My friend Matthew has been trying to write a blog post a day and has been having trouble with it. I think that every writer has this at some point. They day to day of life (kids, laundry, clients/job) just gets in the way of what we want to do.
If you’re thinking that this doesn’t happen to you, good job but I think you’re lying.
While Matthew has a plan of scheduling out the posts he wants to write then sticking to it, I tackled the issue a different way.
Setting my first hour aside
My solution is to be intentional about the first hour of my day. Currently I sit down and write 1000 words on a new book about the business of freelancing. Then if I have extra time I pull up MarsEdit or Byword and start working on a blog post idea.
Most of the time that first hour of my day is spent in email or just jumping around in Twitter and App.net which is to say doing nothing really useful. Instead of that time being wasted I’m intentional about it and set my own priorities before my inbox can do that for me.
Setting aside that hour to do work I’m really loving gets my day going the right way. I end up being way more productive on client work for the rest of the day because I have the right spring in my step already.
photo credit: bogenfreund via photopin cc
5 responses to “Putting aside time to write”
Agreed.
Making this (crucial) hour the first hour you’ll spend (preferably early on in the morning, when your mind is fresh and not inundated with the issues of the day) will definitely be conducive to productivity (in this case, writing), as opposed to the last one, in which you are already worn down.
i spend much of my morning just writing. it’s the best part of my day.
If I’m not careful I can kill a whole day writing. The bad part about that is that I’m not paid to write at this time so a day writing means no paid client work.
Putting aside time to write is crucial – and then it becomes a habit. But it’s so hard to adopt new habits! I feel this way about working out – and my job is writing from home. I’m hoping someone will provide a comment to inspire me! 😉
I just got a personal cycling coach to help keep me focused on my athletic goals. I’ve been very happy with the results.
Maybe hire a personal trainer? If you need a recommendation I’m married to one.