OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Some of the most common emails I receive every day include: How do I find the time to write? And how do you get everything done?
I published 4 new books in 2014 in ebook and print, plus I had another one completed and on pre-order, so technically 5 books in total. Plus, I published books in German, Spanish and Italian, as well as several in audio format, resulting in a total of 19 new products for sale in 2014.
Plus, a lot of blog posts and podcasts which I hope you found useful 🙂 So today, here are some of my tips on productivity for writers and a resource I think at least some of you will find useful.
(1) Schedule your time
We all have 24 hours in the day, and we all have to balance the real life stuff with the writing. Before I was a full-time author-entrepreneur, I would get up at 5am and write, then go to work. After the day job, I would come home and get on with building my online business. We got rid of the TV so I would have more time to create, and I spent every weekend working. I was so focused on leaving my job that I cut out everything that got in the way. I was driven to schedule my time incredibly well in order to fit everything in.
Now, as a full-time author-entrepreneur, I still have to schedule everything. You might have noticed that I blog, podcast and speak professionally, as well as writing books. It's just as hard to get everything done, let me assure you!
So I'll admit to being a chronic scheduler! But seriously, it is the only way I get anything done.
Of course, I have slots for personal time with my husband or family trips, medical stuff, friends and ‘real life,' and of course, sometimes I get things wrong 🙂 But overall, I rely on this kind of scheduling to get everything done.
(2) Reward yourself
Those of you with children may have used behavior charts, where they get a star or a sticker every time something good is achieved. Rewards for good behavior can actually work really well!
I have a wall calendar (see left) on which I write my word count or pages edited every day and I get a sticker if I go over 2000 words.
It's just a paper calendar – nothing fancy – but seriously, it works!
My creative muse is a child – she wants to play.
She loves to color stuff in and also likes stickers, the shinier and more colorful the better. When I realized this, I bought myself a coloring book (Johanna Basford's Secret Garden) and pens, as well as a massive pack of stickers 🙂 If I'm finding the writing difficult, I give myself 5 minutes of coloring, which is fun and relaxes me enough to continue.
(Sharing this makes me sound like a nutcase – but hey, whatever works, right!)
(3) Become accountable
This blog has kept me accountable since I started writing it in Dec 2008. Every year, I have posted my goals and what I've achieved. I also post my annual income reports on the anniversary of leaving my job, plus I share what I learn along the way, so you know I am working my butt off!
So you guys are partially my accountability. But I also have several accountability partners.
One of these is also a thriller writer, so our goals are thriller specific and related to income from fiction. Another is more like a creative mentor, and she asks me questions that relate more to staying true to my Muse.
Then I have an accountability partner who has a completely separate kind of business, and we challenge each other on content like the podcast and blog, as well as overall financial goals. We even have a competition now, where the loser has to pay for a spa day – now that's motivating!
I also have a coach who I have calls with several times a year, when I want to take things to another level.
Time goes by so fast that if you don't schedule these kind of check-points into your life, you won't achieve anything.
In my day job, a year would go by and I would wonder what the hell I had achieved except for 12 pay checks.
Now I measure my life by what I create, and I can only do that by being accountable.
(4) Set deadlines
If you sign a traditional publishing deal, you will have a timeline for your drafts, revisions and then for publication. You know what you have to do by when.
If you are going the indie route, you need to set these for yourself.
Since then, I have speeded up the process somewhat, but I still set rough deadlines. On my wall I have one page A4 that has the priorities for each month roughly planned out.
For example, January has:
- Publish Gates of Hell in ebook and print (DONE – launched Jan 5)
- Finish first draft and edit novella, One Day in New York. Send to editor by end Jan (DONE)
- Record audiobook of Business for Authors. (Time is scheduled with the studio so I will have all the raw files done.)
- Start pre-production on Deviance, London Psychic Book 3. (Research trip done, but lots still to do)
If I haven't done all these by the end of the month, then I am behind on my deadlines for each book.
I also split the tasks into product per book, so you see here that I have print, ebook and audiobooks underway on various products.
I also love the pre-order function that we have available to us now on Amazon, iBooks and Kobo, as well as NOOK if you use Draft2Digital. Once the book has been edited, I put it on pre-order while I do the final proof-read, which helps me with a hard deadline for completion.
(5) Spend more hours in the chair
We all know what we have to do.
More hours in the chair actually spent WRITING will produce more words on the page.
Dean Wesley Smith is one of the most prolific writers out there, but he points out that he doesn't do anything spectacular in terms of word count per hour. What he does is spend more hours in the chair, and he does it every day.
This relates to point 1 – you need to schedule the time, and then you actually need to get it done.
Get black on white.
BONUS (6) Decide what you really want.
Perhaps this is the most important thing.
At the end of the day, we all have 24 hours in the day. We all have people we love, that we want to spend time with. We all need to pay the bills. We all need to eat and exercise, and clean and do chores and see friends … and … and …
But you get what you focus on in life.
If you really want to write that book, you will make the time.
If you want to prove that you can finish a manuscript, you will make the time.
If you want to be a full-time author and make a living with your writing, you will have to make the time.
What are your productivity challenges when it comes to writing? You can share your difficulties or tips in the comments below.
Top image: Flickr Creative Commons In search of lost time by Alexander Boden, Deadline alarm by Jonathan Bliss,
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1 2 3 Next »i really need to do the 5 a.m. thing and get up and get writing. Thanks for the inspiration. Always enjoy your posts.
It's hard - but it's worth it!
Inspiring as well as nostalgic. The chair thing though was tough to beat.
I like your ideas for accountability and recording your aims monthly. Currently, I have yearly aims - it would be beneficial to break these down, so I'll do that!
My biggest problem isn't chair time. It's making the best use of it. Frustratingly slow progress lately - a thousand to a few thousand words per day for many hours sat in the chair and averaging about 1000 words an hour. Far from my best and means I am making appallingly inefficient use of time. Need to kick it up about ten notches! I'll try target setting & finding a way to be more accountable for productivity for February to see if I can improve this drastically.
The colouring book idea made me chuckle, it's so random! But whatever works to get the words out. I usually go do chores for a break, but perhaps something more creative would be better (and far more enjoyable)!
Best of luck with your February goals. :-)
I only do 1000 - 2000 words per hour - so for me, it's just more hours in the chair :)
and also I will be trying beats this year - more structure so less time thinking about what I'm writing per session. Have fun!
Hi Joanna. When you get beats figured out will you be posting something? I've tried to follow Johnny and Sean but it's just not sinking in yet. Any additional resources would be greatly appreciated.
I'll certainly post something when I get that part sorted - I will be doing a video about my process pretty soon though :) Keep an eye out here!
Stickers and coloring appeal to the part of me that sometimes wants to be less adult. Appeal to the child and the rest will follow. I believe I can honestly make this work. Thanks, Joanna!
Have fun with the coloring, Cindy!
Hi. I'm not a blogger, but I'm working on a non-fiction work I'd like to take to publication. Will this link provide me with the steps to publish and/or self publish?
Yes, that video course will take you through the process - you can also read this: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/01/15/how-to-publish-a-book-101/
and this: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/publishing/
Hello Joanna, Thanks for your informative posts. You mention your audio books on your post. I am preparing to endeavor into this process shortly. Would you mind sharing your experience with producing those and how important are they for your portfolio? Any pointers for production? Thank you!
Hi Yasmin, I've done an extensive post on audiobooks before here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/05/01/audiobooks-acx-marketing/
also, in terms of importance, read this post on rights: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/01/07/know-your-rights/
I'll be doing a post on recording in the studio when it's done - should be by end March.
Great advice as always, Joanna. I kicked my writing into overdrive about 6 months ago when I set myself some deadlines, particularly around the planning stages of my book. Giving myself a limited amount of time to complete the summary and beats made me focus only on that. The book that eventuated, including a publisher-requested rewrite, was the fastest I'd written a book in nearly three years, which was extremely satisfying.
I find I fluff around a lot when I haven't set my schedule. Since I've started scheduling my time, particularly my social media and online time, I've made more progress than I would have imagined at the same time last year.
As you say, 'You get what you focus on in life.'
That's great Selena - it's amazing how fast time passes unless we set those deadlines!
Oh, goodie. Another nut case. I have a ceramic castle on my desk filled with stickers and bows and treats I put on my cork board for a day's good work. The shinier the better; the more child-like the more pride wells up from my belly. But I don't use coloring books. I've been doing what's now called Zen doodles to space out and let things fall in place, even if that place is the trash bin. I may switch to coloring books because, as Selena said, it's so random and sounds like so much oddball fun.
This is my first year on my own, on my own terms, and I do struggle getting it all organized (especially the blog--ugh). The one thing that's set in place is waking up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. then writing until 8 a.m. No alarms, just 10 ozs, of water downed before bed to get me up and running early. When I'm working I sleep on the couch so there isn't a cozy bed tempting me to return. That also helps keep me on track so I can get to edits and sleep in my bed again. It's the best deadline motivator I've found. I'm hoping to refine this process in 2015 :-)
The Filofax looks like heaven. I've been looking for ages but haven't found anything that's not tailored for the school year. Thanks again for the guidance towards something helpful. I have tried accountability with others and find it only works for me if it's a specific project that's extremely demanding. Anything else and my rebelliousness kicks in. Instead I get lost in the woods on a daily basis and have to face myself without defense. The silence and solitude can be brutal, unkind task masters.
Oh yes, a gathering of creative nutcases :) we should all go hang out in a writer's retreat somewhere - you can have the sofa :) I'll keep the bed! Glad you like stickers and things too. I always have to go into the kids department to find them!
The Filofax is definitely old school - but works for me!
Joanna, I LOVE the idea of the colouring books. What do you colour with?
I've got a whole set of Conte pastels in a cupboard here (the pencil type)... maybe I need to dust them off.
I'm sure the brain science people would have a lot to say about why colouring works for you. It's visual, kinaesthetic, rhythmic and kind of soothing at the same time. It's surely accessing different parts of your brain, and stimulating the ol' synapses.
As for the productivity thing, I now finally have my first novel in my hand, because I made a public commitment on my blog to publish by Christmas 2014. I found that I just moved forward much more deliberately on it because there was a Deadline (or indeed, a set of deadlines). I am in awe of how much you achieve with all your publishing adventures, and hope to move just a little closer to that zone myself this coming year.
I just have some coloring pens, Belinda - with a thin tip one end and a more paintbrushy end on the other :)
Congrats on your novel - public commitments make a big difference and it looks like your blog has a good audience now - which makes it all the more public! All the best with a creative 2015!
I like your calendar/sticker idea. I, too, find that a rewards system helps me with many things. I just never thought to apply it writing before. I think I might give it a go. :)
I have a Mslexia diary that I write all my talks down for, when I email my lists, when I send stories out. Might start writing down how many words I write in what time in it, too. It's on my computer desk in front of me now, and I can move it when I write so I can account for my writing. Have you tried an app called 'Forest: stay focussed'? I am thinking of using that.