Kicking Procrastination in the Butt!

I'm going to use my writing time more wisely...starting tomorrow!

This past weekend I attended my local SCBWI conference and am always inspired whenever I go to a writing conference. Bruce Hale was the first speaker of the day and not only is he a dynamic presenter, he also speaks the truth! He talked about how to break some bad habits in order to be more productive. He started off by joking how we like to reward ourselves and said something like, go to store, buy cookies, eat cookies in the car on the way home. Go home, check email, eat more cookies...

Anyway, I totally felt like he was talking to me. I check my email frequently and take too many breaks. My writing time is limited to three mornings a week, naptimes and at night after the kids go to sleep. So starting tomorrow I am only going to check my email at the begininng and in the middle of each writing session (when I take a short break). Hopefully that will save me a lot of time. I am also going to stick to my no phone call rule which I now have to add a no texting rule because I have been known to text a lot. Okay, I text so much that my six year old challenged me to a day without texting.

As for cookies, well when I work out of Starbucks, I have the whole cafe in front of me! Usually a cup of coffee keeps me going most of the morning so I'm good there. But I've never been known to turn down a cookie!

Bruce also suggested making daily writing goals. This is something I have done in the past and it has worked really well for me. I used to say I need to write at least 15 pages by Sunday and if I wasn't quite up to the 15, I would spend that Sunday night catching up. I've also used the write 1000 words a day goal and that works well too.

Right now I am in the middle of my revisions for Pure Red and they are due March 1. So it's harder to break a goal like that down since I'm combing throught the entire manuscript one item at a time. But when I'm editing I try to finish one week early so that if something comes up I don't have to panic.

So starting tomorrow I am not even going to use the free wifi at Starbucks and I will set a daily goal of what I need to accomplish with my edits.

I would love to hear how other people achieve their goals. What strategies do you use?
Wish me luck:)!