Transform your writing life with free life strategies for writers.
In previous posts, I’ve written that distraction isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s a necessary part of the creative process that gives our subconscious minds the chance to work things out while we do other things.
But as useful as distraction can be, sometimes it is just what it seems to be—a way of avoiding getting down to work. All those times we leave our writing to check email, water the plants, or make another cup of coffee might be freeing us up to create subliminally—or they might just be keeping us from the hard work of writing. Sometimes procrastination is just procrastination.
As a writer who often struggles with focus, I feel like an expert—both on the problem of spacing out and on ways to solve it. I’ve found a number of specific techniques help me gain focus at times when I really need to get down to work. Here are 5 things you can do to help you home in on your writing when your concentration goes on vacation.
1. Create a space that makes you want to write.
I’m sometimes surprised at how little thought writers give to the spaces they write in. Yet we all know the environments we work in can have profound effects on mood, energy level, and concentration.
Creating a writing space is a very personal endeavor, unique to everyone who writes. The bustle of a café might be what you need to keep going. Or maybe you prefer the zen-like simplicity of a quiet writing room or the familiar feel of a kitchen table. The point is to figure out what works for you, then create that space.
Of course, we can’t all have an ideal space to write in. Many people—myself included at various times in my life—have had to write while locked in bathrooms, sitting in their parked cars, or catching a few minutes in the break room at work. But even in these cases, it is good to think about whether there is anything we can do to make the setting more conducive to creativity. Some ear buds? A special notebook? A framed picture of a beautiful scene or an inspirational quote?
If you’re having trouble with focus, take a good hard look at your writing space. Does it put you in a writing frame of mind the moment you step into it? If not, do whatever you can to make it work.
2. Set sacred writing time.
Many writers find it helpful to have a specific interval set off as their writing time. That time is “sacred” in the sense that it is devoted purely to your writing. It might be two hours or fifteen minutes, but whatever it is, your sacred writing time should have defined boundaries, so you know when it begins and when it ends. In that interval, you are just going to write and nothing else.
When I set sacred time to write, I see it much as I do the time I set aside for yoga, meditation, or other spiritual practices. I don’t get up in the middle of my meditation to check email or stop in the middle of yoga to have a snack: I honor my practice by sticking to it throughout the time I’ve allotted.
Treat your writing time the same way you treat any time devoted to the most essential tasks of your life. Make it sacrosanct and inviolable.
3. Set an intention.
An intention is a decision about what kind of person and writer you want to be and a commitment to becoming that person and writer. It is a dedication to living according to your values.
Intentions are not the same as goals. A goal is about doing things. It aims for the future. It says, “I will write 500 words today” or “I will finish my novel this summer.” An intention is not about doing, but about being, and it is not about the future, but about this moment.
Start your day by setting the intention to consecrate your life to writing. Renew your intention throughout the day. The more times you remind yourself that you are devoted to the writing life, the more writing will come to feel as natural and necessary as breathing. Few practices are more powerful ways to gain focus. (For more about intentions, read The Power of Intention.
4. Limit your perspective.
In her wonderful book on writing, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes about the “one-inch picture frame.” Writing often feels overhwelming. Even a short story or essay can be dauntingly complex and challenging. To deal with that complexity, Lamott urges writers to limit their view to the one small thing they are working on right now.
Instead of saying to yourself, “I’m going to work on my novel this morning,” say, “I’m sharpening this one scene.” Instead of saying, “I’ve got to make this chapter more cohesive,” say, “I’m going to pull together this single passage.” Limiting your perspective to the one-inch picture frame helps shut down anxiety and brings all your attention to the one page that is right in front of you.
5. Keep your pen on the page.
One of the most challenging—and most helpful—ways of increasing focus is the technique developed by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones: Keeping your pen on the page. (Or, if you write like I do, keeping your fingers on the keyboard.)
This means writing without stopping, even for a moment. You can set a timer for 5 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour—whatever you feel you can do—and during that time, keep writing. Don’t stop to think, edit, evaluate, wonder, rest, research, daydream, or question. Even if what you’re writing seems terrible and meaningless, keep at it.
If you’re like most of us, much of what you write will be detritus that you will later edit away. But woven into the riffraff that comes bubbling out of our minds when we write this way, you will also find radiant and perfect gems to keep, polish, and use. Most importantly, the not-stopping technique forces you to keep your mind trained on the page. When you can’t stop writing, you have no choice but to focus.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman has called focus “the hidden driver of excellence,” claiming it is more important to achievement than talent, hard work, or perseverance. So if you find your focus is lagging at times when you really need and want to get your words out, try these 5 techniques, and see what happens to your attention.
Click here to get free transformational strategies for writers by email.