Showing posts with label Productivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Productivity. Show all posts

Tuesday 20 December 2022

How To Get Your Bum In Your Writing Chair More Often

Quit stalling. Sit down and write
Photo by Timo Volz on Unsplash
No one ever regrets being a writer.

Yet often writers regret not writing.

It’s not enough to be a writer, it’s about how often you apply your backside to your writing chair (as I’ve said often.)

The question is that, if we love to write, why is it so hard to sit down and write some days?

If you read about all the successful writers who’ve written dozens, and sometimes, hundreds of books, they all say they have a rigid writing routine that they stick to no matter what.

And that, (in my humble yet extremely accurate opinion) is the biggest secret to their success.

Yes, they are talented writers, but that means nothing at all if they don’t sit down and write.

They never say that they didn’t feel like writing so they played computer games instead.

Nope.

No matter how much they wanted to do something else, they didn’t let procrastination get the better of them.

How about you?

Do you give in to procrastination?

Or do you put your butt in your writing chair whether you fell like it or not?

How many books could you write every year if you put your bum in your writing chair more often?

The thing is, no one’s stopping you. 

So stop reading this and start writing.



Stop procrastinating and take back control of your life






Thursday 15 December 2022

Stop Letting Yourself Down

Don't just lay there. Write!
Photo courtesy of kaboompics.com

Do you know what the worst kind of decision is?

Surprisingly, it’s not a bad decision.

It’s indecision.

That’s because when you’re indecisive about something you end up doing nothing.

To quote Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind: -

“I don’t want to think about that right now. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

That is blatant procrastination. Putting off doing something, not because you can’t do it, because you just can’t be bothered.

And as we all know, once we put off doing something, we usually never do it.’

Just think what your life would be like if you hadn’t procrastinated: -

    - How many books would you have written?

    - How many blogs would you have?

    - How many blog posts would you have written?

    - How many emails would you have sent?

    - How many subscribers would you have?

    - How many books would you have sold?

    - How wealthy would you be right now?

    - How great would you feel?

How amazing and different would it be if you just got up and got on with things every day?

And I don’t mean only about writing, but about everything in your life. About replacing all the timewasting things you do with productive things that improve your life and move it forward.

That’s what my latest eBook is all about.

It’s about why you waste time and, most importantly, how easy it is to stop procrastinating and take back control of your life in every way.


Stop Procrastinating And Take Back Control of Your Life.









Saturday 26 November 2022

Stop Procrastinating and Take Back Control of Your Life

What is Procrastination?
Image by dadaworks from Pixabay
Do you procrastinate? Do you know you have to do something but you just don't do it?

And do you find that when you put off doing something it gnaws at your mind? 

Avoiding doing what needs to be done, makes you feel bad.  It's on your mind and not in a small way. You feel like it's only bothering you a bit, but that prolonged niggling, can bring you down.

Yet still you procrastinate.

The annoying thing about procrastinating is that you know you're doing it. It's not an unconscious habit that you're not aware of. When you procrastinate you're completely conscious of what you're doing and you're aware of your behaviour.

So why do you do it? Why do you put off doing things you know you should be doing?

Is it laziness?

No.

Is it because you don't have enough will power and discipline? 

Not really. These things can help, but they can only take you so far.

So what can you do about it?

You start by understanding what is procrastination.

It's an avoidance tactic.

Next you need to understand what you're avoiding and why. 

What's causing you to procrastinate?

Wouldn't you love it if you could take back control of your life and be a productive person?

Productive people are happy people. They feel good because they get things done.

No one likes a quitter, especially if it's yourself.

So stop letting yourself down.

And don't think that to stop procrastinating means to do more.

It means to do more of what matters and stop wasting your time doing things that don't matter just so you can avoid doing what you'd really rather be doing.

I'm going to be talking about this a lot more soon because I have a new book coming out next week called, Stop Procrastinating and Take Back Control of Your Life.

I can't wait for you to read it.

I'll tell you more about it soon.










UPDATE: My new books is now available.







Friday 14 October 2022

The Ugly Truth About Wasting Time

 

Lazy lion sleeping on a log
Image by Holger Stephan from Pixabay
I find that some days start off great and keep going. 

I bound out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off at 6am, and by 7.30 I’m washed, dressed, the bed is made, breakfast is over, and the dishes are washed and put away.

Days that start like that, tend to keep going.

Yet there’s other days when I roll over in bed, fall back asleep, get up late, and knuckle-drag throughout the whole day, not feeling like doing much, and not getting much done.

Those are bad days because I achieve so little and all day I feel like I’m not only wasting time but wasting the whole day.

And one thing I know for sure is that wasting time never makes me feel good. It makes me feel bad, and that bad feeling follows me throughout the day.

Time wasted, makes me feel bad because I know I’m wasting my life. After all, time is all we really have.

Thankfully, those types of day don’t happen very often, and thank goodness for that because they are really depressing.

Yet there are people I know who spend their whole lives like that.

They spend every day doing nothing much of anything. And they say it’s because they feel too depressed to do anything. But what they fail to realize is that the reason they feel depressed is because they’re wasting their lives away.

Who wouldn’t feel bad living like that?

You can always tell who these people are because they’re lazy and have dirty homes, bad diets, and are late sleepers.

Sadly, it doesn’t take much for anyone to feel down about wasting time.

Something as simple as not getting that book written, or not posting to your blog often, or not getting your smaller writing projects done, can make you feel down in the dumps.

I recently read a little book called “Wake Up and Live.” It’s an old book but it has a timeless uplifting message about not wasting time, and achieving life goals.

At the moment, you can pick up a Kindle copy of this remarkable little book for only 49c on Amazon.

And it could be the 49c that changes your life.


What would you do if you knew it was impossible to fail? Wake Up & Live!













Thursday 29 September 2022

Don’t Wait For Your Muse. Just Write.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The hardest part of writing for most writers, is starting. The physical act of walking to our writing chair and sitting down seems like the last thing we want to do some days.

What stops us is fear. We’re scared because we don’t know what to write.

When I’m in the middle of writing a book, and I have a good outline to work from, I’m enthusiastic to sit down and get to work every day. But when I have articles to write, or I have to start mapping out a large writing project, then I’m a lot more reluctant to write.

Horror writer, Stephen King, said that he sits down and writes at the same time every day regardless of how he’s feeling. No matter what, he propels his backside to his writing chair and starts writing straight away.

He says that many would-be and amateur writers believe that they can’t start writing if their muse isn’t there. He also says not to wait for your muse because it won’t turn up for work until you do.

And I’ve noticed that this is how successful writers work. They don’t wait for inspiration to strike or for their muse to show up. They just sit down and start writing.

Novelist, Dean Wesley Smith, takes it a step further. When he sits down to write every day, or should I more correctly say every night because he only works in the evenings, not only does he not wait for his muse to strike, he also has no idea what he’s going to write until he sits down.

He writes by a method he calls “Writing into the dark” where he only knows the bare bones of what he’s going to write. In his book, “Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline” (https://amzn.to/3EKs1Vl) he says that when he starts a new novel, all he has in his head is a character, their mood, and a setting. With only those three things he starts writing his first page and from there the ideas flow as he writes. It really is fascinating to read about his thought process.

If you want to sit down and write but don’t know where to start, do a search online for a random word generator, pick 3 words and write for 5 minutes. I’m always amazed at how much I can write in 5 minutes without knowing anything except the 3 words, which I have to use in the first paragraph. It turns out that I can write ⅔ of a page.

Free writing works for both fiction and non-fiction and they are both a lot of fun and it helps to get you into the writing ‘zone’ quickly. 

For non-fiction, choose a random subject and write a list of 10 question you could ask about it. Done well, those 10 questions could become chapter titles for your next book. :)

But however you do it, when you need to write, sit down and do it.

Don’t wait for your muse. It won’t turn up for work until you do.

And most importantly, enjoy writing.


TAKE THE MONTHLY WRITING CHALLENGE
And Write More in 4 Months Than You Ever Have Before

The Monthly Challenge Writing Series














Stop Dreaming and Start Writing




Thursday 22 September 2022

If You Can’t Teach Yourself, You’re a Liability

Helpless beetle laying on its back
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Time and time again, people email me for the smallest reasons, usually because they either don’t know how to look something up on the internet themselves, or they just simply can’t be bothered.

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve learned a lot about writing, publishing, coding, and how to earn all my income from my writing. And not once did I email someone and ask them how to do it.

And I honestly believe, that if you are so helpless, that in this age of information you can’t teach yourself what you need to know, then you are your own biggest liability.

Most things are simple to learn and can be learned from the internet. Even if it’s something that looks complicated (like coding), once you start learning, it becomes much clearer and you find that it’s not as complicated as you first thought.

Other things are simple and it only takes a few minutes of searching online to find what  you need.

But if people need to teach you simple things, you’ll always be a liability to yourself.

One of my popular books, Living the Laptop Lifestyle (https://ruthiswriting.com/books/LLS.html) was written from all the knowledge I gained myself about how to create a website and earn a living online. This book is popular because it makes it quick and easy for anyone to have an online writing business.

And this is one of many books and courses available online that anyone can download without having to ask for help from someone else.

In fact, everything you need to know is available online in one way or another. And much of it is free.

But if you can’t find what you need yourself, you’ll never be successful.

Do whatever it takes to become a successful writer. 

Just don’t expect others to do the work for you.


“If you can’t help yourself, you’re a liability.”
~ Justin Welsh


If you need more help go to https://ruthiswriting.com/books.html and find what you need to help you move forward.




Thursday 1 September 2022

Why Aren't I Writing? And What I'm Doing About It

Woman lying in leaves instead of writing
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
At the beginning of this year, 2022, I stated that I was going to write and publish a book a month.

I was all hyped and ready back in December 2021, sure that I could fulfill my mission. I had it all planned so what could go wrong?

Life, is what could go wrong.

It's not that I haven't written any books. I've written and published 4 books so far with another almost finished.

My writing plan began to unravel early when, at the beginning of the year, without knowing it was even going to happen, I moved home. 

I originally had no intention of moving, but then property prices skyrocketed, and we stumbled upon a better place to live. So we took advantage of the price increases, put our place on the market, sold it in 3 weeks, and moved. And as we all know, moving can suck your life away in the time spent to organise it all, do the actual move, and then settle into our new place and find our way around the new neighbourhood.

Also a few family issues came up that I had to deal with.

But that's still no excuse for not getting my writing done. I keep telling myself that if I had to go out to work (which I'm SO GRATEFUL that I don't have to) I wouldn't be using all these things as an excuse not to go to work. I'd deal with them and still get to work on time every day.

The problem with working at home, is that I'm at home, so I constantly get distracted. But again, that's no excuse not to get my writing done.

Another thing that happened is that I downloaded a fascinating eBook called "Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline," by one of my favourite authors on writing, Dean Wesley Smith. https://amzn.to/3EKs1Vl.

I usually always write with an extensive outline, but after reading his book I decided to try writing without one. DWS said that all you need is to know before you start writing, is what genre you're writing in, and have a character and a setting in mind, and then start writing.

I began with one short story and then moved on to do more. At first it felt really strange to not have an outline and to not know what I was going to write until I wrote it.

But do you know what? It's fun. I've been writing quite a few short horror stories with no outline and no idea of what's going to happen in the story until I start writing. Not only is it fun, but it also makes me write fast because I can't afford to stop writing in case I lose the flow of ideas.

I'm not sure if I'd write a whole novel this way, but it sure is fun doing it with short stories. It also taught me that horror stories are my favourite to write. 

Who knows where this will lead me, but I'm having a ball doing it. I should have known that I'd enjoy it because I always love doing those 5-minute writing exercises, where you're given 3 words and you write for 5 minutes without stopping AND use those 3 words in the opening paragraph.

If you want to try it yourself, download your own copy of "Writing into the Dark" and give it a go.

But I digress. I was talking about why I haven't written as many books as I planned to.

The good news is that I'm planning to get back on track. No, I'm GOING to get back on track. I have a new plan and I'm going to work it.

At the same time, I'll still be uploading articles to my website and posts to this blog, and sending out my monthly writing newsletter, which will be hitting my subscribers' inboxes next week. So, if you're not a subscriber, now would be the perfect time to sign up, plus you'll receive a free eBook to help you write more and earn more.

On another positive note, my latest book, "How To Have More Money Now, Even If You’re Struggling To Pay The Rent" is already selling well. Read more about it and grab yourself a copy at https://ruthiswriting.com/books/hthmm.html.

And you should see another book from me soon.

Here's hoping you're getting plenty of your own writing done.


How to Have More Money Now




Writing Into The Dark by Dean Wesley Smith. Click to read more

















Monday 8 August 2022

How to Write 10,000 Words a Day

 
Hands typing on a keyboard writing a book fast
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

A few weeks ago I was reading an article about how it’s possible to write a million words a years, and I thought, “That’s crazy.”

But it turns out it’s not as crazy say you think. Not only is it quite sane, it’s also quite do-able.

The author also said that we all write at the same pace, which is around 1,000 words/hour, which is only 16.6666 words per minute.

I pondered this, did a little math, and worked out that one million words divided by 365 days is 2,739 words a day. So if you wrote 2,739 words a day for a whole year, you’d have written 1,000,000 words.

Hmmm. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable when you look at it like that.

So then I went back to the 1,000 words/hour. To write a million words at that speed, you’d have to write for 1,000 hours (1,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000).

This means that if you wrote 1,000 wph for 2 hours a day, that’s 2,000 words a day which isn’t far off the 2,739 words a day needed to write a million words a year. In fact, 2,000 words a day is 730,000 words a year.

But what if you upped the ante and wrote 10,000 words a day? Even working a 5 day week you could achieve 50,000 words a week. That’s a whole book written in a week.

But is it possible to write 10,000 words a day?

According to the book, “2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love” By Rachel Aaron (https://amzn.to/3ruC0bd) it’s more than possible.

At 1,000 word/hour you’d have to write for 10 hours a day. That’s a lot of hours.

But look at it a different way.

If you’ve ever tried speed writing you’ll know that it’s possible to write ¾ of a page in 5 minutes. Speed writing is where you’re given a writing prompt, or 3 words, you set a timer for 5 minutes and start writing. If you’ve never done it, you should. It’s really eye-opening to see just how much you’re capable for writing in such a short time.

Speed writing proves that it’s easily possible to write ¾ of a page in 5 minutes. So assuming a full page of writing is 300 words (it’s usually more), this means that you can write 2,700 words in an hour (¾ of a page in 5 minutes  x 12 lots of 5 minutes = 1 hour).

If you write like this for 5 hours a day, even if you drop the speed down to 2,000 words an hour, that’s still 10,000 words a day.

But the real question is whether or not it’s possible to write at this fast pace.

It is if you’re prepared. This means having a complete outline for your book so that you know exactly what you’ll be covering in each chapter.

Having a detailed outline leaves you free to write without stopping, just like speed writing. 

An outline means you don’t need thinking time, just writing time.

I work this way with all my books. Lately I’ve begun using shorter outlines, and while it’s possible to write a book this way, it slows me down because it means I need to have time to think while I’m writing.

But with a detailed outline, I can sit down and start writing straight away. Even if it’s been a day or two since I last wrote, I can look at my outline and see exactly where I finished and where I need to go.

Outlines make the writing process so much easier and faster.

And it only takes 2 to 3 days to go from idea to outline to detailed outline, and then you’re ready to start writing.

And even if you want to slow it down to just 10,000 words a week, you can still get your book finished in a month.

I wrote about this in the 4th book of my Monthly Challenge Writing Series, “The One Month Author: How to Write a Book Faster & Better.”

A simple step-by-step manual that leads you through finding an idea for a book, creating an outline, and turning it into a finished manuscript - in just one month.

Check it out now at:































Tuesday 15 March 2022

This Is All You Need To Write More

 

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
Recently I've come across several articles about how to write more.

This subject always intrigues me so I always look into them to see what information they have to offer, just to see if they contain a golden nugget of information that could increase my writing output way beyond my wildest dreams.

Sadly, I'm always disappointed because all they talk about is a piece of software I should be using, or how having more than one computer monitor can help, or how having a state of the art computer with all the bells and whistles will help me to write more.

To me, this isn't helpful. Writing is about having ideas and writing them out and publishing them as blog posts, articles, stories and books.

It's about sitting down every day and enjoying the process of writing.

What it's not about is learning how to use a piece of software, or being able to bring up multiple documents on multiple screens, or having an over-complicated computer with bells and whistles I'll never need.

To me that's not writing. It's more like working in a factory.

 Finding ways to write more is much simpler to me.

A few years ago I was walking through the park when I saw a pencil on the ground. It was a brand new HB pencil so I picked it up.

When I got home I looked at it and thought, "This could be a pencil that writes a best-selling novel, or a series of money-making articles."

Somehow, finding that simple pencil motivated me to write. So I sat down and started writing, sharpening the pencil, and writing some more.

I wrote quite a lot over the next few days until the pencil was too small to write with.

But that's all it took to inspire me to write. A simple pencil.

I'm the same if I buy a new notebook. I start writing in it straight away. I write a lot.

Of course, handwriting means I have a lot of typing to do. But I don't mind. I'm a fast typist anyway.

And all I need to write more is a new pencil or a nice notebook.

Try it for yourself and see.


Download Self Publish Worldwide, a simple guide to self publishing. 
No cost, no sign-up. Just download and enjoy.





Thursday 3 March 2022

Is Writing Easy?

 
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

People ask me about being a writer all the time. 

They dream of sitting at home and writing and earring lots of money, but they’re not sure if they can do it, so they ask me if it’s hard to be a writer.

To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what they mean. Are they asking if it’s hard to sit alone and write, or if the actually writing is hard?

I think that there is no definitive answer to whether or not writing is hard or easy. It all depends on how you feel.

If you love to write, then writing is easy. But it’s still hard work in the number of hours you need to dedicate to doing it.

When I’m doing other things, I can talk to the people as I do it or I can listen to an audio or watch TV. If someone calls me and wants to chat (urgh!), I do something physical at the same time, like walking, cleaning, weeding, sewing, or cooking. In fact it’s amazing how much I can get done while my mind is occupied with something else.

But when it comes to writing, there is nothing else I can do at the same time. It takes up my time physically as well as mentally, which makes it such a solitary occupation.

But is writing hard?

I look at it this way, is going out for a run every day hard? Not if you enjoy it. If you’re a runner you look forward to it and love to be out running.

Me? I’m not a physically active person that way. I don’t like running at all. To me, having to go out and run every day would be torture. Yet I see others out pounding the pavement every morning and evening and loving it. They even stop and do some stretching too, while I watch them from my balcony, shake my head, and drink my coffee.

If you enjoy writing it won’t be hard. On the other hand, if thinking about writing makes you shrivel up and die a little inside, then writing every day really isn’t for you.

I find that even on days when I really don’t feel like writing and I’m wasting time procrastinating and pretending I’m busy doing other unimportant things, once I’m in my writing chair, my creative mind switches on and I can write for hours.

But while I’m writing, that’s all I’m doing. I can’t talk or listen to audios. And while it may look like I’m sitting calmly and passively, my mind is crazy-busy as the ideas race through it.

So if you enjoy writing, it won’t be hard. It never is for a truly creative person.

"This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard."
~ Neil Gaiman

Write More and Earn More




Monday 14 February 2022

Stormy Writing Weather

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

 Recently, where I live in Queensland, Australia, we’ve had some really wild weather.

So far this year there have been 3 cyclones (called hurricanes in some countries) off the coast bringing strong winds and flooding rains.

As you can imagine, it meant there were a lot of days when I didn’t leave home.

And because I live in a small apartment, I didn’t have much to do except sit and write.

The storms raged outside bringing plenty of trees and branches down, with gale force winds and quite the show of thunder and lightning.

Because it’s summer here, the local kids were still on school holidays which was lucky for them. I pitied anyone who had to venture outside while the storms were so severe.

I was thankful that live somewhere with onsite managers, so they had the unenviable task of clearing the debris outside, and I don't have to.

I was also grateful that I didn’t have to worry about a leaky roof, because my apartment doesn’t have one. I have a concrete ceiling and an upstairs neighbour, so when I’m indoors I’m protected from wild weather. I also have a covered balcony to protect my extra thick patio doors and my front door is a solid and heavy fire door.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, I simply shut myself in and get plenty of writing done.

And because I already have my 12 Month writing Plan, I already know what to write, so all I have to do is sit down and get started.

Don’t you just love it when you have time to write and so much writing to do?

I feel so cozy inside when it storms, and having a plan means I’m eager to sit down and start writing.
























Use discount code “12mthpromo”




Tuesday 8 February 2022

The Costly Mistake That Can Sabotage Your Writing

Image by Olya Adamovich from Pixabay

"Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom."
    ~ Jeanette Winterson

I know a woman who lives like a slug.

Every day she gets up with no clue how she’s going to spend her day. Some days, she doesn’t even bother getting out of bed. She just plays computer games, streams TV shows and naps a lot.

She doesn’t eat well either because she rarely shops, and even when she does, she buys random food items and has no clue of what meals she’ll make from it. So she mostly exists on microwaved pizza and Doritos.

It’s a sad life indeed.

I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite. I get up at 6am every day, get dressed, make the bed, have breakfast, do the dishes, do the chores, and anything else I need to do, and then sit down to write.

My writing is organised too. I have a diary where I write everything I’m going to be working on. So all I have to do is look in my diary and start writing.

My writing is not just planned out every day, but every week, month and year.

It’s this meticulous planning and organising that has enabled me to work as a writer and earn all my income this way. I couldn’t write as much as I do if I didn’t have a writing plan.

That’s why I wrote, The 12 Month Writing Challenge, to help you to plan your writing for the next 12 months and get more writing done than you ever have before.

And to make it even easier, The 12 Month Writing Challenge comes with a bonus copy of The One Month Author so that you can write 12 books in a year.

And right now you can download a copy of both PDF ebooks for only $9.99 (usual price - $24.99), using the discount code ‘12mthpromo.’

I know I’ve been pushing this offer a lot lately, but it’s only because I don’t want you to miss out.

Stop dreaming and start writing.

The 12 Month Writing Challenge



Thursday 27 January 2022

The One Little Secret That Separates Prolific Writers From Clueless Wannabes

Photo by of someone thinking, courtesy of Tim Gouw on Unsplash
I’ve been a writer for a long time and one thing I love, is having written. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write, but when one of my books is written and published, it’s a great feeling of accomplishment. It also motivates me to do it all over again.

And it’s this immense feeling of satisfaction that prolific writers feel over and over again.

It’s also the feeling that writing wannabes know nothing about.

So is that the difference between a prolific writer and a wannabe?

Nope.

The secret (that is absolutely no secret at all) that separates prolific writers from dreamers, is that the prolific writers write. They not only write, they work.

Writing is what they do for a living. It’s what they spend most of their time doing.

I always think that what makes a writer prolific is that they’re organised. They make time for their writing and they stick to it.

They also know exactly what they’ll be doing before they even sit down.

Their writing plans aren’t just day to day, but year to year, sometimes planning 5 years in advance how many books they’re going to write and how they’re going to expand their writing business over time.

Writing is like anything else in life, in that you can’t get what you want until you know what it is that you want.

So, what if you decided that you want to write 12 books in the next 12 months?

How would you do it?

You’d need a plan. A plan to write, publish, and market a dozen books in a year.

And it all starts with clicking the link below to learn more.



(Use the discount code: 12mthpromo)




Friday 7 January 2022

How to Write More And More And More…


Do you dream of writing more? Do you see yourself sitting and writing and having hundreds of published books and selling thousands of copies every month?

If you do then it’s time to stop dreaming and start writing.

And although you’d love it if I told you a “secret” to getting more writing done,  I’m not going to tell you any such thing. In fact, I’m going to tell you the opposite.

The only way to write more is to have more bum-in-chair time and actually get your writing done. It really is that straight forward and simple.

But this is good news because when you spend more time writing, it help you in 3 ways.

  1. You get more writing done. Successful writers are prolific writers and so that’s what you need to be too. The more time you spend writing, the more writing you’ll get done. It’s so so logical.
  2. You’ll get faster. Anything we do continually makes us faster and better. It’s like when you learn to drive, or start a new job. At first it seems hard and time-consuming, but the more you do it the better you get and the faster you can do things.
  3. It creates a writing habit. When you do something every day, it soon becomes a habit so you can do it without even thinking about it. And habits, as we know, make our lives easier and effortless - or at least the good ones do.

If you want to write more, then it means more bum-in-chair time and there’s no getting away from that. There is no quick fix or cheat or secret way to do it.

On the plus side, writing more makes it faster and easier to do, plus you’ll get better with practice too.

And that is the secret to writing more.


Mission Critical For Life: Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission





Friday 31 December 2021

My Writing Plans for 2022

New Year Writing Plans

So now it’s the end of 2021 and tomorrow is the first day of 2022.

I don’t know about you but I’ve got my writing plans in place for the next 12 months.

One thing I had to do was not only list everything I wanted to write, but also allot the time to do it. It’s no good saying what I want to do if I have no idea how I’m going to find the time.

So I did a plan of everything I want to write, and it includes books, ebooks, articles, blog posts and emails (amongst other things). I wanted to make sure I included everything so that nothing gets left out and I have enough time to do it all.

But it will still be a challenge with all that life throws up at us. Whenever I have a lot to do, the universe always throws up roadblocks and trip hazards.

But I’m determined to not let anything stop me completing my writing plan for 2022.

You can read it in it’s entirety at:




Monday 20 December 2021

A 10-Hour Writing Day

How to Have a 48 Hour Day

I previously told you about how I’d been re-reading one of my favourite books on productivity called, How to Have a 48 Hour Day, and in this book it says to work 10 hours a day, which I began to do.

I get up at 6am every day, even weekends, so from 6am to 4pm I make sure I’m productive - not busy.

At first I thought it would be difficult, but it isn’t at all. Some days I have to juggle things around, so if I decide to go to the beach for a couple of hours (I live at the coast) I make up the time later on, or I take some reading material that I want to catch up on, or take a notebook and do some writing or brainstorming.

Before I began the 10-hour day experiment, I was a quitter. As soon as something seemed too hard or too tedious, I’d quit. But now, I take a short 5 minute break and then carry on, no matter how much I feel like I don’t want to keep doing what I’m doing.

And the surprising thing is, once I sit down and get back to writing, it’s not that hard at all to keep going. It also works for other chores around the house, even cleaning the car isn’t hard once I add it to my daily to-do list, and then do it no matter what.

This is great for getting more writing done and for everything else I do.  It’s like having a deadline. I can’t stop working so it forces me to get as much done as I can. When I’m writing I force myself to stay in my chair, and soon I’m back in the ‘zone’ and getting plenty done. And it’s such a great feeling.

I also limit my online time to 30 minutes during my 10 hours, and use my writing computer for most of the time and only switch computers later to upload things.

10-hour days are actually easy to do and surprisingly fun.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw


Friday 17 December 2021

4 Books Written in 3 Months

 It’s no secret that all writers look for ways to write more and earn more. And this time of year is when we’re all planning how much we can challenge ourselves in the New Year.

And as I’ve been telling everyone, I’ve been spending plenty of time reading about other writers’ plans for 2022. It’s always interesting to see what others are doing as well as collecting inspiration and ideas for myself.

And while I was re-reading my favourite time management book last week (How to Have a 48 Hour Day), which is so insightful as well as being entertaining as hell, the author, Don Aslett, talked about how he once wrote 4 books in 3 months.

What struck me about his achievement, was that at the time , he was vacationing at his holiday home and during the 3 months he was there, he also cut back over 100 feet of what he calls ‘the jungle’ (it’s a large property), laid several concrete steps, erected 100 feet of fencing, as well as catching up with other jobs like cleaning tools, weeding, and planting trees.

AND he still had time to write 4 books.

Inspiring?

Yes.

Makes me jealous?

Absolutely.

But it does spur me on to REALLY challenge myself next year to see not only how I can write more, but how to get more done in other areas of my life too.

Perhaps I can start having my own 48 hour days.

I’ll let you know when I finish my planning and hopefully it will inspire you to write more and earn more too.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw


Tuesday 14 December 2021

Go Big Or Go Home. Write One Million Words a Year

I’ve been reading a lot of articles and blog posts lately about goals that writers have and how much writing they plan to do in the next year. And it’s all fascinating reading, not to mention inspiring and motivating.

But there was one blog post in particular that really caught my attention. It was written by prolific fiction author, Dean Wesley Smith. He talked about his goal to write 2.2 million words in 2022.

 https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/my-2022-challenge/.  

My flabber was ghasted when I read that. This is such a huge challenge he’s set for himself.

In a previous post, he’d talked in-depth about pulp writing speed which is how pulp writers used to earn their living years ago what was then called pulp fiction, because they were only paid by word count so they had to write at super speeds to be able to write for a living.

https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/pulp-speed-brought-forward-again/

In this blog post, he goes through six different pulp writing speeds, and the slowest one (Pulp Speed One) is 1 million words a year, and while that may sound like a lot, it breaks down like this:

Writing 3,000 words a day, is 84,000 words a month (26 days), which adds up to just over 1 million words a year. And if you can write 1,000 words an hour (which isn’t hard), 3,000 words a day is easy.

This all got me thinking about how much more I can write in a year if I really tried. 

To be realistic, I’ll have to divide my time and include everything I do, not just writing, but also sleeping, travelling, eating, cleaning, personal hygiene, family, TV, and everything else besides.

Plus I need to look at what writing I plan to do in the next 12 months, including books, ebooks, free reports, blog posts, articles, and freelance assignments.

Will I make it to one million words a year?

Who knows.

But I’m going to having great fun trying.


https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw 

Thursday 9 December 2021

The Simple Way to Make Every Day Productive

How to Have a 48 Hour Day and Get Twice as Much Done
We all want to have productive days, don’t we? But what usually happens is that we get out of bed in the morning full of enthusiasm for all the things we’re going to accomplish, but somehow the time slips away and we realise we got nothing done.

Yet there are other days when we bounce out of bed and zip through everything we have to do and end the day feeling great about how much we got done.

So what’s the difference between those two days? What is it that makes some days more productive than others?

The ‘secret’ to having a productive day is really no secret at all.

I’ve recently been re-reading my favourite book on productivity, called, “How to have a 48 Hour Day” by Don Aslett. This man is king of getting things done and his book is such an entertaining read, and so useful that I’ve read it several times.

One of the things he says you should do, and it’s something he has alway done himself, is to have 10-hour days. This means having 10 productive hours every day. Not 10 ‘busy’ hours. The time must be spent productively, whether it means working, shopping (for essentials), gardening, cleaning, writing, or anything else that needs to be done. 

The author himself often works 16 hours a day. He even talks about when he wrote a book in 4 days because it was raining and he couldn’t do the gardening that he’d planned to do. Wow! Can you imagine being such an over-achiever? And he loves every minute of it and says that hard work is the cure for all of life’s ills. He says it’s no accident that those who are high achievers are seldom ill. They don’t have time to stop for anything.

He says to aim to stay productive 10 hours a day. Commit to it and always have a list of different jobs/tasks to do so you can switch if necessary or if you’re not in the mood.

And 10 hours a day of productivity is life-changing.

I used to be one of life’s quitters and would give up on something if it got too hard or seemed too tedious. But not any more. I became a 10-hours-a day-person after reading this book the first time, and it really changed my life for the better. And the best thing about it is that it was actually easy to do. It wasn’t difficult at all. I even enjoyed it.

And the changes are instant.

Try it for yourself. Just one week of 10-hour days is transforming.

Make it your New Year’s resolution. 

Download a copy of the book and start changing your life.


Get Twice as Much Done As You Do Now - How to Have a 48 Hour Day

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw 

Friday 19 November 2021

Keep Writing Even If You Don’t Feel Like It

Bored Writer - how to keep writing even if you don't feel like it
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

All writers (even the best of the best) face the challenging situation of writing when they really don’t feel like it. It happens to us all. You’re just not in the mood to sit down and write, but you have a deadline looming or a book to finish, and you need to get back to your writing spot, but the motivation just isn’t there.

So what can you do about it?


Well, I don’t know about you, but one thing that “Lockdowns” taught me was that when all distractions are removed (constitutional rights, going outside, living my life) I was much more motivated to sit down and write.


A couple of years ago I cracked a rib and couldn’t move much for a couple of weeks, and this week I had a minor operation on my back, which again has physically incapacitated me or a short while.


And during all these times, I wrote more because I was forced to sit down because there was nothing else I could do. Also because I decided myself to use these times to increase my writing output.


It was also during these times that the more I wrote every day, the easier and better it got.


So just think about that the next time you know you should be writing, but you just don’t feel like it.


And remember that the world’s most successful authors didn’t get to where they are because they gave in every time they didn’t feel like writing. They often felt that way too but they sat down and wrote despite not feeling like it.


And to be honest, even though I love to write, not wanting to do it happens almost every day. Until, that is, I sit in my chair and start writing.


Then it’s amazing how much writing I can do, even though I didn’t feel like it at first.




The One Month Author

How to Write a Book Faster & Better

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCWS4.html