Today I wanted to talk about something that changed my mindset when it came to writing and being productive – Logging my Work.
It sounds simple, but that’s because it is. When I first got back into writing and wanted to set goals for myself, I also had to create a way to be accountable. Even if it was only to myself at first. So I created logs for every part of the author life; writing, editing, and research. And when I set my goals for the month, I could break it down into weeks and see what I needed to do to stay on track.
And you don’t have to do this alone. If you have a writer friend, you can share your logs with each other to stay on track. But even if you don’t have a writer friend, you can enlist the help of any friend to have weekly or monthly check-ins. Maybe they have their own project they need help being held accountable for and you can assist each other in this way.
This tip is all about staying on track. If you want to write 5000 words every week, you don’t have to write it all at one time. But what if you can’t remember what you wrote on Tuesday or Thursday by the time you get to Saturday? If you keep a log, you’ll be able to see how much you wrote at any given time and you’ll know how much more you need to reach your goals.
Not only was this motivational to stay on track, but it also taught me what I’m capable of and what my patterns were. I could see where I was able to write more and where I had less attention span. And then I was able to change my schedule accordingly.
I hope this tip has been helpful to you and I’d love to hear how you incorporated it into your own author life.