If you’re going to write, tell jokes, play music, you’ve got to be productive. Your muse doesn’t pay rent in your head, but you pay rent on your apartment, so get busy. I’m adding a new section to the blog in which I pass along things that help me be more productive in writing, successful in reaching book agents, whatever.
Today’s Free Author Tool is about time management, since that’s a personal challenge for me. Sitting at the keyboard for hours at a time, I don’t find myself becoming *more* productive but rather, less. To fix that, I invented a little system that is working out well so far:
- Get out your phone
- Set a timer for 20 minutes
- Turn your ‘Do Not Disturb’ on – close all non-essential Internet tabs (especially Facebook and Reddit)
- Write as much as you can for twenty minutes
- Stop when the timer goes off
There’s no personal goal of word count to hit, just write as much as you can. You’ll write more as time goes on.
I’ve found that focusing my attention helps my muse to focus, too. There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page going “c’mon … work.” It’s also frustrating to get going on a writing jag, stop for a break and then forget to start again because you’re checking email or Twitter. Stop doing that to yourself. Get up, take a shower, make the bed. Do something else that’s productive and then come back and set your timer again. To make it fun, I also listen to a variety of music. My personal taste is somewhere between chillstep and cool jazz but whatever floats your boat.