5 Strategies To Get Back on Track With Your Writing
Here’s a question I get more than any other …
“I need to get back on track with my writing. What do you recommend for someone who just can’t seem to find the time?”
No matter how long you’ve been trying to find the time to write, there’s really only one answer:
You don’t find the time to write — you make the time.
I get it because I’ve been there before. As a copywriter, I get paid to write website copy, sales pages, sales emails, nurture sequences, and more for clients.
And I love writing for my amazing clients. For years though, I had a habit of emptying out all my creativity for them and leaving nothing for my own work — blogs, books, or all those things I wanted (and even needed to write) but was letting it slide to the bottom of my list.
There’s nothing in here that’s earth-moving. It’s all very simple, sit down to the page and do your writing.
And yet, committing to finding the time to write requires work. It also calls for some hard looks at where you might be prioritizing your time and focus elsewhere, which could be sabotaging your success.
It means pressing pause on consuming — courses, articles, podcasts — to make space for creating — no more information! Leaving social media will make this easier for me.
Last year, I started taking new actions to put my writing first and stuck to them:
Blocking time on my calendar throughout the week with specific writing items (i.e., draft blog on getting writing on track, finalize one book chapter, update sales page for LinkedIn bio writing)
Starting with blocking 1 hour a week for my writing. Sometimes this would be in 2 chunks of 30 minutes. Then, I worked my way up to 3-4 hours a week.
Staying accountable by writing it down and writing with my community.
Adding specific writing items to my to-do list.
Sending reports of my word count updates to my coach.
Life happens. Sometimes I have to miss a writing session. And each week, all I can do is plan to write, carve out the time, sit down, and allow the words to come out.
When I wasn't writing, what was really happening in my brain was my running a strategy of not writing.
To change that, I had to prove to my unconscious mind that I, in fact, do my writing work. That proof came in the form of putting time on the calendar and honoring it as my #1 priority (even if it's 30 minutes a day).
One Writing Community member has a baby who hasn’t celebrated her first birthday yet — and she just finished the draft of her first novel. How’d she do it? She put a chair in her bedroom and wrote at 6 am when she wakes up (before her baby) — every day, before the day could get away.
No excuses. Set yourself up for writing success and repeat.
By putting my writing first, I’m giving my brain some essential messages:
I’m important
My work matters to me
It’s safe to be seen
I show up and serve better when I put myself and my values first
The world needs my words
And by proving these messages to my unconscious mind, getting and staying on track become easier.
Having led hundreds of business owners in thousands of hours of co-writing sessions (it’s like co-working with a writing focus), I know that having community and accountability are the best ways to get your writing done.
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