OK, it’s Writing Time. Get going…
No…Wait!
Wait?? Did I say wait???
Well, yes, I did.
If you have difficulty sitting down to write, you may want to start even before the very beginning.
Let’s look at what happens before you even pick up the pen or put your hands on the keyboard.
What do you do?
Research by Robert Boice on successful writers shows that 95% of exemplary writers “pre-prepare” themselves before they even start a project.
What does it mean to pre-prepare?
In general, this step involves becoming mindful about what you are about to undertake in order to prepare your mind :
- why are you working on it?
- what do you need to do today on this project?
- how long do you intend to work on it?
- What materials do you need for it?
Asking yourself these questions has several outcomes.
First, you are reminding yourself of why you have undertaken the task — reviewing why it’s important, how it fits into what you are doing, etc. This step has a positive impact on your motivation to move ahead. And the more personal you can make this review, the better. Not just that it will to knowledge to your field, but why you chose to do it and why you chose to do it. A nice addition to this step is spend a couple minutes getting your heart coherent and then ask yourself these questions from that positive, appreciative place.
Then, you are goal-setting, another strategy that has been shown to increase the probability of a successful outcome. By asking yourself what you need to accomplish in this work session, you are setting the goal for this project in this time period.
Then you are identifying the required resources, both in terms of time and information or other materials. This prevents stopping your work prematurely because of constraints you might have anticipated.
After preparing your mind, prepare your environment by:
- turning on music or some background sound (I use the sound of a babbling brook) that will become a cue for writing. Always have it available when you write and try to avoid it at other times. If you can’t write with sound in the background, try establishing some other “writing environment ritual” — perhaps you have a lamp you only use when you write, a special pen, a location. But again, try to limit your exposure to this cue to writing times only.
Not only are these strategies supported by the research of Dr. Boice, they make sense in terms of what we know about how your brain functions. But that’s another post. 