The antidote to all this is to create a “stop doing” list. These are things you have decided you are NOT going to do.

Some examples:

– Stop committing to extra activities.

– Stop feeling guilty for not doing more.

– Stop answering your email 15 times a day.

– Stop starting new projects until you publish the current one.

– Stop comparing yourself to other writers.

– Stop watching the news.

– Stop holding grudges.

– 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 mostly a matter of eliminating the negative and unproductive things in your life so the good things can naturally start sprouting up.

Question: What item from the list above should you stop doing?

The post Do You Have a “Stop Doing” List? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

As you continue to grow in your writing skills, your connections, and your influence, you will have more and more opportunities. This is both a good and bad thing.

Obviously, opportunities are wonderful! You can write for more outlets or reach more readers with your own writing. With this expanded influence and connection also comes the need the limit your activities to the few things that produce the most results.

It’s hard to run a YouTube channel, host a podcast, write books, maintain a blog or newsletter, speak at conferences, and do all the other things you see influencers doing… unless it’s your full-time job and you have a staff. You’re going to have to pick and choose what to focus on.

The best filter is to focus on those activities that you enjoy, and that you will do consistently. You can grow a platform and writing career many different ways. But as you grow in your career, you will have more options, and you will need to prune the ones that don’t serve your vision and direction.

As they say, you can be whatever you want, but you can’t be everything. Focus on just a few activities that will get you the biggest results in your writing life.

Pruning is not easy. At times, it can be downright painful. But after you have prepared the soil of your mind, and planted and watered the seeds, you must cut back all the dead weight so the growth process can continue.

The post Pruning: Eliminate A Few Activities appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.