Make Writing a Priority 1000 Words a Day

Make Writing a Priority 1000 Words a Day If you want to improve your writing productivity, you need to make writing a priority. While this may seem obvious, it actually took me a long time to learn, and I know other writers who struggle to do this as well. Wanting to write more and actually taking the steps to write more are two completely different things. It took a long time for this to click for me, and Im sure there are others out there who struggle with it without even realizing they havent noticed the difference. If you find you have all the best intentions to write 1000 words a day, but you arent able to reach that goal more days than youre able to, theres a good chance you arent making your writing a priority. Making your writing a priority will mean youre going to have to make some changes to your schedule. It may mean you will have to delay, or even give up, some of the things you enjoy doing. Youre going to have to make a concerted effort to put aside time to make sure you have the opportunity to reach your daily word count goal, and that often takes a lot more effort than many writers expect. I used to enjoy waking up in the morning and watching the morning news. I had convinced myself that it was important to stay informed about whats going on in the world. Even when I told myself I wanted to write more, I refused to stop watching the morning news at first. It took awhile for it to dawn on me that I was prioritizing watching news over my writing goals. I had been telling myself that writing more was a top priority for me even though my actions told a different story. The reality is that I liked watching the morning news because it was easy and comfortable. Its a lot easier to get up in the morning, make myself a cup of tea, relax watching TV, and putz around than it is to get up, take a walk and begin writing. This is one example of a change I needed to make to my daily routine to truly make writing a priority. Some others included watching less Netflix, not wasting time on the computer, and limiting the time I spent on several of my favorite hobbies. Heres a challenge. Take a look at the things you are actually doing each day. The things youre actually doing are what you are prioritizing over the things you arent able to find the time do. If the things youre actually doing arent consistent with what you say you want to be doing, then either one of two things is going on: 1. What you say you want to do isnt really a priority 2. You need to change your life so that youre actually doing what is a priority. For most people, youre going to have to make changes so writing becomes a priority (if it was already a priority, youd already have no problem reaching your daily word count goal). This is especially true if your goal is to write more on a daily basis. Its often not easy to find the extra time to write as much as you want, but if writing 1000 words a day (or whatever your daily writing goal may be) is something you truly want to do, youll find a way to make that time. On a side note, this really applies to all areas of your life, not just writing. Its good to do a monthly audit of how you spend your time to make sure youre spending it doing the activities that are most important to you. If you find you arent spending time in a way that aligns with your goals, you need to figure out a way to change up your routine so those things most important to you become a priority. (659 words) (Photo courtesy of R/DV/RS)