• Stop committing to extra activities.
• Stop feeling guilty for not doing more
• Stop answering your email 15 times a day
• Stop helping everybody for free
• Stop starting new projects until you publish the current one
• Stop comparing yourself to other writers
• Stop watching the news
• Stop holding grudges
• Stop listening to people who don’t believe in you
• Stop following people on social media who irritate you

Success as a writer and creative person isn’t really a matter of doing more. It’s also a matter of eliminating the negative and unproductive things in your life so the good things can naturally start sprouting up.

Today’s Challenge: Choose one of the items I just listed and stop doing it today.

The post The Productive Writer: Create a “Stop Doing” List appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Let’s talk about the biggest perceived productivity killer: writer’s block.

Whatever you’re working on right now, you’re bound to get stuck at some point. When you stumble upon “writer’s block,” here are ten tips to keep the words flowing.

1. Lower your standards. Many times, we get stuck because we’re trying to make it perfect. Be willing to write garbage just to get a draft done, then go back and revise it.
2. Brainstorm ideas on a whiteboard, legal pad, or post-it note. Changing the size of the canvas will often help you get past your block.
3. Take a nap. You might just be tired. History is replete with examples of famous creative people who took naps to be more productive.
4. Take a walk. When you walk, the blood circulates in your body more, and you’re more alert and attentive. It’s amazing how many problems get solved in your head just by walking for ten or twenty minutes.
5. Play with a toy. I keep a couple of fidget spinners on my desk. One’s in the shape of Captain America’s shield, and the other is in the shape of Thor’s hammer. It’s amazing how playing with these for a couple of minutes helps me solve writing problems.
6. Get up and drink a glass of water. Most of us are dehydrated, and this activity plus water will refresh your body and your mind.
7. Free write for three minutes. Free writing is just letting your hand write whatever comes to mind without stopping or judging yourself. It clears your creative palate and lets your subconscious take over for a bit.
8. Switch locations. Go to another desk or another part of the house. Or you can go somewhere else entirely, like the library or coffee shop. The change in scenery will spark your creativity.
9. Switch media. If you write on a computer, switch to a legal or journal. Use a different writing tool like a marker or crayon. You’re helping your brain to make a switch that will break the block.
10. Read something for ten minutes. Preferably, something in print. The change in media, and also holding something tactile, will give your brain a new input.

3 Bonus tips:

11. Do a mundane task. Take a twenty-minute break for a mundane chore like dishes, yard work, or folding laundry. This is similar to walking in that it will give you something physical to do. The new energy and change of pace will give you new ideas and solutions to your writing block.
12. Write your content as an email. If I’m feeling stuck, sometimes I’ll open my email app on my computer and write in that. That way, it feels like I’m writing an informal message to a friend rather than something with higher stakes like a blog post or book chapter. It sounds crazy, but it really does work.
13. Use a timer. On my desk, I keep a little 5-minute hourglass timer with sand inside. When I feel blocked, I make a game out of it by turning the timer upside down and seeing how much I can write before the sand runs out.

If you’re feeling blocked or a little stuck, these tips can make a big difference!

Today’s Challenge: Choose one of these tips to help you conquer writer’s block today.

The post The Productive Writer: Conquer Writer’s Block appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

This is not a trick question, but a serious one. Why? Because it’s easy for us to fall under the spell of doing writing-related activities while secretly avoiding the hard work of writing.

There’s that course to take, that writing group to be involved in, that new writing craft book to read, that movie to watch so you can analyze the story structure, that fellow writer to have coffee with…

The list of things that help our writing is endless. But they don’t actually constitute writing.

The writer Matthew Kelly hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “Writers will do anything to avoid writing, and do it all in the name of writing.”

Can I get an Amen?

The joy and the temptation of being a writer is that we love what we do. We love talking about our craft, reading about it, and learning more about it.

And while all those things are helpful, even necessary, they don’t actually create the words.

What does produce the words, however, is sitting down to write. It’s getting the words down however you can. Whether it’s dictation, writing it out by hand, writing at lunchtime, getting up early, staying up late, or whatever it takes to get it done.

All those tools and resources for writing can be like the Sirens from Homer’s Odyssey. The hero Odysseus was tempted by the beautiful singing of the Sirens, but he stayed the course.

It’s tempting to spend all your time on writing-related activities without actually doing the writing. Yes, we must learn, connect, and grow as writers. But when you spend time on those activities, it’s helpful to ask, “Is it helping me get the writing done?”

The post Is It Helping You Get the Writing Done? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.