Unlocking Productivity: The 6-Step Ivy Lee Method

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."

      ~ Louis L’Amour

There’s no question about it. If you want to have success as a writer, you have to keep writing.

That sounds simple enough, but it’s not the whole issue. For instance, you have to know what you’re going to write, and have a system of working so that you can get straight down to work as soon as you sit down.

Productivity is always a hot topic, especially for writers.

One of the best known productivity hacks was Ivy Lee’s Success 6 method of getting more done.

The story goes that in 1918, Charles Schwab was one of the richest men in the world. He was the president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation which was one of the largest ship builders and the second-largest steel producers in America at the time. Schwab was known as a master hustler who was constantly looking for ways to have an edge over his competition.

In 1918 he was looking for a way to increase efficiency of his team and find better ways to get things done. To this end, he arranged a meeting with Ivy Lee who was a respected productivity consultant.

Ivy Lee told Charles Schwab that all he was going to do was talk for 15 minutes to each executive of the company and give them simple instructions. Charles Schwab asked how much this was going to cost him. Ivy Lee said it would cost nothing in the beginning but that if his method worked, then Schwab could pay him whatever he thought it was worth.

What Was The Method?

Ivy Lee then met with each of the company executives and told them a simple daily routine that they had to follow.

He told them, that at the end of each day they were to write down the 6 most important things they needed to accomplish the next day. But only 6 and no more. Once they had their list they were to number them in order of importance. He said, tomorrow, do the first thing, number one on the list, then work through the list in order. At the end of each day, move any unfinished tasks to a new list of 6 for the next day, and repeat this every working day.

After three months, Charles Schwab gave Ivy Lee a cheque for $25,000, which was a lot of money in 1918.

Why Did This Method Work?

Ivy Lee’s method of prioritising was simple yet effective, and made it easy with a short list of only 6 priorities each day.

Warren Buffett had a similar method which he called his 5/25 Rule for achieving success in life. His rule was to list 25 life priorities. They could be anything you want to achieve in life, including career, personal growth, relationships, health, or financial prosperity or anything else you want to do.

You then go through your list and pick out THE 5 most important things you want to achieve first, and concentrate only on them and forget about the other 20 completely until you had fulfilled your first 5.

Both these productivity methods remove the friction of starting. It lets you know what you have to do first, which means you can get straight down to work by minimises what you need to concentrate on.

Fewer priorities leads to doing better work because it enables you to focus, knowing that everything important will get done.

And doing the most important thing first every day is all you need towards consistency and focus.

What are your six important things to do today?

Putting an End to My Lack of Writing

"Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret."

    ~ Success Minded

2024, as I’ve already talked about, has been a bad year for me. So many bad things happened that I had to deal with which resulted in me getting little writing done.

The result of it all is that I still feel bad about not writing. But I am determined to make the next 12 months my best in writing.

Part of what went wrong last year (and there were SO many things) was that my husband and I were forced to move. We desperately looked for a new place to buy but found nowhere suitable.

But, I feel, or rather, I am determined, that the bad things are over. 

Although we didn’t find a property to buy, we have landed a one year lease in a nice 3-bed rental property in a quiet area and within walking distance of the local shopping centre, so all is pretty good at the moment. And renting means we don’t have to do anything to the house (in Australia, rental properties are not allowed to be changed in anyway whatsoever without the landlords permission) which means I’ll have more time to write.

We have also been moving some of our furniture around, including my writing bureau which was in the dining area next to the breakfast bar. I don’t know why I put in the middle of the house, but it was probably because that’s where it was in our previous unit for the past year. Anyway, I wasn’t happy with it there so we moved it into the spare bedroom. We sleep in one bedroom, my husband has the second bedroom as his study, and the third room is where our daughter sleeps when she comes over to stay now and again. So I thought, why waste that room most of the time? So far I’m loving having my own space again (except when said daughter comes to stay again, but that’s never for longer than a night or two).

I also have a plan (which I’ve already started) to write for at least 2 hours a day. 2 hours isn’t too much, and when I get back into the swing of writing every day, I’ll be able to increase it. But, even at 2 hours a day, that’s a lot of writing. The 2 hours is only for writing new words, not doing other writing related work. And if I write at 1,000 words an hour, which is my usual writing speed, even if I only manage 5 days a week, that’s 10 thousand words a week or 520 thousand words a year, which is pretty prolific for such a short amount of time each week.

And I’m determined to stick to my writing plan, especially now that I have my own writing place again. I’d forgotten how much I missed it.

The problem with not writing when other things get in the way, is that it’s important to find out what exactly the problem is and then it can be fixed. A writing schedule (plan) of how much you can reasonably achieve every day is also important.

Now that I’ve sorted out what was stopping me, I’m already writing more and it feels good to be back in my writing chair. And it doesn’t even matter what happens with my writing, whether it gets published, is appreciated, or earns a lot of money. I just want to write, so that is what I’m doing.

How to Write More in 15 Minutes Than in The Last 15 Days
https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2025/15-minutes.html

The Vital Importance of Knowing the Difference Between Goals and Rewards

 

Until recently, I was like most people and thought that a goal was an end result. I used to say things like “My goal is to publish six books this year,” or “I’ve made it my goal to go for more walks.” But it turns out that I didn’t understand what a goal actually is.

The late, great Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn, understood goals perfectly when he said that when washing the dishes, you should wash the dishes to wash the dishes, not to have clean dishes.

At first that looks confusing because you have to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes. So what was he talking about?

He made that statement when he was talking about mindfulness and the importance of keeping your mind in the present moment. He was saying that to have clean dishes, your goal must be to wash the dishes, to think only of each dish as you clean it. As he put it (and I paraphrase), clean each teapot and cup with as much care and attention as if you are washing the baby Jesus himself. Your reward for such diligence, is clean dishes. But if all you think about is wanting to get the cleaning over and done with then the dishes may to be done properly.

The goal is to clean each dish. The reward is clean dishes.

But, you may be wondering, what does this have to do with writing?

Well, goals and rewards work the same way in any situation, even with writing.

What you need to do is figure out what it is you want to achieve with your writing. It can be a short or long-term achievement. It might be to write and publish a book every two months, or even to earn $30k a year as a freelance writer, or become a ghost writer, or a high-earning blogger, or a short story writer.

Whatever it is, first you have need to know what it is you want (reward), and then you have to plan exactly what you need to do to achieve it (goal).

So say you want to write and publish a book every two months. You have to know how many words you can write in an hour and how long it takes to edit proof and publish a book. Once you’ve figured it out then you know how many hours a day you need to work. And if you work your plan you’ll reach your goal which is to have a strong daily work ethic.

Your goal is the plan you made for daily/weekly writing. The reward is having a book written and published every two months.

So just like washing the dishes to wash the dishes, not to have clean dishes, your goal is to write the books to write the books, not to have the books written.

And the reward will come if you stick to your goal.

The 12 Month Writing Challenge
Write and Publish 12 Books in a Year
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html

Why You’re Not Writing and How to Fix it

 

I recently admitted to you all (to my subscribers) that I haven’t been doing much writing lately.

I’ve had a lot going on in my life for the past several months, and most of it was not good and was either emotionally or physically demanding. But it was still no excuse for not writing. Sometimes a week or more would go by without me writing a word. And it bothered me. I wanted to write, so why wasn’t I writing? I didn’t understand it.

Then one day I was reading a book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch called, How Writers Fail: Analysis and Solutions.[This book can only be bought as part of a series https://amzn.to/426rfQ9] It was fascinating (and I read it several times), and one thing in particular struck me.

Kristine is married to author, Dean Wesley Smith, and she said that he cannot write without a deadline, even if it’s just a self-imposed deadline. And I realised that was my problem too. I had no deadlines.

I was overwhelmingly busy with so many other things going on, including selling our apartment, packing up everything we own, looking for another property to buy and finding nothing suitable so having to quickly rent a house and unpack everything we own. So I’d jettisoned my writing because other things seemed more important, like being days away from being homeless. But I still should have sat down every day, at least for an hour, and written. But instead I did nothing. No writing.

The problem with being human is that when faced with a choice, we default to the easiest thing to do, with is usually watching TV or playing a computer game, while telling ourselves that we deserve a rest.

When you have a job to go to every day it gives you a deadline to work to. It always gives you deadlines at home too because your time is limited.

But it’s too easy to put things off if there are no deadlines looming. When I put off my writing, it felt like there was little consequence because no one knew I hadn't done it and I still got plenty of other things done.

We always put off doing things we know we have to do if there isn’t a deadline, even things like washing the car, exercise, cooking, and even going for days out. It’s always easier to do nothing. Yet we always feel better if we do what we’re supposed to do.

It’s also a matter of priorities, the things you deem important enough that you’ll do them no matter what.

Some people aren’t even aware of their own priorities. It see parents at the park staring at their phones instead of interacting with their kids. Dogs not walked, dirty homes, unmade beds. All of it leads to depression.

Many studies show that productive people are happy people. They have a sense of achievement and have everything they want because they get things done. And it works the other way around too. Not only are productive people happy, but happy people are said to be 13% more productive. But productivity shouldn’t be confused with being busy. People who are busy all day, are said to be miserable. There is also a correlation between happiness and having a job. According to the World Happiness Report (WHR), having a job is a major step towards happiness.

So your writing has to be a priority or it won’t get done, and you’ll be unhappy. To get it done you need a schedule and deadlines.

I organise my days for everything I want to get done that day, and I do it whether I want to or not. If I didn’t, I’d be miserable, just like I have been these last few months when I wasn’t writing.

I have a publishing schedule for everything I write, including blog posts and books. Freelance work always comes with deadlines so that always gets done on time. I already know that I have to finish my latest book by the end of this month. I also have other writing projects to do, as well as all my chores and obligations in my personal life.

And deadlines, like having to finish my book in three weeks, keeps me on track every day.

I definitely need deadlines, as I proved to myself recently.

And having a schedule and deadlines means I know what I’ll be working on every day, meaning I can get straight down to work with no time to procrastinate.

Now that’s what I call a win-win.

Cheriton House Publishing
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com
Books on writing and self-help

The Simple Little Tip To Writing More and Writing Better

If you want to earn money from writing, you need to write fast because you’re paid for what you do. You’ll earn the same amount of money for an article regardless of whether it took you 2 hours or 2 days to write it. So the faster you write, the more money you’ll earn.

Never make the mistake of thinking that writing fast means writing badly. In fact the opposite is true. The faster you write, the better you’ll write.

No doubt you’ve heard of the writing acronym, WAYS, Write As You Speak.

When you do this, it makes writing faster to do, and easier for the reader to understand. We’re always better understood when we’re explaining something in spoken words rather than writing it out in long convoluted words, which is why using WAYS works.

Readers aren’t looking for technical articles full of big words. They want fast information and an entertaining read.

In my book, How To Write An Article In 15 Minutes or Less, I show you how to quickly write short 300-500 word articles in 15 minutes or less, including research and proofing. It really can be done that fast.

Of course, speed comes with practice so the more articles you write, the faster and better you’ll get, plus you’ll be producing so much more work.

Short articles are always popular, but longer articles often earn more, especially if you’re paid by the word count.

To write an article quickly it’s good to have a simple outline containing an introduction, 3 points to cover and a conclusion. To expand it, each of the 3 points can have 3 sub-topics.

It can also be faster to turn each point or sub-topic into a question so that when you write your article you’re simply answering questions which is easier than justifying a statement. For instance if you were writing about a daily routine and you say, “I brush my teeth every morning.” You’d change that to, “Why do I brush my teeth every morning?” or “How do I brush my teeth?”

But no matter how you write your articles, it needs to be easy and enjoyable because if you don’t enjoy it, it won’t be sustainable. You won’t keep doing something you don’t enjoy.

Writing fast is enjoyable. It’s much more fun than writing slowly and trying to edit as you write and second guessing yourself all the time. Writing fast means there’s no time for any of that, and you’ll get a lot more writing done.

One of the most prolific authors was, Isaac Asimov, who wrote over 400 novels plus hundreds of scientific papers.

When asked about his amazing output he said, “I guess I’m prolific because I have a simple and straightforward style.”

This was a man who wrote fast, and he wrote for hours every day. And as he said, he kept his writing simple and straightforward which means he used WAYS, and you should too.

Handwriting or Keyboard?

There is always the age-old question of whether it’s better to write by hand or type everything straight on the keyboard.

There is no one-answer-fits-all to this because it all depends on what you’re most comfortable with.

Personally, I prefer to write by hand, and I always do, which means I have to type it all up later.

This may seem like a slow way to work, but for me it’s actually faster.

I’m far more creative when I write by hand so when I sit down with my notebook and pen I can write for hours and the ideas flow.

But when I try to write at the keyboard, the ideas don’t come as easily and my writing doesn’t flow as well. Even having a detailed outline doesn’t help. I end up using any excuse to get up and walk away for a while, but it’s no better when I sit back down again.

So while handwriting is slower than typing, it’s faster for me because it keeps me in the writing flow. I’m also a fast typist when I’m copying something that I’ve already handwritten.

I use the free grammar and spelling apps, Grammarly and Hemmingway to go over my work and check for typos, and ‘passive voice’ amongst other things.

Auto-correct also helps me to keep up with typing errors, although it doesn’t get everything right.

Once, when I bought a new computer, auto-correct kept changing my husband’s name, Dean, to Dead. It took me a few weeks to convince it that my husband wasn’t Dead. Shortly afterwards I was writing an article for someone about Ocean Dead Zones. But when I finished it I realized that auto-correct had changed it all to Ocean Dean Zones. This is why it’s important to check every word of your articles because even when you spell things correctly, it can be sabotaged.

Handwriting works for me because it helps me to stay in the zone and keep writing, and sticking with writing is THE most important thing. It’s so easy to get distracted and forget where you were up to, which is what happens when you’re not loving what you do.

So write your preferred way (handwriting or typing) and keep going. Once you start writing, don’t stop.

Using an outline is essential so that you can stay on topic, and when you finish writing for the day, it’s easy to pick up where you left off because all your outlines are ready and waiting to go.

When you’re writing, if you misspell something, leave it, you’ll pick it up in the edit. And if you can’t think of a word, leave a blank space and keep going. Once you start writing you must keep going.

And don’t worry if you think you’re going wrong, just keep writing.

I find that no matter how many errors I think I’m making, or if I think I’m not saying something the right way, I can easily pick up mistakes later and there’s never any need for much editing because I was always on track thanks to writing fast and staying in the writing zone.

And one last thing to remember is to always keep your reader in mind because as they read your articles, they’ll be asking themselves So what? Who cares? What’s in it for me? So make sure your articles always answer this.

But before you can do any of this, you’ll first have to know what to write about.

This is a short extact from The Monthly Challenge Writing Series:
Book 3 - Fast & Profitable Article Writing

Grab a copy now at:
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS3.html 

The Pure Magic of Having a Writing Place and How I Use It

Relaxing in the living room 

A few months ago I got rid of my writing desk. It was old and small and I figured that I often write in different places, so I probably didn’t need a desk anyway. But was I right?

Well, it’s true that I didn’t always use my desk to write, but it turned out I still needed a space that was mine to use just for writing.

What I discovered is that when I’m in my writing place, my desk, my brain automatically switches into writing mode.

The same brain switch happens if I go out to write, either at the park or the local library, but at home, that automatic brain switch didn’t always happen unless I was already in writing mode.

So if I sat on the couch to write, I felt like watching TV instead. If I sat at the dining table, I wanted to eat or drink coffee and read a book. And sitting at the breakfast bar felt like I should be cooking or looking through recipe books.

I realised that working as a creative person is a fickle thing and sometimes my brain, or more correctly my muse, doesn’t turn up for work until I do, so when I sat at my desk my muse would arrive because it knew where I was.

And I only EVER use my writing place for writing. I never play computer games or surf online or check emails, because if I did, it would interfere with my ability to write, and distract my muse from showing up.

But I didn’t want to have another desk, partly because I’d already filled the window nook where it used to be, with a window seat. I also wanted something that was a piece of furniture for the home rather than something that looked like it belonged in an office.

So in the end I opted for a writing bureau and I found a really good one of FaceBook Market Place. It has some beautiful carvings all over it and when opened, it’s really sturdy to write on.

And when I’m finished writing, I can close it up and walk away so that I know I’m finished for the day. Unless of course, I feel like writing at night, in which case it’s a cosy place to sit and carry on.

So it turns out that not only is it important for me to have a place to write, but not to desecrate it by doing non-writing activities there, so that as soon as I sit down, my mind can switch to writing mode immediately and I can get straight down to work, which makes it even more enjoyable (and easy) to write.

My New Writing Bureau

Overcoming Procrastination: Strategies for Achieving Your Goals

Image courtesy of Stephanie Ghesquier

The following is an extract from my book: 

Stop Procrastinating And Take Back Control of Your Life

Why Do We Procrastinate?

No one really knows why we procrastinate, not even ourselves, yet we all do it all the time.

Strangely enough, it’s not just the unpleasant things that we procrastinate about, but also the things we say we enjoy doing.

How often have you said you’re going to do something like go for a day out, or go to the cinema, or spend time doing something else you enjoy, only to change your mind at the last minute and binge watch TV instead?

And we do the same with important things we need to do.

As a writer, I often find myself reluctant to sit down and write even though writing is something I enjoy doing. Some days I’ll even think a pile of ironing looks more interesting than the writing I have to do.

No matter what it is, we all procrastinate in our own way for reasons we don’t understand, and probably never will.

According to studies that have been done on this subject, there are three reasons why we procrastinate.

1. Fear. We fear criticism, failure, and starting something. It’s easy to understand being afraid of criticism and failure, yet it’s starting that most of us fear.

2. Laziness. Doing something new is hard. It takes us out of our comfort zone. Not doing something is so much easier than doing something.

3. Lack of Interest. We don’t know how to do something until we start, so have no interest in starting something new, nor in learning the process of doing it. We just can’t be bothered to even think about it.

What is Procrastination?

To procrastinate means to put off, delay, or postpone doing something.

It comes from the16th Century Latin word, “procrastinat” which means “deferred till morning.”

This comes from the verb “procrastinare” with ‘pro’ meaning ‘forward’ and ‘crastinus’ meaning ‘belonging to tomorrow (from ‘cras’ tomorrow).

The word “procrastinate” is similar to the word “prevaricate” meaning to speak or act in an evasive way, in much the way politicians do when speaking with journalists.

In Latin, prevaricate means to ‘walk crookedly’ or ‘deviate.’

If someone prevaricates, they often also procrastinate, which gives rise to confusion with the two words.

Overcome Procrastination

What we’re going to be looking at in this book is how you can stop procrastinating and get back control of your life; not just now, but for the rest of your life.

Procrastination excels at one thing; making you feel bad. It’s a power struggle that goes on in your mind and if you let procrastination win, not only will you suffer mentally and emotionally, but it will also ruin your life.

This is why it’s imperative to stop wasting time and start living up to your full potential. This will not only have a positive impact on your physical and mental health, but it will help improve the life of those around you. It’s win-win all the way and in everything you do.

So how do you begin?

You start by not procrastinating. Quit stalling on things you need to do. It sounds simple and it is because all you need to do is take the first step, and all the others will follow on naturally.

You see, procrastination is all in your mind. There’s nothing physically holding you back from anything. It’s just all in your mind. Every time you’re not doing what you should be doing, it’s because you don’t want to start.

Starting something is always the hardest, yet surprisingly simple, part of doing anything. Once you take that first step and start, it’s easier to keep going. Yet every day you have to overcome the resistance to starting.

Starting any project soon leads to feeling motivated to keep going, because once we’ve invested our time in something, even if it’s only a few minutes, we don’t want to stop and waste our investment.

The motivation you feel to keep going once you start leads to enjoying the process, which leads to achievement, money, satisfaction, education, no more stress over inaction, a better life, and accomplishment.

Once you’ve finished what you needed to do, it also leads to looking at others who’ve done it (or do it) too and see how they do it for more and better ideas so that you can improve and do more.

Starting something that you’ve been putting off, guarantees a feeling of achievement, even if you only commit to doing something for 30 minutes a day, it’s still better than doing nothing at all.

A lot of people think that to do something you don’t want to do (or can’t be bothered to do) takes strong willpower or brute force, or a forced routine. But it takes none of that.

What you need is a commitment to change, a new mindset that you’re going to start doing whatever needs to be done. No excuses. You’ll do it no matter what. But you must WANT to change.

You just need to make a small start, even if it’s a huge project, just doing one little thing makes all the difference. 

Next you need to keep going, no matter what else comes up to try and distract you. 

Finally, you must finish what you start.

Start something. Even if you only commit to doing it for 2 minutes, do it. (Put down your phone)

Keep going. Don’t give up after the first blush. Keep starting again every day.

Finish it. See it through to the end. Finish your task. If something comes up, see to it, then get back to your task and finish it. This is mindset and commitment.

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/sp.html

Why Most Writers Are 100% Wrong In The Way They Use Their Time

One thing writers often talk about is time. They think it’s all about working out how many words they can write in an hour, multiplied by how many hours they set aside for writing every day. 

They think that this alone will tell them how much writing they can do, how many articles they can write, and even how many books they can write in a week/month/year.

But they are completely wrong for looking at their time this way.

I’ve been a writer for over 20 years, and I earn all my income from my writing, so I know what I’m talking about.

Don’t get me wrong, knowing how fast you can write is important, but there’s one thing that’s crucial.

If you want to get more writing done in the time that’s available to you, you must protect your time. You must preserve your time. And you must not, under any circumstances, let anyone steal your time.

Let me explain what I mean.

When I first began writing, I had a full-time job and a family to look after, so I had to squeeze my writing in whenever I could, which usually meant writing in the evenings or at weekends.

Eventually, I managed to earn enough money from my writing so that I could change to a part-time job, and when I was earning enough from my writing, I quit my job altogether.

It was a long and laborious process, and the hardest thing was protecting my writing time.

It seemed like every time I wanted to write, the universe had other ideas. One of the kids would get sick or an emergency home repair needed doing, or the dog had to go to the vet, or a friend or family member would need my help with something.

There always seemed to be something to interrupt my writing time. And let me tell you, if you try and say to someone that you’re too busy writing to help them, they do NOT like it.

Friends and family were quite scornful and mocking about my wanting to be a writer. Even now, so many years later, no one ever wants to talk about my writing, and if I mention it, they quickly change the subject. It’s as though it’s taboo to mention my writing.

One day, when I was visiting my father, I saw a magazine on the coffee table. I opened it to one of the feature articles and said, “Look. That’s my article. I wrote that and it was published this week. See?”

My father’s wife leaned forward, closed the magazine, and said, “Right, who wants coffee?”

I was so hurt (and confused). I thought surely when I pointed out one of my published articles in a magazine they might have at least been interested or maybe even smiled. Instead they gave each other a quick sideways glance and pretended I hadn’t said anything.

And it’s this attitude that other people always seem to have and they think that your writing time isn’t important. So they think nothing of taking it from you and using it for their own gain. For a long time, people that I knew thought my writing was a joke, even though I was being published regularly, had set up and was running a writing website, and had thousands of subscribers. Try telling your friends you don’t want to go out drinking with them because you want to go home and write a short story and see what happens. They won’t like it at all.

This is why it’s important to train your friends and family to respect your writing time, and don’t be afraid to tell them that you’re too busy to talk on the phone, or to go for a coffee or to go to lunch. Once you start saying no to them it’s amazing how quickly they stop asking.

And when you’ve trained them to leave you alone, and you get to write more, the most amazing thing happens.

As you write more, it gets easier and faster. It’s just like anything we do repeatedly. It takes far less effort, and becomes quicker.

Having a strict writing schedule helps too because it not only makes sure that you have time to write, but once others know it’s your writing time and that it’s off-limits to them, they’ll leave you alone.

Don’t let others steal your writing time. They’ll never give it back. And it’s far too precious and important to lose.

P.S. Don’t let emails and social media steal your writing time either.

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS1.html

This is better Than a Writing Prompt

Writing prompts are such useful things for getting our creative minds working. They also give us a starting idea of what to write about which is all a writer needs to get going.

But writing prompts are just that. A bump to get you started writing. Nothing more.

So, what if, instead of using random prompts, you look for paying markets and writing competitions and use them as prompts?

You don’t have to submit them, just use them as writing practice. There’s a lot of advantage of doing it this way.

1.    You’ll be practicing writing what the industry is looking for, so you’ll know what kind of writing sells         and what subjects/topics are currently popular.

2.    You’ll get used to writing to deadlines. Having a limited time to write can give you the bit of pressure you need to get your writing done. Writing to tight deadlines can also help improve your writing by not giving you time to second-guess yourself or to try and edit as you write, both of which are fatal to good writing.

3.    You can submit your writing if you want to and earn money. And because you’re only practicing your writing, it doesn’t matter if it gets accepted or not or if it wins a free competition or not. You’re just getting used to being a regular writer.

There really are no disadvantages to using writing markets and competitions as writing prompts.

It’s great practice, gets you writing regularly, and gets you used to deadlines.

Plus, you can submit your work if you want to, and even if it’s not accepted, you can find another market for it later. Or not.

And it can really get your creative mind working, which is what using prompts is all about.

Monthly Challenge Writing Series

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS1.html

Why Successful Writers Make Plans

"If you don't separate yourself from distractions, your distractions will separate you from your goals."

~ Steve Harvey

I love reading about other writers’ goals and how they plan to achieve them. This is something that’s always fascinated me, probably because it reassures me that I’m not alone.

But what is a successful writing plan?

I’ve learned a lot about how other writers’ minds work and it can be inspiring to read about their successes as well as their failures. Mostly I love their tenacity to keep going no matter what.

Working as a writer is extremely isolating because I have to work completely alone and cannot stand the smallest disturbance when I’m “in the flow,” deeply absorbed in my writing.

Thankfully, the Internet, books, and podcasts, gives me access to other writers, and seeing them go through the same struggle I do gives me hope.

When I first began writing professionally, I went openly online talking about what I was doing. The reaction from some people (through blog comments and emails) was hostile to say the least, and I used to get upset about it.

But eventually I discovered that I wasn’t the only writer getting criticism. In fact I was far from it. I found out that even the most prolific and successful writers received hate mail. Most writers put it down to jealousy and moved on, so I did too. I still get a few haters now and again, but thankfully it’s easy to report them and block them.

It turned out that even hugely successful authors like Stephen King get people telling him how he could have written his books better, even though they’ve never written anything and his books are not only best sellers, but many have been made into high-grossing movies. He wrote about this in his book ‘On Writing.’ 

But trolls like these are the type of thing that can be distracting, especially if you’re just starting your career, like I was at the time. Back then, even other writers would tell me that I’d never make it as a published author because I self-published my books when no one else (or not many) was doing it.

Then the self-publishing industry boomed and I was already way ahead of the rest, who’ve since failed and seem to have fallen out of the writing universe, yet here I am - still!

And it’s probably due tot he fact that, like all the successful writers I’ve read about, I’ve always had a plan of what I wanted to achieve and how I was going to do it.

My original plan was to set up several websites and us them to earn money through advertising and affiliate marketing. At the same time, I was also doing freelance writing and submitting article ideas to magazines and other websites all the time. And it worked well.

My next plan was to write a novel, which I did . I self-published it (which took a lot of research back then to figure out how to do it), and when I started making sales, I wrote a book about how I did it so that others could do it too, and that’s when I got trolled by the haters. Yet at the same time, my books sales took off (and I swear the trolls helped me with marketing by talking about me all over the Internet), and my websites were all earning me a good passive income.

Since then my plans have changed a few more times because the online and publishing world have changed so much. I’ve always been constantly learning the whole time so that I can keep up with everything. Even now I’m trying to keep up with AI and how it’s making even more changes to the way I work.

My plan now is to write and publish as many books as I can, as well as still doing freelance writing.

But no matter what, having a plan is important because without one, how can you achieve anything?

How I Schedule My Daily Writing

One of the hardest things for many writers (or wanna-be writers) is having a consistent writing schedule. I used to be the same. I kept saying I wanted to write every day but instead I got busy doing other things, telling myself that as soon as I had time I’d get my writing done.

And I didn’t understand my own reluctance to writing. I like to write so why wasn’t I writing every day? Why did I put it off all the time? 

The reason was that writing wasn’t part of my daily schedule, so it often didn’t get done. Yet all I could think about was the writing that I wasn’t doing, and that made me miserable and frustrated. So what I did was make writing a part of my daily schedule.

When I first began to write professionally, I had a job and a family so I fit my writing in around those things. But I still did my writing because I wanted to work as a writer, so I was doing freelance writing, and plenty of it.

I always told myself, and I thought it was 100% true, that I’d eventually stop working and write full-time instead. And I did. But it turned out to be so different than what I’d imagined.

In my day dreams about working as a writer, I was sat at my desk every day producing thousands of words and amassing a whole collection of published books. But in reality, I found it harder and harder to sit down and write every day, thinking that I needed to do other things first. My procrastinating got so bad that at one point I decided to give up writing and go back to work because I felt like I was just wasting my time every day. I was actually doing plenty of things, but none of it was writing.

But when I started to go through my files, deciding what to get rid of, I realised that I didn’t want to stop being a writer. I wanted to start being a writer. But I still had no idea why I was so reluctant to write when it was the thing I wanted to do. I even asked myself if I did actually want to write or did I just want to ‘be a writer.’

So I began writing again, but I also began reading books by other writers about their writing processes. And it turned out I wasn’t the only one battling the ‘wanting to write but never doing it’ problem. But no matter how much I studied the problem, I couldn’t find a solution. People just said they decided to take their writing seriously, or would sit in their writing chair no matter how unmotivated they felt.

I even tried forcing myself to sit down and write a certain number of words a day because that was the advice from several writers. But that didn’t work for me because I mostly write by hand so it was distracting to have to stop and count words all the time. Eventually, I settled for writing for a certain amount of time every day. But that became a problem too.

I’d tell myself that I’d write from 9am to 12am every day. But other things would happen and I wouldn’t be at my desk at 9am so I’d blow my schedule. I even tried writing at different times of the day thinking that maybe I wasn’t a morning writer but an afternoon or evening writer. But that didn’t work either because no matter what hours I scheduled for writing, things kept getting in the way. I also tried going somewhere else to write every day so I’d walk to the library or sit in the park, but the weather would often stop me by being too hot or too wet or too windy.

Then I read an article by an author about her writing schedule. She is a prolific and award-winning novelist and she says that she writes for 2 hours a day. She doesn’t set the hours she writes except whether she writes in the morning or afternoon/evening. Some days she writes for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon as well. But she has her 2-hour daily schedule and sticks to it. She also said that if something else comes up in the morning and she doesn’t get her 2 hours done, she does her 2 hours later. And she also said she’s surprised when people call her prolific, but her simple writing routing does allow her to write more than most others.

I thought that was brilliant. A writing schedule with a set number of hours, but no exact time to do it. So I did the same. I wrote up a loose schedule of 2 hours every morning, minimum. Two days a week, my schedule is to write 2 hours in the afternoon as well. And it doesn’t matter what I’m writing just as long as I’m writing. And it works out well because some of that time may be taken up with online work, or correspondence, or any number of other writing-related tasks. But I don’t have to worry about getting them done because I know I’ll get to them during my writing schedule.

And this frees me up to get on with other things when I’m not writing. And when I am writing, if I’m deeply into what I’m working on, I carry on as long as I need to.

So after all my years of trying to figure out the best time for me to write, it turned out that my schedule was just too strict. So every morning I know I have to write for 2 hours, so I need to be sitting down by 10am at the latest. And if my schedule also involves the afternoon, then I know I have to be sitting down by 3pm. I usually sit down well before these times, I mean, why wouldn’t I?

And this schedule gives me plenty of time to do other things, like chores. I cannot sit down and write if the dishes aren’t done or there are other outstanding things that need doing. But my schedule gives me time to do them which frees up my mind to write without the distraction of things that have been left undone.

I also have several writing projects on the go all the time, so if I get stuck on one, I move on to another. I find that taking a break from a piece of writing can free up my creative brain so that by the time I get back to it, I’ve got fresh ideas.

Also, having an established daily writing habit, means that it’s something I want to do every day. They say that we don’t miss something unless we’re used to having it, such as, if you ate a piece of chocolate cake every day, you’d miss it if you gave it up. Or if you go for a run every day, you miss it on days when you can’t do it.

Which is probably why I like to write short stories at night. I don’t know why, but after my shower, which I usually take after dinner, I like to sit down and write short fiction or read for a while (maybe an hour). Again, it probably comes down to routine. It’s something I started doing a long time ago and I still do it. It’s so routine that as soon as I’ve had my evening shower, I look forward to either picking up the book I’m reading, or I get out my folder where I keep my short stories and carry on with the one I’m currently working on. It’s like my own private little quiet time that I always look forward to at the end of the day. Yet at the same time I used to struggle with writing during the day.

I used to think that I couldn’t sit down and write if I didn’t feel inspired. But that’s just BS. Stephen King put it best when he said, “Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be every day from nine 'til noon, or seven 'til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he'll start showing up.”  
~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

And he’s right. Just sitting down, getting out all my stuff ready for writing, and looking at what I’m currently  working on, gets me straight back into my writing. Which is why his other quote is true when he said: 

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” 

It’s all about starting. Starting isn’t hard. It’s making yourself start that can seem hard. I know that I have to sit down and write for a minimum 2 hours a day, so I’ve stopped giving myself excuses like, “I just don’t feel like writing,” or “I don’t have any idea what to write,” or “I haven’t been shopping today and there’s loads of stuff I need to get.” I know that all I have to do is sit down and I’ll soon be writing. Sometimes, if I find I can’t sleep and I wake up in the early hours of the morning, I go and get myself a cup of herbal tea, sit down at the dining table, and start writing. This helps to focus my mind and after an hour or two, I’m either tired enough to go back to bed, or I’m enjoying what I’m doing and I keep writing till breakfast time. Either way it’s a win-win. And I still sit down and do my 2 hours later because a schedule is a schedule so I need to stick to it.

So if you’re struggling to sit down and write, just decide how long you’re going to write every day, put it in your schedule, and stick to it. And before you know it, writing daily is a habit and you won’t want to stop or you’ll miss it.

How To Get Your Bum In Your Writing Chair More Often

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 Letting Yourself Down

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

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.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/sp.html

The Ugly Truth About Wasting Time

 

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.

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

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS1.html

Stop Dreaming and Start Writing