Month: June 2023

Is your writing boring?

Neera

Is your writing boring?

It is not making the impact it should make?

Do you have trouble converting readers into customers?

You need to learn to copywrite.

I used to dread copywriting.

I thought it was too hard.

I thought copywriting was not really writing but selling.

I thought, if I kept writing the way I did, I will be true to myself and will start making an impact one day.

But my writing wasn’t getting anywhere.

Until I learned the art of copywriting.

I found it wasn’t hard.

It boiled down to 21 Rules.

Download my FREE mini-guide now and improve your writing dramatically.

How to conquer the email monster

Neera

Has your Inbox turned into a monster sucking the time out of your day?

Mine did. Until I slayed it, once and for all.

Like everybody else, I get lots of emails every day.

A vast majority of them I didn’t even read. But they kept clogging up my inbox. The ones I wanted to read got buried deeper and deeper.

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters but when I receive them I didn’t get time to read them.

Sometimes I would open it, read a bit, find it useful, and then close it to read it later when I have more time. That later never came.

Then last year I implemented a five-step strategy to bring my inbox to zero and keep it that way.

This is what I did.

1. I created a folder called Inbox 2 and moved all the existing emails there. The whole 9000 of them. I left them there. If I needed them they are there.

2. As new emails started arriving in the empty Inbox, I started unsubscribing the ones I wasn’t reading anymore.

3. I subscribed to a read-it-later app and forwarded the ones I wanted to read.

4. Emails that demanded action from me went to my task manager.

5. If there was something that required a calendar event, it went to my calendar.

Now I spend 7 – 10 minutes a day on my inbox.

I take action on the tasks in the time allocated for them, usually once or twice a week.

I read the ones I want to read during my reading time, usually at night or when I am waiting in queues or reception rooms.

Now emails don’t sit heavy on my head and I have free mental space to write.

What is your email management strategy?

What do distractions actually mean?

Neera

Do you wish you could finish what you started in a reasonable time span without getting distracted?

I do.

But more often than not, it takes me much longer than I like to finish a task and the cause is – distractions.

So, I decided to tackle “distractions,” today, once and for all.

First of all, what are distractions?

Distractions are things or factors that divert your attention away from the task at hand, making it difficult to stay focused and productive.

They can interrupt your workflow and hinder your ability to concentrate on your writing.

According to Nir Eyal, there are two kinds of distractions:

External Distractions: Things in our outside environment.

The pings, dings, and rings can derail a well-planned day.

Internal Distractions: These are internal emotional triggers that slip you off the track.

When you feel bored, lonely, stressed, or anxious, and start checking your phone or surfing the internet, you succumbed to an internal trigger.

External distractions are less of a problem.

It is the internal triggers that get me every time.

Usually, they occur when I am tired.

Scientists have found our brain can focus for short spans only.

We can pay close attention to something for about five to ten minutes before our brains start to lose focus and switch off like a light bulb.

I have found I can write for fifteen minutes at a time. After that, I need a pause.

That is why I turn on a timer when writing.

Fifteen minutes and then my brain knows it will get a break.

There are a few other things I do to manage distractions:

  • I always keep my phone upside down. This way I am not tempted to check it.
  • I use pen and paper for the first draft. I am much less likely to be distracted.
  • I try to make the activity fun and play. Play doesn’t have to be pleasurable, it just has to hold our attention. Deliberateness and novelty can be added to any task to make it fun.

What do you do to manage your distractions?

Build Systems

Neera

Want to write consistently?

Build a system.

I am not talking about one of those tools that does that automatically. I tried a few of them and I hate them.

They create a distance between you and the platform you are writing on.

I prefer going to the platform and typing on the browser. That way, I get to see what others are writing about. I get to have conversations on different topics. And I get ideas for future posts.

But your creative energy is not the same each day. Some days, you have lots of ideas to talk about. Other days, you can’t think of one.

That’s when the system comes into play.

After months of struggling with my consistency, I have finally developed a system that is helping me show up every day.

I have built a small PKMS (Personal Knowledge Management System) in the Journal App on my Mac.

This App is available on all my devices: iPhone, iPad, and MacAir.

Whenever I read something, or an idea pops into my head, I write it down as an entry for a future date.

Sometimes it is a few paragraphs on a topic, other times it is just a phrase or a clue.

This way I always have something to write about.

I don’t have to use it. If I have something else I want to talk about, I will use that and move that entry to another future date.

I had “system to be consistent” written for yesterday. But yesterday I decided to write about something else.

So I moved the clue, “system to be consistent” to today. When I opened my Journal App, I didn’t have to think about what to write.

I started writing about my system to write consistently.

What is your system to write consistently?

How To Beat Procrastination

Neera

Do you have difficulty finishing tasks?

Do you postpone tasks you should work on?

Do you have several unfinished projects sitting heavy on your conscious?

Do you think you are a procrastinator?

If you are, I have good news for you.

We all procrastinate.

This is the way nature has built us. We stay in a relaxed state, the way all other animals do, only trying when we need to feed or protect ourselves. All the pressures we put on ourselves (goals, commitments, deadlines) are self-generated. So relax and be in your natural state. You will find you get more done this way.

Procrastination is an inbuilt mechanism of your mind to tell you something.

Your mind is telling you it’s not coming to the party because of one of the following reasons:

The task is too difficult and you are not ready to tackle it yet.

I have been procrastinating over recording a course I outlined months ago. The reason for my procrastination is, I don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera. I know I will have to get over this inhibition one day, but I am not ready to tackle it yet.

Task is boring and you don’t feel motivated to do it.

Imagine if the task was lots of fun. Would you procrastinate?

This weekend my husband and I are driving for four hours to attend a birthday party, then driving straight back. That is 8 hours of driving in a day for a birthday dinner. We won’t reach home way past midnight.

But we are not procrastinating over that.

The task in unimportant and you want to delay it.

Sometimes our mind doesn’t want to do a task it considers unimportant.

Ask yourself:
Do you really have to do it?
Can you eliminate it?
Can you delegate it?
Can you outsource it?

Last month, I struck off a lot of tasks from my To-Do list. I don’t want to do them anymore.

What can you strike off from your list?

You’re afraid that you’ll do a poor job.

Fear is the main reason most people procrastinate. They would keep putting off a task rather than tackle their fear and find a way to do the task. The way to handle your fear is to break the task into smaller chunks and address them one by one. If you lack the skills to do the task, start by building the skill set.

Procrastination doesn’t mean you are lazy or there is something wrong with you.

It means either you are not ready to do the task, or it’s not important (or boring) or you are afraid that you will do a poor job.

Procrastination is largely an emotional issue.

You got to address it.

The consequences of not doing so are heavy.

Because:
• It causes mental suffering.
• It leads to guilt and shame.
• It makes you constantly blame yourself.
• And most of all, you don’t reach your full potential.

Today I am going to give you strategies to eliminate procrastination from your dictionary forever.

Three ways you can beat procrastination:

1. Use 5-second Rule

Mel Robbins, in her book “5 Second Rule,” argues there is only one rule for productivity, success, or getting everything you ever wanted – you have to do something whether you feel like it.

You have 5 seconds from the moment you have an idea to the moment you take action. If you cannot act within these five seconds, your mind will talk you out of it. The nature of the mind is to prevent us from doing anything scary or tiring.

For example, you have five seconds to introduce yourself to someone you want to talk to, send an important email, or ask a question. Make a list of things you procrastinate over. Now select a couple of things and apply the 5-Second Rule. Commit to using the rule at least once a day.

2. Rewrite Your Story

Look at your excuses. They are just the story you have created to avoid the task you don’t want to do. For example, we often say to ourselves that we don’t have time to do the task.

Create a more empowering story to neutralize your excuses. “I’ll find and make time for whatever I’m committed to.” “I have control over my mind and I have more energy than I imagine. When I schedule a task, I complete it.”

Create affirmations or mantras around your new story. Repeat them to yourself every morning and throughout the day until they become part of your identity.

Reprogram your mind to build a habit of working on the tasks you schedule, whether or not you feel like it.

3. Break the task into smaller chunks

Perhaps the task is too big or too difficult? Your mind wants to avoid pain as long as possible. If that is the case, restructure the task into smaller bits and then focus on just one bit at a time, ticking it off the list as you complete it.

Accomplishing even little bits that take you closer to finishing the task will motivate you. When you are excited about a goal, you don’t run away from it.

My # 1 Productivity Problem

Neera

Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to build a hut.

He had seen many huts in his village, small huts, big huts, beautiful huts. He wanted his hut to be the most beautiful one in the whole village.

But he had never built a hut before.

He didn’t let that little detail stop him from building one. After all, he had seen many huts being built. He was sure he knew enough to build one by himself. If others can build it, so can he.

So he got on to work. He diligently cut the grass and dried it, erected the bamboo poles, and tied the dried grass to it. And then put on a thatch roof. But he didn’t know how to tie the thatch properly.

The very first time the storm came, it blew the roof away.

The man was devastated, but he didn’t give up. He put on another roof.

But sadly, the same thing happened again.

He tried one more time, this time tying the thatch harder than before.

But it, too, didn’t last until the next storm. By this time, the grass walls had started deteriorating too.

Disheartened, he went to the village elders and asked them what was he doing wrong.

Elders told him that half the knowledge is worse than ignorance.

One elder, who had built many huts before, sat with the man and made a plan for the hut on the dirt ground.

He then went through all the steps the man needed to take to build the hut that can stand the storm.

The elder also taught the man how to make different kinds of knots.

When the man started building the hut from scratch, the elder checked his work at each step and corrected it if needed.

Within days, and with much less effort, the man erected the hut.

And it was the most beautiful hut in the village.

Why?

Because it was built with the heart and the brain.

The man’s heart and the elder’s knowledge.

Both are essential for any project to be successful.

My # 1 problem too was lack of a plan.

I was pouring my heart into my writing, but didn’t have a plan for where I wanted to take it.

Once I figured that out, I could address all other obstacles.

Do you have a plan for your writing?

Have you figured out where you want to take it?