One of my one-on-one clients, Rebecca, was working on her book about two years ago. She was trying to build a daily writing practice, and I hear this so often. She did not feel she had time. Family, a day job, community organizations, hobbies, TV and the movies all got in the way, and she found it nearly impossible to make progress.
I would reach the next session and we had made no progress since the last one. That left Rebecca without any focus. So where does focused writing come from?
Focus and motivation go together
When you were just starting to write, it was effortless. You had ideas, stories and things you wanted to share with the world. Then it got harder.
If you look closely at how this happened, and I like to do that with my clients, your motivation is the thing to watch. Focus is connected to motivation. If you feel demotivated, you will not have the energy to concentrate. If you keep your motivation high, your focus gets sharp.
Motivation comes from reps
Think of lifting weights. You do ten push-ups, then you do them again. Writing works the same way. You set a schedule: I get up and write during this period of time. It does not matter whether you get anything out. You sit down and spend the time. That might be the writing, or the formatting, or the marketing, whichever task is the most important one.
When I lose all motivation on a task, I set a five minute goal. I do not have much time, but I will use five minutes today to focus on this one thing that I value and want to see progress on. Tomorrow I do exactly the same thing.
Pick a time of day and keep it. Maybe you have to get up earlier and go to bed earlier, or go to bed later if you are a night person. What matters is that it happens day after day. As you feel progress, the motivation comes back, and focus comes with it. You set five minutes, and before you know it you have given it 10, 20 or 30 minutes.
Three tools I use
Focusmate. It is free if you only do a few sessions. You put on your camera and get paired with a stranger. At the start of the session you say what you will do, and at the end you say what you did. You can do 30-minute or one-hour sessions, and the free plan gives you a few a week. I used it all the time at one point. As I made progress, my focus and motivation came back, so I need it less. If I find it hard to get time and focus on something again, I go back to it.
Toggl. The free version lets you start and stop a timer when you begin and end work, so you know how much time you really use. Most of us think we use more time than we do. People watch more TV than they think, sleep more than they think, and drink less than they think. If you do not measure it, you do not know. I like Toggl because you can see it by week, and I go for a weekly goal of hours. Days off, like a vacation, do not count against the week. A normal stopwatch also works.
Daily accountability. This one is not really a tool. I check in with my business coach every day. I also offer this in my group coaching, where we go back and forth daily. The people who post daily updates make a lot more progress than those who do not. It helps to see other people posting their progress. You think, I should be able to do the same, and I should put in more time. That kicks the motivation in, you start moving, focus comes, and you get into the zone.
If you only remember one thing
Do not wait to feel focused before you sit down. Sit down first, at the same time, for even five minutes. Focus is the result of the habit, and the habit is something you can start today without any special tool. Write down the time you will start, and tell someone.
Be wary of “it’ll be easy”
Plenty of gurus say you will sell millions of books in a month if you follow their steps. I have never seen that work for anyone. It will not be easy in the sense that you do not have to work. It is easier because the methods keep your motivation high, give you focus and pull you in.
You can be surprised how far you get when you invest in yourself. Far too few people do, whether it is in their business or a hobby.
Your next step
Pick one thing from this post and do it tomorrow: a five minute timer or a Focusmate session. Then find someone who will ask you every day what you did.
Daily updates are what group coaching is built around. If you want to talk it over first, book a free 25-minute discovery call, or start with my free 12-step self-publishing checklist.
For more on this, read 3 Daily Self-Publishing Habits for Beginners and You Don’t Have the Time to Self-Publish?.
Your turn
What gets in the way of your writing time? Tell me in the comments.
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