As I get older I realize that my lack of productivity or lack of motivation isn’t always because I’m lazy. Sometimes I’m unmotivated to write because my room is dirty or because I need new equipment. Other times, it’s because I don’t have a clear focus as to what I want to do or I don’t trust the vision I’ve laid out for myself.
Not having a clear vision is a result of not being sure of what I want. I know on my days off I’m struggling between trying to find a second job, write more blogs, and trying to enjoy my day off. It’s like I spend the whole 16 hours of that day trying to figure out what to do first. When I finally figure it out, I have an hour before I go to bed, so I do nothing because I don’t have time.
My current solution to this is to create a daily schedule that maps out everything I need to do for that type of day. I divided the days of my week into off days and work days. On my off days, I would try to do more writing and researching for business ideas. On my work days, I’ll do just enough writing because I want to maximize my rest for the next day. The next thing I’ll add is a daily schedule to where I have specific tasks that need to get done on certain days of the week. For example, I’ll add my Toastmasters meetings on Thursdays, because I go to them weekly.
The next thing I’m working on is reevaluating my writing strategy. I’ll start by figuring out why I am writing. I know I love and enjoy the freedom it brings, but I don’t need to write for 9 hours a day. What, besides freedom and enjoyment, would I get out of it if I did? As I thought about it, I realized my answers change based on my financial stability. When I’m broke, I don’t see a point, but when I have money, then I want to do more writing. Then I wonder if I’m writing for the money or am I stressing over money which prevents me from writing at the level I want to be on. Financial stability is the reason I chose to work a regular job. I wanted to assure myself that I wouldn’t stress over money, thus increasing my productivity. August 2015 has been very stressful, but I managed to write twice. I want to get to the point in my life where I’m writing daily or even multiple times a day. Hopefully this gives me the urge to say, do and feel a need to blog more.
Now that I have financial stability, I still need to figure out why I am writing. I want a business explanation for it because, let’s be honest, if I just wanted to write and release, then I wouldn’t be taking acting classes, going to Toastmasters meetings, and seriously considering taking more writing classes. Clearly I have a desire to do so much more. Doing anything else less is unacceptable to me.
To motivate myself, I decided to start writing down my goals for becoming a writer and work backwards. My goal is to make money as a writer, and I want to make a living telling unique stories about the African American lifestyle that isn’t always talked about or discussed. This is an attempt to increase dialogue about who we really are as a people. Now, how do I get there?
As I’m writing this I realized I don’t have an answer to my question above. I think it’s fair to say that the reason I have a lack of motivation is because I don’t know how to get there. I have a book in the editing process and I’m working on the second one. Outside of that, I have really good ideas with nothing connecting them.
I think my next step in this journey to be a writer who earns a decent salary while learning to put these ideas together. The next step is to put a team together who can take these ideas and turn them into productive solutions to get my career going.
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