Theories of Productivity for Writers

There are so many suggestions for practices and products to make you more productive, just searching for them can become a procrastination artform. By attempting many, many different organisational or productivity ideas, there is a basic truth I've learned: Everyone has their own natural rhythm in life, and as such, different methods work for each of us. 

For example, I find most productive techniques work well for me... for a very limited time. While it's new and shiny, my brain is in awe enough to follow instructions. But once I get used to the routine, my brain gets time to manufacture sneaky ways to lure me away from my good intentions. 

Here's a few theories of productivity and suggested methodologies. Try a few and choose what works for you.

30 days to become a habit.

Now, I've seen suggestions that it takes 21 days to form a habit, and my meditation tape recommends listening for 24 days in a row to achieve the 'habit' of creative meditation. I figured I'd play it safe and suggest 30 days. Habits formed can be active or resistant, i.e. you can 'do' something for 30 days, or you can abstain from something for 30 days. This trick worked well for my kids last year when I banned fast food. It's now been 17 months since their last trip to MacDonalds. The first few weeks were hard, but it did indeed become a habit. The ban is lifted, but my kids tastes have changed (they're 11 and 15) and now they don't want to eat that food. This month we've taken the step of banning Coke-a-Cola. I'll let you know how that goes!

So what are the rules? Basically, you must complete 30 consecutive days to form the habit. If your habit is to write a page a day, and you miss 1 day, your 30 days start again. Be clear with your goal and it's a good idea not to try and achieve too many at once. I'd start with just one for your first month. Want a free 30 day calendar? Andrew Dubber created one for his blog. You can download it by clicking on the image (or visit http://andrewdubber.com/2013/03/resurrecting-the-30-day-calendar/)

Challenges

There are always plenty of blog challenges to join, whether you want to write one short story a month and submit that story (write one, sub one), get 50,000 words in one month (Nanowrimo), or read an instructional text on the craft of writing each month (The Progressive Book Club), you'll find a blog challenge to meet your goals.

This method employs the tactic of accountability. If you announce your intentions to enough people, you'll feel obligated to see this through. Beware, there is a conflicting theory that if you announce your goals to people, and get patted on the back for your intentions, your brain can get tricked into believing it has already made an achievement and you'll be less likely to see the project through.

Triangle theory

A friend told me about this theory, and I embraced it because it's a very forgiving theory. Through our lives we pick up various responsibilities and projects. We'd probably be amazed at the number of things we've attempted. But at any one time, our life can only support three main focuses. We might change those three from time to time, but only three will fit comfortably within the pyramid that represents our life (pyramids are very popular with theorists).

Last year my pyramid consisted of Family, Writing and Fitness. This year I took up tutoring for work, so that has replaced Fitness. I've found this to be an honest approach. As much as I wanted to keep up my runs and workouts, I really don't. I can for a short time swap an item to get fitness back in, but I have to be honest and admit that something else would have to go. You might swap your focus daily, depending on your weekly schedule. And although there can be three things we can be productive in at any one times, only one will sit at the top of the pyramid.

Lists

Us writers love these, but they can actually increase your procrastination if you don't use them right. Many experts suggest the way our brain is wired means if we put more than five items on our to-do list, we are less likely to complete any tasks, but if you stick to five or less (3 key things you want to achieve today, is a good start), then you're more likely to achieve them all! Less is more. I do cheat a little here. I write a master list, with about 50 to do items, and each day I take the three main things I want to achieve from that.

Time chunks
Regular breaks are an important ingredient for any productive workplace. For health reasons you should look away from your monitor and off into the distance every 15- 20 minutes (http://www.spreeder.com/blog/avoiding-eye-strain/), you should also stand and stretch your shoulders and back regularly. Besides tired eyes and sore muscles, our brain gets bored stuck on one thing too long. By breaking tasks down into 20 minute segments, you'll be much more productive. Take a short break between tasks or switch to a different task. Keep your mind interested to work more productively.

Another time-related trick for productivity is to schedule your distractions. Set time-limits for social media, otherwise your triangle of productivity becomes more like this:

Want more? Here's some popular posts on productivity:

8 Ways to Prioritise Writing

Best Free Apps for Productive Writing

Organisation and the Writer - the Kanban method

KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY

To celebrate the release of my new mystery novel for girls, I'm giving away a Kindle Fire and a $25 Amazon gift voucher!

Simply download Dognapped? A Dog Show Detective Mystery or blog about the book to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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8 Steps to Launch Your Children's Book

Promoting ebooks is easy, one quick click and the potential customer is at Amazon, but how do you sell your paperback?

Have a launch!

My invitation design

Launches are a whole heap of fun. If you're not sure how to go about organising one, here's a list of things that I tried for My Zombie Dog:

Give clear instructions

1. Choose your location. Ideally see if you can get a bookstore (that has a great children's section) to host your launch. Independent bookstores are sometimes happy to set you up for your book launch, especially if they have a cafe or plenty of space. If you can't find a good bookstore, try a family-friendly cafe or restaurant or even your local park (get council permission first).
2. Plan the launch. Launches aimed at adults can include talks on the topic of the book or how you came to write the book. Kids are not interested in your speech. Keep it short. Introduce the book, have a little (preferably interactive) talk about it and then include some activities. Include some stories and jokes. Read part of your book (you could read the whole thing if it's a short picture book). 
3. Have giveaways. I've had magnets made up with zombie dogs on them, they cost me very little from Vistaprint. You can also get bookmarks (kids love bookmarks) or postcards.
4. Include a few quick games or competitions. I'm asking kids to come dressed as zombies for an undead fashion parade, I'll be giving away book vouchers from the store as prizes. Emily (my teen girl) will be offering zombie face painting to create a whole little army of undead.
5. Promote your event. Facebook is awesome for this, but you might need to get out and about in your community. Offer to speak/read at local schools and libraries. Have invitations to the event printed up (again, Vistaprint are awesome for this) and hand them out. Try to get a buzz going.
6. Advertise - Do a letterbox drop in the area near the bookstore and put up flyers at local shopping centres. You could even put an announcement in the local paper. Get a banner made up to put outside the store on the day of the launch.
7. You can also promote through mums and word of mouth. Get to know the school mums or visit some Mummy blogs and see if they'll review your book for a free copy.
8. Order your books way ahead of time. No point booking a launch only to find your books haven't arrived yet!

My magnet give-aways

That's it! Most of all, make sure you have a LOT of fun, don't let it get stressful!

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8 Things to Give Up for NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month.

50,000 words in one month. Sounds crazy. Ready to give up? Great! Me too. I'll give up lots, just so long as I don't have to give up writing my novel. It's all about the words and we know getting words on  the page can often be all about finding the time to write. What are you prepared to sacrifice?

Here's a list of the things you could give up for November to win NaNoWriMo:

1. Plot - 'But I'm not a pantser!' I hear you shout. That's okay. Maybe you spent all of October planning every scene for your novel. Fine, try that. But if you don't have your story plotted out already - now is not the time to do it. Just go with it. And if you do? Add some random things on the days you feel stuck. Sometimes knowing what you have to write can slow you down. Have your character pop into a cafe for a bowl of jelly and find a fly in it. The thing is you'll get your word count, it's great writing practice and you can always delete it in the edits.
2. Perfection - Repeat after me - 'This will be a crap draft, but at least I'll have a draft.'
3. Cleanliness - Now I'm not suggesting you stop showering, that's a great place for inspiration. But forget the vacuuming, washing clothes, mowing lawns etc. Kids can wash their own clothes and wear their uniforms crinkled. The family will figure out how to make baked beans on toast, and maybe they wouldn't mind whipping up something for you while they're at it. It is a universal rule that NOBODY EVER visits an author's home in November. Make sure you don't visit a writer friends house and comment on the cobwebs either. That's like killing puppies, you don't want to kill puppies... do you?
4. Television - Ooh this is going to be a hard one for some people (me). I can't remember the last time I turned on tv to see what was on, but we watch a lot of DVDs and download tv series from iTunes (I love Castle, The Walking Dead, Justified & Bones). But for November I've pledged to watch NOTHING. My family are sadly not supporting this challenge, so I'll be spending a lot of time alone in my room typing.
5. Company - Those people called family and friends will only weigh you down dude! Ditch 'em now. You may however, hang with other writers and encourage each other with word races and accountability for word counts. If you can't trust yourself not to wander off for coffee with mates, hide all your shoes for the month.
6. Stress - Nothing slows action more than worrying about it.
7. Blogs - Don't panic, I'm not suggesting you HAVE to close down for the entire month (although many bloggers are), but you shouldn't let yourself on until you've met your word count for the day (at least). I'm not planning to do much blogging over November and I doubt I'll be visiting blogs, unless I get ahead of schedule. There's a zillion blogs to visit, no one will mind if a few of them slow down. Plus, I don't like to blog unless I'm reciprocating by visiting blogs, otherwise I think it's a bit selfish and rude. And I don't want to be rude. I want you to like me :)
8. Internet time - Schedule a reduced time, maybe thirty minutes a day, to check emails, Facebook, Twitter etc, or again, let yourself online AFTER you reach your daily word count.

That's my list. I'll be giving up all these things for November. How about you? Another one for the guys is shaving, let your stubble go wild this month!

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