Last week, my good friend and writing buddy Melanie Ting, in her endless efforts to support my current writing crisis, has suggested that I check out Mr. Chris Bailey, an expert in productivity. Mel is already an incredibly productive person, so if she recommends something, I sure as hell listen.
I checked out his website and was immediately drawn to his post about "10 productivity lessons I learned writing an 80,000-word book in 6 months". Seriously, doesn't that sound like the most perfect title for an article for a writer pressed for time to write?
There are a lot of great lessons from Mr. Bailey's article that I'm going to implement during this month of creative productivity (as Breakout Play begs to be written), so I recommend checking it—and the rest of his website—out for all of his imparted wisdom.
One lesson that particularly struck me was to take time to reflect on your multiple, smaller accomplishments within the larger and singular accomplishment of writing a book. Makes total sense! By acknowledging all the little things that have been done to lead up to the accomplishment of one big task, you get to focus on some positivity.
Instead of saying, "Damn, another week went by and I didn't finish that book," I get to say, "Look at the things I did to put myself closer to my goal of finishing my book."
And what's more validating than creating a list of accomplishments and posting it on the Internet where, hopefully, it won't get trolled. (Seriously, I doubt I thought this through!)
Without further ado, I present my:
List of Things I Accomplished This Week
I checked out his website and was immediately drawn to his post about "10 productivity lessons I learned writing an 80,000-word book in 6 months". Seriously, doesn't that sound like the most perfect title for an article for a writer pressed for time to write?
There are a lot of great lessons from Mr. Bailey's article that I'm going to implement during this month of creative productivity (as Breakout Play begs to be written), so I recommend checking it—and the rest of his website—out for all of his imparted wisdom.
One lesson that particularly struck me was to take time to reflect on your multiple, smaller accomplishments within the larger and singular accomplishment of writing a book. Makes total sense! By acknowledging all the little things that have been done to lead up to the accomplishment of one big task, you get to focus on some positivity.
Instead of saying, "Damn, another week went by and I didn't finish that book," I get to say, "Look at the things I did to put myself closer to my goal of finishing my book."
And what's more validating than creating a list of accomplishments and posting it on the Internet where, hopefully, it won't get trolled. (Seriously, I doubt I thought this through!)
Without further ado, I present my:
List of Things I Accomplished This Week
- Added scenes to my storyboard.
- Won a free eBook cover from my amazing designer. Okay, so that's not really something I can accomplish, but that's still awesome and definitely helpful in the grand scheme of things.
- Found a Google Docs add-on word counter (aptly named Better Word Count) to help me track writing goals and totals
- Wrote every day, even if it was just a few words here and there.
- Acquired an Accountabilibuddy: Pusheen. Pusheen watches over me at my desk to make sure I'm writing and not checking on my virtual cats in Neko Atsume.
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| Pusheen! |
Okay, so, that's an odd list. But it's something!
I'm off to go add to my word count for the day, and maybe I'll add that to my Accomplishment List for next week.
I am currently listening to a productivity book as I drive. I mean, not currently as in at this moment because I would be driving and texting, but during my commute. Unfortunately all the productivity books I'm reading are beginning to contradict each other.
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