There are only so many hours in a day. And a lot of those hours are taken up by a lot of things other than writing.

In a day and age where our lives are busy with responsibilities and, well…life, we need to take advantage of those times we do have to write. There’s no room for procrastination and distractions.

I’m going to give you some tips on how to make sure you’re getting the most out of a writing session. Every. Time. It’s still not going to be easy. You’ll have to resist distraction and battle procrastination. But hopefully with these tips, you’ll find that you’re getting more done in your working time.

01. Write down what you want to accomplish

Before you being, write down what you want to get done in this amount of time. Want to finish fleshing out this one character? Want to write two blog posts? Write 1k words? Write it down. Having a clear and achievable goal will help you actually accomplish what you want to get done. Not sure how many words you can accomplish in a set amount of time? Check out my post about setting achievable writing goals.

02. Set up your work space

Make sure the area where you are going to be working is clean and organized (unless, of course, you work better in a more cluttered, “there’s work going on here” type of space). Set out all the supplies you’ll need: notebook, pens, pencils, highlighters, bottle of water (very important), coffee, tea, etc. Minimize the need to half to break up your work to go get something.

03. Turn off the wifi

Unless your goal is to research, turn off the wifi. It will only be a temptation. Trust me. I speak from experience.

04. Use special music playlists

If using your phone won’t be too much of a distraction, play some music to get you in the mood. Maybe a playlist for your novel, some calming acoustic, or motivating jams to get you focused. Music is a powerful way to set your mood and mind.

05. Use the Pomodoro technique

Set a timer for 25 minutes. Work non-stop until that timer goes off. Then take a break for 5 minutes. Repeat.

I’ve heard of this working wonders for writers. I personally haven’t experimented with it much yet to be able to say how it’s worked for me. I did hear from one writer that she preferred using this method for an hour block of time instead of a half hour. Working for 50 minutes and taking a break for 10. Figure out what works best for you.

06. Keep a writing log

Set aside a notebook as a writing session journal. Use it to write down the date and what you want to accomplish in that session. Then once you’re done, write down what you actually accomplished and how you felt about how this session went. Be sure to write down if you got distracted, and by what. 😉

I hope this will help you get the most out of your writing time and accomplish more. Be sure to experiment with these different tips (and others you may come across) to figure out what works and what doesn’t for you.

WRITE ON,

What are your favorite productivity tips? Do you use the Pomodoro technique?

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