I used to think that the more time I had, the more writing I’d do.
I used to be at work every day thinking, if only I was at home I’d be sat writing and earning so much money. But instead, I had to keep my job until I could earn enough money from my writing to quit.
And then the day came when I did quit and I thought, great, now I can write all day instead of going to work. But it didn’t turn out that way at all. I discovered that I had TOO MUCH time to write, and I didn’t even know that was possible.
What happened was I started wasting time because I no longer had a reason to rush. I had no boss, no deadlines, and so I cruised along doing other things instead of getting my writing done.
I cured this ‘problem’ by not giving myself too much time to write.
What I mean by this, is that if I sit down and find myself surfing online or checking emails or doing other things instead of writing, I get up and go and do something else more productive until I can be sure that I’ll write when I sit down.
I also use a list of tasks to get more done. I have notebooks where I write out what I have to do. But it’s not a list of projects, it’s a list of tasks. So say I need to write 5 blog posts. I won’t just put that on a list with ‘write 5 blog posts.’ I’ll actually outline 5 blog posts so that when I sit down to write, I just look at my list of 5 blog posts and write them. Working this way makes it so much easier and faster to write.
Sometimes I also use a timer to give me a bit of an adrenaline rush. I figured that journalists work against the clock to get their work published on time so why not let it work for me?
So I time myself for 25 to 30 minutes at a time and see how fast I can write. Surprisingly, working fast also helps my writing to flow better because I don’t have time to second guess myself.
So what it all boils down to is that the less time I have to write, the more writing I get done, which also leaves me plenty of time for other things when I’m not sat at my desk all day wasting time doing other things instead of writing.
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/15.html
I used to be at work every day thinking, if only I was at home I’d be sat writing and earning so much money. But instead, I had to keep my job until I could earn enough money from my writing to quit.
And then the day came when I did quit and I thought, great, now I can write all day instead of going to work. But it didn’t turn out that way at all. I discovered that I had TOO MUCH time to write, and I didn’t even know that was possible.
What happened was I started wasting time because I no longer had a reason to rush. I had no boss, no deadlines, and so I cruised along doing other things instead of getting my writing done.
I cured this ‘problem’ by not giving myself too much time to write.
What I mean by this, is that if I sit down and find myself surfing online or checking emails or doing other things instead of writing, I get up and go and do something else more productive until I can be sure that I’ll write when I sit down.
I also use a list of tasks to get more done. I have notebooks where I write out what I have to do. But it’s not a list of projects, it’s a list of tasks. So say I need to write 5 blog posts. I won’t just put that on a list with ‘write 5 blog posts.’ I’ll actually outline 5 blog posts so that when I sit down to write, I just look at my list of 5 blog posts and write them. Working this way makes it so much easier and faster to write.
Sometimes I also use a timer to give me a bit of an adrenaline rush. I figured that journalists work against the clock to get their work published on time so why not let it work for me?
So I time myself for 25 to 30 minutes at a time and see how fast I can write. Surprisingly, working fast also helps my writing to flow better because I don’t have time to second guess myself.
So what it all boils down to is that the less time I have to write, the more writing I get done, which also leaves me plenty of time for other things when I’m not sat at my desk all day wasting time doing other things instead of writing.
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/15.html
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