I love writing. I hate having to write.
Each day is a struggle to meet my commitments, whether to write books, articles, or social media posts. Steven Pressfield, the author of the bestselling book The War of Art, calls it Resistance. Resistance is a mythical force that acts against human creativity. It has one sole mission: to keep things as they are.
Whether you’re a writer or an artist creating art from your imagination, you have to fight a daily battle with Resistance.
“On the field of the Self, stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight, resistance is the dragon. The battle must be fought every day.” — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Creative work enriches our lives, but it comes at a price. Creating can throw up all sorts of insecurities and anxieties, leading to blocks and procrastination, hindering our creative flow.
When I was working full-time, I used to write late at night. If you have a day job, you know what I mean. Trying to come up with an article after a 10-hour working day is enough to rob you of your sanity.
Things didn’t get better when I became a full-time writer. Instead, they got worse. Now I had all this time, but my productivity took a dip. I witnessed Parkinson’s Law in action — “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
I was wasting too much time on research.
I was trying new ways and rejecting them when they didn’t work.
I had no structure to my day.
I didn’t have a system.
It took me two years of trying and cementing habits before I could become a productive writer.
Figure out what is holding you back
You will not perform at your best if you don’t know what is holding you back. Write down all the things stopping you from becoming the writer you want to become. Be honest with yourself. Mine were:
- I don’t have time to write. And when I do have time I am not productive.
- I am not good enough.
- English is my second language; I will never be able to write like a native English speaker.
- I don’t have the skills to write a balanced article.
- My grammar is not good, and my vocabulary is limited.
- I spend too much time reading other people’s articles and feel discouraged that I can’t write like them.
- I spend too much time in front of the computer and still have nothing to publish at the end of the day.
Once I knew what was holding me back I could work on it by changing my mindset.
Start by changing your mindset.
We need to fit writing around the rest of our lives rather than our lives around our writing. When I understood that, my perspective changed.
Rather than resenting that I didn’t have enough time, I started limiting my writing time and aimed to finish writing projects in the allocated time.
I also realized that I can’t be productive by using short-term hacks but I needed long-term systems that are sustainable. So I started looking for methods that fit with my way of working.
I like to work on a single project in a day. I call it my Daily Focus Tasks. These tasks could be writing an article, working on the novel, creating a course, or creating illustrations for a picture book. I have made these Daily Focus Tasks my number 1 priority. I make sure I accomplish them every day. If I do nothing else but just the Daily Focus task, in a year, I would have 365 tasks done. That will be quite something.
Develop rituals.
Rituals are the automatic but decisive pattern of behaviors. Many artists and creatives establish them to get them to the right frame of mind before working on their creative project.
Many athletes have rituals that they follow before they enter the arena. It could be as simple as saying the affirmations while running towards the field.
Steven Pressfield has a ritual to invoke the muse asking the divine to help inspire his work before writing each day.
Establishing rituals at beginning of our creative efforts is a great way to avoid the possibility of turning back or giving up. By making the start of creating an automatic routine you replace doubt and fear with comfort and routine.
I have started a small ritual before embarking on my writing session. I rewrite my manifesto by hand on a notebook or a piece of paper (whatever is handy). It reminds me of why I am writing and my commitment to writing. It puts me in the right frame of mind.
My manifesto is:
- I shall write every day.
- I shall not compare myself with other writers.
- I shall improve with very new book and article.
- I shall have fun with my writing.
Get in the habit of writing daily.
In the second half of the last year, I stopped writing a daily article on Medium to concentrate on writing books. I immediately noticed the difference. Even though I was writing towards my books I was not writing every day. Somedays I just researched other days I edited. I realized that I was not fluent anymore.
Everyday writing is more important than you think. When Stephen King had an accident and couldn’t write for several weeks, he found the words were not connecting right when he finally started writing again. His writing muscles had atrophied. He needed to exercise again to continue writing the bestselling thrillers he’d been writing for thirty years.
Productive writers can produce an insane amount of work because they commit to writing every day. Start developing your writing muscles, after a while, you will establish writing as a habit ingrained into your DNA.
Keep track of your time and find out where your time goes.
According to the 2019 American Time Use Survey an average employed person spends:
- 3.6 hours a day working
- 9.6 hours on personal care and sleeping
- 1.8 hours on household chores
- 1.2 hours on eating and drinking
- 0.5 hours on caring for others
- 0.8 hours on purchasing goods and services
- 5.1 hours on leisure activities and
- 1.4 hours on other activities.
Every day we get twenty-four hours to live our lives in a meaningful way. But once you account for all the obligations each of us has, there really isn’t much time left; a paltry two and a half hours for most of us, to be exact.
Your time outside your day job is precious. Know where it goes and decide how you spend it.
A helpful tip is to break your day down into 100 points. Where are your points being invested? Some of these points are spent sleeping (33), some are spent working (33). Figure out how much of the remaining points you can spend creating.
Bring work concepts into your creative life.
Your day job can teach you some valuable lessons about turning up and getting the job done. In your day jobs, you are given set tasks and targets to achieve, you perform those tasks dutifully and in the majority of cases get the work done.
How often do you do that with your writing?
Turn up to your writing like you turn up at your job. Treat it like a second job and put in an honest day’s work. Start your day early and do your creative work first thing in the morning
Starting your day an hour or two earlier is a fantastic way to get your writing done before your day starts. It feels really good when you start your day with a blast of creativity. You will also take advantage of the creative benefits of dream state first thing in the morning.
That is why so many writers start in the wee hours of morning much before their family wakes up.
Start 30 minutes adventures.
Everyone has at least 30 minutes for lunch; most have an hour. This is a perfect opportunity to outline an article, research your next novel, or anything else which would support your creative work.
Use the deadtime well.
Most people spend at least 20 minutes commuting to work. A good use of this time is listening to audiobooks. If you take public transport, pen and paper are great to catch those amazing ideas which come and go daily.
I listen to podcasts while walking and course video while cooking. When I am watching TV, I usually have my sketchbook handy. Whenever there is an advertisement, or a show that is boring, I reach out for my notebook and start sketching.
Have TV and Social Media Off Days.
We use TV to unwind and Social Media to stay in contact with family and friends. How about eliminating those two twice a week.
We sometimes invest so much time on some very average programs under the guise of unwinding. Try turning off the TV for a week and invest that time writing. It’s incredible how much you can get done. If you use this time to write two pages of a book every day, you will complete the first draft within six months.
Designate one day a week as Creative Day.
You do not have two opposing lives in conflict; you have one life and the challenge to develop a healthy work/art balance.
Marisa Anne Cummings, an LA artist declared Thursday as her creative day and started a website called CreativeThurdsay to publish her progress and her artwork there’s. What started out as an intention to be more creative 1 day a week, in 2006, became a big business in a few years.
Try and focus on the positive aspects of your day job and use your creative nature to make your day more interesting and productive. Like most things in life, you get out what you put in.
If you want your day job to be more meaningful, put more energy into doing it well, engage in the challenges that arise, and improve your own situation through the creative gifts you possess.
Try to avoid those negative thoughts which do not serve your situation. They will only develop into negative energy and resentment towards your day job.
If all else fails find a new job! Maybe you could find something more in line with your art or support your creative direction by providing flexibility around hours.
Find meaning In your art and purpose in your day.
A day job may not provide meaning, but it does provide the means. Viewed as part of the creative process, your day job can allow you to engage with people and find inspiration through life experience.
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” The same could be said for working a day job, your art is your why and your day is the how.
We generally feel better about ourselves when we positively contribute to something beyond ourselves. To feel genuinely motivated towards your day jobs, believe what you’re doing matters in some sense. The purpose is a source of fuel not just for higher performance but also for thinking more creatively about overcoming obstacles and generating new solutions during your days.
Takeaways
Writing is hard because we put so many expectations on ourselves and those expectations block us. Use some (or all) of the tips listed below and lift some of the weight off your creativity.
- Figure out what is holding you back.
2. Start by changing your mindset.
3. Develop rituals.
4. Get in the habit of writing daily.
5. Keep track of your time and find out where it goes.
6. Bring work concepts into your creative life.
7. Start 30 minutes adventures.
8. Use the deadtime well.
9. Have TV and Social Media Off Days
10. Designate one day a week as Creative Day
11. Find meaning In your art and purpose in your day.
Try having fun with your writing and you will find passion that got you into writing in the first place.
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