It’s a touchy topic, I know.
On one hand, we may putter a bit as a way ‘into’ writing–getting supplies together, pouring a cup of coffee, and putting a few cookies on standby. Most of us have a pre-writing ritual. But, on the other hand, after we do those things, how many of us suddenly remember something that needs our attention? Maybe, Oh, I forgot to send that email and so we head to the inbox. We send our message, but as we do, see another about a friend’s new book. So, naturally we zip over to Goodreads and add it to our shelf.
You know where this is going. Goodreads leads to Facebook, which leads to Instagram and Tiktok, and boom, an hour’s gone. Maybe more.
Another thing that chews up writing time is the research and brainstorming we need to do. There’s always things to look into for our story, and information for marketing, learning stronger craft, and more.
Finally, there’s the time we waste trying to locate our story planning materials – those characters bios, timelines, notes about the plot, worldbuilding information, and the rest which helps us as we write and revise. These things may be scattered in notebooks, on hard drives, post-its, etc. and every time we need to look something up, it pulls us out of the writing flow. Sometimes by the time we find it, we’ve lost track of what we had planned to say.
So…how do we get lost time back?
By changing our habits & process a touch so writing time is spent doing exactly that: writing. Here are some tweaks that might help you:
Procrastinate…with a timer. If you know it’s your habit to check a few things before you start writing, then give in to it, but set a timer on your phone to limit how long you spend surfing social and handling email.
Schedule time for non-writing tasks. Story planning, researching information to help us write and market, connecting with people on social media, and yes, answering email – it all needs to be done. But if we organize ourselves better, and create designated times for those bits of work, we protect our sit-down-and-write sessions.
Organize our story materials in the same place. It’s true, we can be like birds, storing shiny bits and bobs for our story all over. This happens because as we’re planning, we’re not always in the same place. Sometimes we’re at the computer and things go into a file, other times, ideas hit in the car and we jot down notes on our phone or on the back of a receipt.
Keeping things together means we always know where to go when we need to check something about a character, scan our outline, or remind ourselves of certain story details. Being able to find the information we need quickly is key to getting back to writing and more words each session.
If you’re looking for a way to organize all your story items, check out One Stop for Writers. We just revamped our dashboard, the Workspace. You can create everything for your story there, store it, and when you need to look something up, it auto-sorts everything for you. (Don’t you wish someone would create a button to sort out your actual desk? I do!)
Check it out:
Finally, if you’re procrastinating too often, ask yourself why. Often, we fall into a distraction hole because we’re struggling with the story. When the writing gets hard, our motivation drains away. We’d rather get lost on the internet than face a nasty knot in our manuscript.
Problems don’t fix themselves, so we need to push ourselves to identify what’s wrong, so we can find a solution. Going back to our story materials is often key as they can show us if we’ve planned enough, need to raise the stakes, give a character more depth, add a scene, or something else. TIP: The Storyteller’s Roadmap has a Code Red section to help you fix the most common story problems.
How do you make sure procrastination and disorganization doesn’t derail your writing? I’d love to hear your tips!
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Yes, me lurd, (forelock tugged) I plead guilty as charged. I would have taken steps to minimise my prevarication but was busy on twitter. (Boom, Boom) Now joking aside (and it was not even a good joke) I have taken steps to limit my prevarication. I have created a cut off time and then writing only.
I am not sure that it has ever been a problem with a WIP or anything other than “Writing can be hard work”. Sure, there are times when the words just flow and those times are heavenly but there are times, especially editing, where it becomes a mental exercise in perseverance. Plus I am lazy by nature and so anything to put off the hard work.
Good for you for setting limits. I think this is a good strategy for when we know we want to curtail our aimless procrastinating (as opposed to a necessary and needed break.)
I think for me, another thing that can affect how much I procrastinate is how much energy I have in the tank. Ironically, the more on my plate (especially having too many different tasks to manage at once) can cause me to want to procrastinate more because I don’t even know where to start with my to-do list.
I am not a multitasker and find when I do have to manage too many things, I can do it (and must) but the quality and output is less than if I had the same workload that spanned only a few tasks.
I was just procrastinating and I stumbled across this site and then, this article. Coincidence? Maybe not. 🤣
Haha, I love that – too funny. I hope there were some ideas here if you’re feeling like maybe you’re spending a bit too much time on other things rather than getting writing done. 😉
Hmmm. This feels a bit like a manager complaining that the workers are taking too long coffee breaks. For self-employed freelancers, yes, we need to manage our time. But for many people, writing is a hobby, and productivity should not be the most important criterion. If they’d rather consume Instagram today than write, so be it.
Further, for many writers, the process involves identifying the writing task, then handing that over to the subconscious to mull over for a while, and goofing off until the subconscious (I think of it as ‘the boys downstairs’) hands up a rough draft ready to type. Not true of everyone, but some. The “ask yourself why you’re procrastinating” question sounds different if the answer is, “I’m sensibly waiting for inspiration”. If the wait starts to be years rather than days, okay that’s not working, but for some of us, that’s a positive part of the process.
It has also been my observation that many writers waste even more time on pseudo-professional tasks–posting on social media because they think they have to as part of ‘marketing’; attending conferences and workshops and reading books on writing compulsively (at some point enough already; listening and reading only get one so far, at some point, one has to learn writing by writing); book signing events at which four people buy copies (because its the wrong time in their career or wrong location or they’re doing it wrong) or giving readings or library talks or etc–all activities that successful writers engage in but which are not paying off currently for those early in their careers. Professional writers guard their time jealously and only do a workshop or a reading or signing if they know for sure it’s going to pay off big for them…’starting small and working up to crowds’ doesn’t actually work that way. One should wait until there is a crowd before assigning those tasks writing time.
Of course, I agree with all of the advice suggested here for those to whom it applies–good advice for those who find the time they have assigned to writing does not result in writing (say, half my thesis students). I just wanted to suggest some context, and that those for whom the advice is not relevant should not feel guilty if they would rather goof than write.
Hi Robert,
Definitely there are different types of writers, and for some, procrastination isn’t a factor for the reasons you listed here–they’re hobbyists, they have a system in place that works for them, they’re letting ideas soak, or they’re just taking a mental break. All good reasons to have non-writing time. 🙂
This article is for anyone feeling they may have an issue with procrastination, or they would benefit from having systems or additional strategies in place to help them get those words in. Everyone should write at their own pace, and find a process for them.
If procrastination was a sport, I’d have countless gold medals! Having said that, I do get days when I can nip that tendency to procrastinate in the bud. But the thing that gets me even more than procrastination – research! I love it. One topic inevitably leads to another, and then another…
For the story I’m currently writing, I’m happy to say I’ve got my story materials in the one place – One Stop for Writers! 😊 While filling in character backstories, I realised I needed to strengthen the motivation of a couple of key characters, something I hadn’t appreciated up until that point. For that reason alone, One Stop has been priceless, thank you!
This is so good and timely right now. I often go down rabbit holes just from the simple act of checking my inbox. I like the idea of setting a timer. Thanks for sharing!
This can get me, too. I have tried to not look in the morning, as I know that’s a tip some use, but it just doesn’t work for me. So I minimize how long I’m there by just sorting the email and responding to the most critical ones. The rest I save for later in the day when I need a mental break. 😉