Do you ever find yourself feeling stuck in your current writing project?

Maybe you were motivated last week but you’re struggling today.

Possibly(like me) you’ve been procrastinating and doing all sorts of other things instead of taking the action steps that you know will help you reach your goals and dreams.

Here’s what I’ve noticed with myself and with other creatives who procrastinate from taking action on their goals: we most often procrastinate in the moment because we’re unfocussed; we’re unsure about something or we just don’t know what to do.

It’s not that you don’t have things to do… because more than likely, you have a ‘to-do’ list as long as your arm.

Really it comes down to a lack of energy or lack of focus on what to do. We feel overwhelmed, so we don’t do anything. Maybe we feel paralyzed even, to move forward.

I’ve discovered that taking action on three things, has really helped me get rid of overwhelm to begin each day to take action toward my goals.

Read on to find out three ways to help you to overcome procrastination… 

3 Ways to Help You Get Rid of Procrastination

If you’ve been in that place of feeling stuck, you’re not alone.

In the past couple of weeks, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and struggling on how to move forward in my goals.

I learned the reasons for my ‘stuckness’:

1.I was unfocussed.

2.I was unsure about something.

3.I just didn’t know what to do at that moment or how to take the next steps.

If you’ve felt any of the above, then read on. Maybe some of these planning steps will help you overcome procrastination in your writing too.

1.The evening before, write down what you plan to work on the next day. 

I’ve learned that when I write my goals and schedule for the next day – and do it the evening before – that I procrastinate less the next day.

One reason for more focus could be that our minds have more time to marinate overnight on what our plan is, so our subconscious plans and solves problems as we’re sleeping. Another reason for more focus, might be that by planning ahead of time, our mind is cleared up of the pressure of ‘remembering’ our to-do list.

I’ve also found, that when I go ‘old-school’ and use a pen and write my plans on paper, that it gives me greater clarity and focus.

2.Every morning before you begin, go over your schedule and goals for that day.

It’s important to always begin your morning by going over what your plan is for that specific day.

I’ve found the days, when I haven’t sat down and written out what my top 3 – 5 goals are to get done that day… it’s less likely that it will happen. Some of these tips, I’ve learned from Brian Tracy as well as Brendon Burchard about how to plan your goals effectively.

So, I encourage you to spend fifteen to twenty minutes when you begin your day, planning.

Every morning be very clear about what your plan is for that day, and remind yourself of your ‘why’. Why is it important that you do this? What is the reason this must get done? How will it help you move forward to reach your goals and dreams?

There’s an incredible amount of thought, clarity and intention that comes to you by doing this practice. It really will make an amazing difference when you do this.

3.Every Sunday evening, look at your week and decide what you want – or do not want – on your plan for the week.

When you sit down and write down your plan for the week, it brings your ideas and plans into greater focus. It’s like the bird’s eye-view of your overall picture for your goals. Doing this every Sunday evening, will really help you to narrow down what you need to focus on for that week.

The great thing is that you can move things around. Add goals, or delete other, so that what you are doing matches what your overall goal is for your author business.

“Overwhelm is almost always caused by random esoteric thinking about the future.”  Brendon Burchard

Focus on doing the above three ways of planning, and you’ll be amazed at how your focus and productivity will increase.

Here’s one other thing I’ve noticed with myself and maybe it will help you too.

Procrastination comes when we don’t have a high enough necessity to get something done. This is very often because we haven’t told people in our lives about our goals, dreams and desires…. so we don’t have enough people to keep us accountable.

If you’re struggling with procrastination, get around some people who know what you want to do. Could be a family member, a friend or other people in a writers’ group, but just people who you can talk stuff through with. I’ve found it helps to give you more focus and more ‘urgency’ when you need to give a report to someone.

There’s somewhat of a stagnation and ‘suffering in silence’ when we’re not communicating what’s important to us with others.

When you’ve told others about what your goals and desires are that you are working on – then your identity and name(reputation) are on the line – and the necessity for you to actually do it increases.

It’s when we don’t share the goals and actions steps we’re working on with others, that we tend to procrastinate more.  If your goal is to Finish Your Book in 2018 and want a safe place to be encouraged and to share and get feedback on your goals, please join the Facebook group “Finish Your Book”.

 

Have you found yourself procrastinating on some of your writing goals and dreams?  Please do share your writing goals on in the comments below, so we can support each other to get unstuck 🙂