A while ago on Twitter, I had a number of exchanges with other artists (mostly writers) about what they’d accomplished during the day. The responses varied. Someone had been working on book two of a romance trilogy. Another had polished a short story they planned to submit for publication. Someone else had a Sci-Fi-horror feature in the works. Someone admitted to not having had a productive day. Procrastination came knocking on the door, which they’d answered and let in that sly-smiling curmudgeon. [Read more…] about How to Outrun Procrastination
Writing Life
Productivity Hack: Eliminate the Time-Suck
What do you want to do more of? Write? Spend time with your family? Paint? There’s a solution: eliminate the time-suck.
The key to getting more done or doing more of what you love isn’t about managing time more efficiently. We can’t change that there are sixty minutes in an hour, 168 hours in a week, 52 weeks in a year…
What we can do is monitor how we spend our time. How many hours do you spend watching TV each day? Hooked on The Bachelor, The Walking Dead or The Voice? Or how often do you pick up your phone to check your social media accounts or e-mail? Take a look at the Screen Time report on your phone and find out. You better sit down first. [Read more…] about Productivity Hack: Eliminate the Time-Suck
Celebrate Your Wins
Being an artist — writer, painter, sculptor, dancer — can be lonely. We spend lots of time alone creating, practicing our art. We battle resistance, procrastination and self-doubt as we work to bring our art into the world.
As artists, we persevere. We keep going because this is our calling, and we must heed the call.
Sometimes, though, when we’re focused on achieving a goal, we overlook the progress we’ve made. When I’m writing a novel, I don’t really think about the long hours I’ve put in, or how many days I’ve shown up to do the work. I’m so focused on the end goal — clicking ‘Publish’ on Amazon — that I forget about all the steps it took to get to that point. [Read more…] about Celebrate Your Wins
Nothing is Impossible
“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”
– Charles. F. Kettering
How many times have you let yourself be held hostage by the thoughts racing through your head? If you’re like me, too many. My inner critic shows up any time he can to tell me I’m a fool to dream, that my writing isn’t good enough, or that I’ll never ‘make it.’
But I’ve learned to trust my voice, my art, my calling. That means I’m showing up every day to work on my dream. So, I don’t give my inner critic any room to play. It’s too risky. Daring to move from where I am to where I want to be, my inner critic isn’t welcome. [Read more…] about Nothing is Impossible
Will You Heed the Call?
In our household, my partner loves to watch Entertainment Tonight. We only have one TV, so he learns how so many people are heeding their calling (or at the very least who’s divorcing whom). But as soon as the credits start to roll, I flip the channel. Now he must ‘suffer’ through the last half of Murder, She Wrote. Compromise? Maybe. [Read more…] about Will You Heed the Call?