How to be More Productive
I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing productivity and questioning my daily routine. I picked up Daily Rituals: How Artists Work from the library because like the author, Mason Currey, I want to know how great artists organize their days in order to be creative and productive.
Currey does not pretend to offer certainties by chronicling the rituals of 161 great minds, but rather gives the reader examples of how some brilliant people have met the same challenges we face when we hold the tension between inspiration and hard work, between our big creative visions and our small daily doings.
Every day my mind tortures me about being more productive and my body leads me to my quiet spot in the backyard where I do nothing. Until my hand starts guiding the pen across the page. I like to align with what is ready to arrive in the moment. Give things and events a chance to speak.
I know that is the way of the creative.
Yes, AND…
How do I stay productive? What is the plan? How many blogs should I be posting, how many articles should I be submitting? And for the love of God what should I do with all these notebooks full of writing?
I don’t have certainties, no calculated number of words I should be writing. But today I have this article, today is its birthday. Let me explain.
In my inbox this morning was a link to this blog from a fellow birth doula, and like a silver key to a secret compartment, it opened the lock, revealing all the secrets I’d forgotten. Angela, the doula, helped me to see what’s been going on:
I’ve been experiencing prodromal labor.
I’m a trained birth doula, providing support for women in labor, and this wisdom so easily lends itself to any creative process. Prodromal labor is early labor, when the body is doing its thing, prepping for the big day. Contractions may be regular for a certain amount of time, then they might completely stop. In this phase, you don’t feel productive. Your labor is not “effective” yet.
In her post, Angela reminds doulas that we should not be trying to make the woman’s labor more efficient during this natural gearing-up phase.
All of this creativity/productivity processing, tensing and releasing, resting and worrying, wondering when it will happen, was early labor for the birthing of this article! I didn’t need a technique or a new ritual to increase productivity. I needed my doula self to listen to my moaning, and to remind me of my strength and courage, especially when nothing seemed to be happening.
Oh. God. Words from yesterdays notebook entry have made their way out (a miracle!):
“I feel at ease. Yes, transition is in the air, but there is no rush, no rush to push anything out, help it happen. IT IS HAPPENING…”
So my doula self was speaking! She speaks now to all the women writers who find themselves in “unproductive” phases: “It’s ok…this is part of the process…you are working beautifully…there is nothing you must do…it will happen…it is happening!”
And here is what it would say, in short, if my daily ritual were chronicled in a book:
I putter around in my home and in my backyard, just being with the creative, reminding myself that everything is happening in perfect timing. Until I know the idea is ready to be pushed out. And how do I know when it’s time? When everything is magically in place and it mysteriously begins.
Now, I just gotta make good with that. After all, I’m a woman who knows how to give birth.
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips
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My ideas have given birth and are living on my pages of manuscript. Now I’m in for the long slog of revision. That’s revision of about 100k words – a Big Job. My issue is keeping up the productivity. I find writing first drafts very absorbing. But revision and editing are entirely different for me, in regard to mind and heart commitment, bum in seat, etc.
Hang in there Bronwen! Preparing for and giving birth is so different than taking care of the newborn, right?!
What a lovely post. It’s true that we as artists put so much pressure on our output. It’s hard when it seems like Stephen King writes a book every other second. And there are so many distractions. I’m constantly trying to find ways to do more with more and more distractions. Recently, I was hired to do a freelance researching job and I had to track my work output. It made me realize that I need to do that in my own work. It’s made a huge difference. There are some days, I let myself go at my own pace and other days, I settle in, turn on the app and make sure that I get my six hours of writing done. Thanks for giving us all an insight into your own process/ struggle.
Hi Hollie,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, it’s so helpful to feel in this together somehow! You are right, there are so many distractions! and writing, like a baby, requires we put the gadgets down in order to be fully present.
Tracking your work output is really inspiring, and I’m looking at how I can create my own version. I love that we all are speaking of balancing the output with our own creative rhythms…That feels good to me!
Thanks for the inspiration,
Carrie
A beautiful metaphor. With my firstborn, I went through two weeks of occasional contractions, then when the real thing happened, it happened fast. Once your story is ready to be born, watch out.
Beth! My own labor was similar- once it started, it was on! I love it…Once everything is in alignment, your stories/writing are coming out no matter what! Thanks for the reminder. Maybe our next big writing gigs will be similar to our labors 😉
-Carrie
I struggle with this concept. To be working, do I always have to be in the Word document, tweeking, writing new words, making forward progress? Or can I be working and not be near my computer or even a pen, playing with my fictional friends in my mind and trying to understand their story?
So I’ve compromised. I make word goals for the day, the week, and even the month. I write down my daily goals on my to do list. Sometimes I make it, sometimes not, but I always try.
Being in the manuscript gives me the structure to move forward, especially with a first draft. If I’m not writing or pen and inking my thoughts, I’m not progressing. I can edit later.
However I also know there are days where I’m not going to reach my daily goal. And that’s okay too, as long as I come back to the document tomorrow and not months from now when I’m feeling inspired.
Lynn
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your comment. It’s nice to know we are not alone in our struggles. And to know that your questioning echoes my own, is comforting!
Creating word goals is a great accountability tool, and I appreciate that you are gentle with yourself when you don’t reach a goal. We all have those days, and it seems we make it more difficult by fighting them…at least I do!
It sounds like your rhythm and ritual serves you all! Thank you for sharing it. I’m inspired to continue to show up, and create more accountability coupled with flexibility.