How To Be More Productive
By Jack Probyn
One of the constant struggles of being an author is finding the time to write. Writing more books, and crafting better stories, means a greater arsenal to fire at your readers.
More readers mean more fans. More fans mean more reviews. More reviews mean more fans and, inevitably, success.
It’s an endless cycle. It’s also a great one.
But the question is, how do you produce this sort of back catalogue without spending your entire life locked in a room with just your laptop and a coffee-stained notepad for company? Or, more fittingly, how do you find the time to write when there’s so much going on in life?
The answer, as you shall find out in this post, is a simple one.
Here’s what we’ll discuss today:
- Setting yourself a word goal.
- Defeating your own resistance.
- Products and services to help productivity.
So, let’s begin.
SETTING YOURSELF A WORD GOAL:
One of the best ways to increase productivity is by setting yourself a daily word goal, and holding yourself accountable for implementing it.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 200, 2,000, or 20,000 words — by the end of the year, you’ll have accomplished at least one full-length piece. Even if you dedicate just ten minutes a day to writing, the amount you write in those ten minutes will only increase in time.
The only problem is, you have to stick at it. Just like anything, if you stick with it for three weeks it’s more likely to become a habit.
DEFEATING YOUR OWN RESISTANCE:
A term coined by Steven Pressfield in his book, War of Art, “Resistance” is another name for the barriers that keep us from accomplishing our dreams.
In other words, procrastination.
“Resistance” is what we do, or the things that happen in our lives, that we sometimes use as excuses to stop us from being productive.
The new series of Game of Thrones.
The football. Baseball. Basketball.
You need to be honest with yourself. Is what you’re doing necessary? Is this going to be furthering your career? Could you be spending your time more wisely? You also need to be honest with your family/ parents/ partner/ spouse. Whether you’re writing for creative expression, so you can quit the day job, or because you want to supplement an existing income — your why — writing is still something you need to focus on.
You’re doing this for you, and in order to do that you need the freedom to get those words on the page.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO HELP PRODUCTIVITY:
There’s plenty of software available that can help you increase your productivity. One of these is dictation. Using only your voice, and with a bit of practice, products such as Dragon boast a words per minute (wpm) of 160 words, with 99% accuracy. While it may seem like a hefty investment at first, your word counts and productivity rates will thank you for it later. After all, you can speak much faster than you can type.
Resources mentioned:
Dragon dictation
SPF Podcast Episode 60 on Dragon Dictation: listen/watch here
Jack Probyn
Jack Probyn is the author of the Jake Tanner terror series. When he’s not writing, Jack is either reading, reading about writing, or writing about reading. He’s been a fan of crafting stories since a young age, and now the dream has come true. He can even fit in a Sudoku when he’s got the time.