Write Now!
Break Through Blocks and Finish Your Projects
by Ellen Wolfson Valladares
S
o you’ve got this wonderful idea for through experience, I came up with ing the time you have allotted, you will
a book. Today is the day you are several strategies that helped me break devote your attention to your creative
going to start writing. You sit down at through my procrastination and finally project.
the computer, open the file, give it a get it done. I hope that by sharing some
name, and maybe type in a title and of these tips with you, it will save you Set Deadlines
some other thoughts. Then it occurs to time, money and energy and get you As a journalist, I have always worked
you that you forgot to put in that load moving toward completion on your with deadlines. When it came to writ-
of laundry. And what about those bills creative projects. ing my own book, however, there was
you need to pay? You better do that first. no looming deadline to spur me into
Back at the computer, you decide to Make it a Priority action.
take a quick look at your email before Often, our writing or other creative This was one of the most valuable
you jump into the writing. And it won’t projects take a backseat to practically things I took away from the Professional
hurt to peek at Facebook while you’re everything else in our lives. We con- Spiritual Teachers class I attended sever-
there. Three hours later, you are staring sider creativity as an extracurricular ac- al years ago with Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
at the blank page with your title. Maybe tivity. It’s not paying the bills. And there We were asked to assign deadlines
tomorrow would be a better day to are so many other people and situations for ourselves. When did I think was a
write, you think. vying for our attention. Surely, they reasonable date by which I could com-
Sound familiar? Having been a must come first. The creativity can wait. plete the next chapter? Once I chose a
writer all my life, I know those sce- I had thought writing was a priority date, I was given a calendar and told to
narios all too well. I consider myself the for me. But then I realized that it didn’t write it down. Whoa! This felt like a real
queen of procrastination. So the day I even get a mention on the sacred “to- deadline and it worked like one, too.
finished writing my first book was one do” lists that I lived by daily. Truly mak- The greatest thing about this deadline,
of my biggest accomplishments. There ing it a priority meant making it impor- we were reminded, was that it could be
is just no greater feeling than that sense tant enough to fit into my schedule. renegotiated if need be.
of completion. It doesn’t matter if you choose In choosing your deadlines, just re-
So how did I finally get it done? to work on your project 10 minutes a member to be reasonable and realistic.
After reading a lot of great books on the day or 10 minutes a week. Your choice Take it in small steps, such as writing
subject of writing (probably just another to make it a priority for any amount 10 pages or a chapter, rather than huge,
method of procrastination on my part), of time will help you make progress. overwhelming chunks. Then make sure
taking a wonderful course with Do- Choose a schedule that is comfortable to mark it on your calendar.
reen Virtue, Ph.D., and simply learning for you and commit to yourself that dur-
“Know” Distractions
To know your distractions is the first
step in being able to say no to them. For
me, it is email. I began to observe that
despite my commitment to sit down
and write every morning, I was wasting
time checking my email. Why? It was so
much easier than writing and I enjoyed
it, pure and simple. I realized that if I
was going to make progress, I would
have to deal with this delay tactic. So
I made it a reward. I could only check
my email after sitting down and writing
from first thing in the morning until at
least noon. It was amazing how much
36 Broward County
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64