As a writer, are you satisfied with the amount of work you produce each week? The number of words you write or edit, the quality and consistency of the content you create for readers, the steps you take toward goals you’ve set?
Or do you consistently seem to come up short? Miss the mark? Fail to accomplish all you’d hoped to do?
Are you frequently distracted?
Do you procrastinate?
Do ideas like setting goals, keeping a planner, or establishing habits to increase productivity make you hyperventilate? Break out in hives? Or simply remind you of all the times that you’ve tried such methods only to fail?
I’d love to know your responses to those questions, as well as your level of satisfaction with your productivity as a writer. I invite you to hit reply to this email and share your thoughts with me.
Why am I interested in your productivity?
One of the most common frustrations I hear from writers I coach is that they feel unable to produce the number of words or the amount of content they want or feel they need to produce.
One of my own most common frustrations through the years has been the same, a seeming inability to do what I wanted or needed to do. But over the years and especially over the last six months, I’ve made significant strides in output. Quality output, I hope. Most weeks, I’m still behind and running to keep up, but this year, I’ve also taken on more work than ever.
To be clear, I do not recommend busyness or producing more to prove you can. Rather, I advocate producing the work you believe God has led you to produce, in a timely manner and in a way that leads to a level of quality that honors God and your readers.
Some of the habits and practices I’ve found most helpful for me might surprise you. They surprised me. But when we take the time to know and understand the mind and body God has given us, unique to each of us, we begin to understand what we need in order to grow.
Self-knowledge, understanding the wonder of what God has knit together, offers so much value. It builds in us a reverence for God and the power and creativity He alone holds.
I am mulling over content that will help writers set goals and establish habits that will facilitate the completion of the work—the words—they believe God has called them to produce. Again, your responses to some of the questions asked above will help me as I begin to develop that content.
In the meantime, here is a list of books that have impacted my own productivity. I hope you’ll add one or two of them to your to-read pile.
