit one article to Constant Content
  • Submit one bid on elance
  • Write 3 blog posts for each blog

For an added bit of motivation, post your writing goals publicly, as I have here in the past, and post how well you did on achieving them.
Track goals.

It doesn’t really do a lot of good to set goals unless you keep track of whether you’re meeting them. I review my goals a couple times a week and rework my schedule to try to achieve everything I’ve set out to do.

This is especially important if you’re setting long term goals, for example, finishing a novel in a few months. Keep track of how you’re doing and set milestones along the way so you can be sure you’re keeping on track.

Be realistic.

If I consistently fail to meet the goals I’ve set, I take an honest reassessment of my writing and what I’m setting out to do. Am I wasting time somewhere?Am I setting unrealistic goals? There’s nothing wrong with backing off a little if you need to. Remember, before anything else, writing should be fun. If you’re not enjoying yourself, you’re doing something wrong.

Rewards!

Whether it’s a day off or a little something you’ve been wanting, reward yourself for the work you’re doing. Curl up with a good book, take an evening off and go to dinner, do something not related to writing to relax and give yourself a little pat on the back.

I love knitting, so after I reach my word count each night, I knit on this cute little cardigan I’ve got on the needles.

Now, I’m going to go get my 1000 words today.

Laptop Lust

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I want this.

There have been rumors that Dell will release this laptop today, but that doesn’t look likely. I’ve heard everything from last June to this November as a release date, but Dell is annoyingly silent. The laptop looks very cool though, almost exactly what I’ve been looking for.

I want something ultra-small that I can toss in my bag and take with me on the weekends. My current “normal-sized” laptop just doesn’t quite fit the bill. I envision this as something to use to write at the bookstore, outside, in the car, etc. I think the keyboard will be too small to allow me to use it exclusively, not to mention the display. However, I think it will be great for short writing bursts when I don’t want to lug around a full-size laptop.

Anyone else use anything similar that you’d recommend?

Weekly Goals Update

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Setting and trying to meet these goals has been a great motivator. I’m getting a lot more accomplished than I would have otherwise.

  1. Spend one hour writing every morning before work (see my post on Rising Early to Write) I’m going to count this a success. I hit the snooze button a couple times, and I missed two mornings, but the habit is definitely settling in. I feel much better about myself and my work when I begin the day knowing some of my writing is already done.
  2. Write 11 blog entries for my three blogs Done
  3. Spend two hours EDITING the novel (in addition to the time I spend writing) I didn’t get to this one
  4. Spend two hours networking and promoting the blogs Done
  5. Write two articles to sell on Constant Content Done
  6. Work on the Zombie short story I started a few months ago I didn’t get to this one
  7. Go through my e-mail Done

Not bad, huh?

Goals for the coming week

  1. Spend one hour writing before work, and use this time exclusively for the novel
  2. Write 11 blog entries for my three blogs
  3. Spend two hours networking and promoting the blogs
  4. Go through my email
  5. Write three articles and sell them online
  6. Work on the Zombie short story

What are your writing or blogging goals for the week?

Novel Writing Software

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Novel Editing

Photo courtesy of mysticchildz

I’ve been working hard at finishing/editing my novel, and I just had to share a nice little piece of software that I found.

YWriter

If you’ve been looking at Scrivener and can’t use it because you’re not on a Mac, this might just be the answer.

It has the storyboard layout that I’ve been looking for. You can drag and drop scenes and rearrange them easily, which also means all the text associated with the scene moves too. This is much easier than copy/paste in a word processor.

The thing that really sold me was that it will import works in progress. Go through your existing document and make sure chapter titles are “Chapter 1″ etc. Then, put “* * *” between scenes. (Note, that’s *space*space*). Save your file as RTF.

YWriter’s import tool will bring it in and automatically split it into chapters and scenes. How cool is that?

Time Wasters

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Humorous Pictures
more cat pictures

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that I do that take time away from what I’d rather be doing (writing.) I’m sure many people have the same issues I do. I fall into a rut and find myself spending lots of time doing things I shouldn’t be doing.

  • Television. This is a gigantic time suck. The one solution is to quit watching so much darn t.v. Of course, that’s easier said than done sometimes. If you’re like me, then you actually LIKE television (some of it anyway). So sue me. My solution is to watch only things I really like and stop just watching because something is on. I use Netflix and MythTV (like TiVo for geeks) to have better control over what and when I watch.
  • Tweaking. Spending an hour searching for new wordpress themes isn’t really productive work. Neither is any number of blog-related activities I spend time on. I’ve started asking myself if what I’m doing will really help get me where I want to be.
  • Networking. Don’t get me wrong, real networking is good. Spending two hours chit-chatting on twitter probably isn’t good. I’m not saying that I never take time to have fun, but I don’t kid myself into thinking that I’m doing something writing-related when I’m not.
  • Reading Blogs. I love keeping up with lots of blogs, but I can easily use an hour or two this way without realizing it. About once a month, I go through and start purging my RSS feeds. If I haven’t read a blog in a month, and I haven’t really missed it, chances are it’s going to get removed.
  • Research. Real research is great, but sometimes I find myself spending way more time “researching” than what is needed. If I’m honest, I’ll recognize that what I’m doing is avoiding getting started on the real work.

When it comes right down to it, most of these are often forms of procrastination. It can be tough to settle down and get busy, but it’s well worth it. What are some of your biggest time wasters?