Creating Writing Accountability for Self-Discipline and Productivity
Writing, unlike many other professions, is a self-employed endeavor. This unique aspect of our craft necessitates cultivating writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. Every day, the responsibility is solely yours. It would be best to find creativity within you, even when it's not flowing easily. You must be nurturing towards yourself. And most importantly, you must finish your work.
Other professions have built-in accountability, but not you. You must have writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. It all comes down to you. Different professions have supervisors or clients who push you; you must push yourself. When you commit to writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity, you are making a deal with yourself to prioritize and protect your time (which seems to always want to be interrupted), protect your energy (there is only so much you have to give in a day), and you must protect your success (you are the only one, in your quiet, singular room who can get this job done). Writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity gives you a purpose.
I’ve found a good question I ask myself many mornings: “Why am I doing this to myself?” I say this with a smile. But understanding why you write reminds you of your purpose. Personal purpose is incredibly important in accountability for self-discipline and productivity. Knowing why you are doing something gives you a bigger picture, something more significant than the writing itself, something that fulfills you, and something that will influence your long-term future. Giving yourself a true purpose that is intellectually and emotionally fulfilling for you individually gives you the tools for writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. It gives you meaning for why you show up during your writing time, why you are available to write, and the importance of your writing. You need to know your purpose. As an exercise, write your purpose and look at it every day to help inspire you.
Writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity means owning those goals that you wrote down. You can now make smaller goals based upon this big goal of purpose because it is the small, single-day journey that will get you where you want to go. When you set goals, they become your roadmap. You know you’re not waiting for someone to tell you what to do. You know you’re not waiting for someone else to make you accountable for self-discipline and productivity. When you’re not setting these goals, you're floundering and going in less direct or productive directions. Having these goals can be incredibly motivating because each small goal is doable (though not always as quickly as you hoped, but that’s okay), and you know that these goals streamline into this big goal, this significant purpose central to who you are. It gives you writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity.
As writers, and I know it all too well, you get interrupted. When you’re home and typing, no one seems to think twice about interrupting you or quickly visiting. It's the same if you’re working at your office. This is why people escape to Starbucks. They know no one there. However, as a writer, writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity means creating boundaries and a routine that goes along with that. It would be best if you protected your writing time. I’ve jokingly said that writing is like going to church, though I’m not joking. I take it seriously. It's life or death, heaven or hell, and I find time to do it. It doesn’t matter when you do it: first thing in the morning (this is me), during your lunch break, after dinner, late at night before bed. The important thing is that you set a schedule, protect the schedule, and show up. Does it have to be every day? It helps, but no, it is not a requirement. Schedule your time for what works for you. But you must schedule it. It’s the only way to create writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. Protecting your writing time is a way of showing respect for your craft and your creative process.
Writing is a long haul. You must have writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity to go the distance. It would be best to trust that you can get there, and making yourself accountable will help you do that. Every time you show up to write, you learn to trust that you can achieve the purpose and goal you wrote about in what I asked you to do earlier. Trusting yourself to create writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity, I have found, keeps several wolves at bay: doubt, burnout, procrastination, and even imposter syndrome. You know you’re not an imposter because you get a little further down the road every day. Again, you do this with your plan: writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. Self-discipline and productivity go hand in hand.
By holding yourself accountable, you ensure both the amount of work and the quality of your work. Each day, you complete new pages. You get stronger each day because you are using your creative muscles. Writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity eventually means you’re not just showing up regularly to write but also writing material that you’re proud of, stories or essays that allow yourself to be challenged, material that you can be proud to send to agents and literary editors. Writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity tells the world, but most importantly, you that, because of the standards you are setting for yourself, you have respect for your readers, your abilities as a writer, and yourself.
Every day, you know you have that appointment you’ve made with yourself to write. When you’ve made that appointment, you know that you have a decision to embrace success or failure on that road towards that goal or purpose that you wrote down earlier. And, if you haven’t written down that goal, please do. It is a life-changer, a career-changer, and a self-esteem-changer. Please trust me in this.
Just because you practice writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be bumps in the road of your writing, career, or even your self-esteem at times. You will have good days where you get much accomplished and not-so-good days, but you won’t know what you’ll get from that set writing time unless you show up and write something. Good or bad, some days are just better than others. The important thing is that you showed up. But writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity means that you are taking ownership. You are making yourself accountable. You have set your purpose or goal, put your writing time at whatever frequency you can work into your life, view your writing time as an appointment you can’t miss for any reason, and write while you are there. Whatever happens, it doesn’t matter. You showed up and embraced the uncontrollable, whether you had proficient writing time or not-so-productive writing time. That single session doesn’t matter. It’s more important that you were there and you made the habit.
When you commit to writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity, you commit to your future, present, self-esteem, and personal fulfillment. It’s worth it. So, if you haven’t done it, please, right now, write down your purpose or goal. Make it believable and tangible. It’s okay to dream big, but make it something you can achieve with work. Break it down into small goals, so you know how to get there. Set specific writing times based on your life’s schedule of when you can close off the rest of the world and write. Put those times on your day planner, your phone calendar, or wherever you need to put it to remind yourself of your commitment. Then show up, make sure you won’t be disturbed, and get those fingers clicking on the keyboard. Eighty-thousand words later, you’ll have your novel, memoir, nonfiction book, true crime book, short story collection, book of poetry, or whatever you want to write. You’ll have something to show for it. A little at a time in a consistent manner produces incomprehensible gains like the proverbial but scientifically sound water dripping on a rock eventually makes a deep hole. Completed literary work doesn’t happen overnight, but with the formula outlined here, you will get there by writing accountability for self-discipline and productivity. And my, how good that will make you feel.
