Sometimes we want to accomplish a goal. Either starting a small business, produce an artistic product, get something done but we are literally the only one who cares if it happens.
What can you do to keep yourself focused and moving forward with it? Well I have had to learn the hard way (again) so please, let me share.
Whenever I'm doing something like this - for me it's usually write a book. The first book was fine, I wrote that in three months, it came very easily. However the next two books, I stalled and I stalled and I stalled.
Did I know when the deadline was? Yup, I signed the contracts!
Did I see the deadline coming at me like a freight train? Sure did!
Did I do anything to mitigate the inevitable crash? Uhhhh asked for an extension?
In the end I had to buckle down and just DO it, so the two years I'd been given to write a book I condensed all that work in to six months. That included most of the research and interviews.
So how did I do it? Easy. I treated the book writing like a second job, one that I had to show up for, or I would get fired. That was the only secret.
I mapped out the work I had left and what I would need to do - work wise - to accomplish the end of the book.
Every day after my REAL job, I literally switched computers and got to work. Some days I had myself scheduled to do a complete chapter of the book. Other days I needed to get the research done on a building or story. For other occasions I had people that I had to interview. This became an automatic part of my day.
I never waited for inspiration to strike to actually begin writing. News flash, 90% of the time, it WON'T strike. A very good author friend of mine once said something very wise to me - "What's the difference between an author and a non-author? The Author wrote it down." That's it! It's literally about PUTTING IN THE WORK. Even when it's hard, even when you don't' feel like it.
I stuck to that punishing schedule, and if I felt like I could, I worked longer than I had scheduled. I had the luxury to do that, and so I did. As a result I finished the book two weeks before deadline.
If you need to - and I certainly did - have a friend who will hold you accountable to following through. I was lucky enough to have a friend who was completing her thesis so she became my writing buddy! We kept each other on track and sometimes meet up to write together. We'd have little mini-social breaks, but we'd write solidly for at least a couple of hours and then sometimes grab dinner or lunch depending on when we started. This was something I appreciated AND looked forward to.
It feels lonely in the moment, or perhaps you have FOMO around not doing your usual activities, but I promise, the end result is so worth it!
And that's it! That's how I had to beat my own procrastination demons and got the job done.
You can check out the books right here for proof! :)
Now I'm starting to write another book, I will do better this time, I'm sure of it. I mean I have 18 months until the manuscript is due, I have TONS of time, right? ;)
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