We’ve all been there: You’ve had a long, rough day at work or taking care of the kids, then you cook dinner, clean, and spend some time with the family…
…and after all that, the last thing you want to do before calling it a day is write.
It’s not just “writer’s block”; this is something else entirely. Something more sinister.
This is burnout.
If you’ve ever written yourself into the ground to meet a deadline, then you know what blogging burnout feels like.
Yet there’s no getting around it – we’re all writers, in some way or fashion, and so it’s crucial that we learn to combat this productivity killer as soon as – or before – it sets in.
Here are 7 great tips for defeating blogger burnout before it has a chance to grab hold and kill your productivity:
1. Begin With the End in Mind
Yes, I stole this from Covey’s well-known The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, but it’s a perfect statement for writers as well.
Before you ever start writing, it’s important to know where you’re going. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to hit a word count goal, or free-write? Maybe you’d like to wrap up a post for a freelance blogging gig?
Whatever it is, set a specific success metric – a measurable goal that clarifies what success (for this individual writing project or session) looks like.
2. Set Mini-Goals
Similarly, you want to “chunk” larger projects into more manageable pieces. Set up a schedule that allows you to knock out a portion of the writing project each day, week, or whenever you regularly sit down to write.
If you want to write a novel, for example, your “chunks” can be your chapters – plan a general structure for each chapter ahead of time, and your individual writing sessions will go much more smoothly!
3. Know Your Limits
How many words per day/hour/minute can you write?
While speed is only one possible metric you can use for determining your writing “limits”, it’s an important one.
Don’t set a word count goal or “blog posts finished” goal of more than you can handle writing in a day. Sure, it’s great to set challenges, but there’s no fun in coming up short each and every time you sit down to write.
4. Figure Out What You’re Writing
Again, this one is self-explanatory, but often forgotten. Do you plan out your blog posts, or writing “chunks”?
If not, why not?
It’s easy to pop open Evernote and scribble a simple three-part outline (intro, body, and conclusion) for a blog post, or a scene/sequel structure outline for a book, and it doesn’t take much time at all. You’ll find that your writing goes much smoother if you do this.
5. Know Your Market
One of the things that helps me – no matter what I’m writing – is to have my ideal reader in mind. Sometimes it’s as simple as declaring myself the “ideal reader” (hey, if I don’t want to read it, why would anyone else?), but other times I can “see” the reader, on the other side of my computer screen, reading through what I’ve spent so much time on.
This strategy won’t necessarily help you write more, or even more efficiently (though it can), but it will help you achieve more clarity with your assignment.
6. Every Time You Sit Down, Make Something Happen
When I first started blogging (circa 2007), this was a mantra I applied to write every day. I wanted to launch a successful blog, and I knew I needed to be posting every day (or least thought I did!).
If you make yourself do something each and every time you sit down at the computer, typewriter, or in front of a pen and paper, you’ll be one step ahead of where you were an hour ago. I’ve also found that it’s much harder to stop once I start writing than it is to get started in the first place.
7. Forget Writer’s Block – You’re a Pro
When you think you can’t write, do something else. Get up and do some jumping jacks, eat a snack, go for a walk, then come back and sit down and keep writing.
You don’t have to keep plugging away – typing, deleting, typing, deleting, etc. – on the same thing, either. Working on a tough project for a client? Put it aside and write about how tough it is.
Write a story, or work on a fiction project. Whatever it is, make sure it’s writing. Your word count goal doesn’t have to be in one specific project – sometimes I’ll hit my daily 2,000-word mark across five different writing projects I’m working on!
Always keep writing – writing can be an income stream, an escape, or a means to a greater end, but it’s always worth doing for no other reason than to write.
Stick with it, ignore writer’s block as much as possible, and when the “burnout urge” crops up, beat it down before it takes over with these 7 tips.
Have you struggled with burnout before? How did you overcome it? Leave a comment and tell me your story!
Photo by Evil Erin
These are some great tips, Nick! I particularly like number six. That’s a great tip that I need to implement.
It’s easy to get online and start browsing and fooling around. You can get sidetracked very easily. So making a goal to write something or make something happen helps to stay on track and accomplish a writing goal, even if it is a bit at a time. I need to make that my motto!
Yep, I’ve done that whole “ooh, Twitter!” thing too many times. Out of all these tips, though, #5 is my favourite. Gotta know who you’re writing *for* or the rest is hard work!
Hi Leslie! Thanks for the great comment — and yes, it is VERY easy to get sidetracked and go down the rabbit hole!
Loving these tips! Tips i will try to live by.
Evernote is a godsend…particularly when you have sent a link to a blog draft to a client and they can see your progress. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to blog for someone else. It’s a completely different animal. Great post!
Hi Willi — yep, blogging is a beast when you’re doing it for someone else!
I think #6 should say, “Every time you sit down to write…”
Sometimes we need to sit down at our computers and just burn time…mess around on Facebook, whatever. If our purpose for getting on the computer IS to write, then write we should. But one way to guarantee burn-out is to never allow ourselves down-time, whether that’s on the computer or away from it.
Perhaps that’s what you meant, but you didn’t actually specify that.
As #7 implies, I think having various types of writing projects can be very helpful and therapeutic. I can get very burned out with my blog, but having other projects to work on, even if it’s just spending a few minutes on a book idea, can get the juices flowing again.
Good point. Yeah, sometimes we simply need to do “nothing much” for a while – it’s for our own good!
Hi Anne!
Actually, I like that change a lot — I know (especially these past few days) that I do need to just sit down and chill, and NOT do anything else. Thanks for the great insight!
I can definitely relate to the burn out! Hopefully these tips can help me out.
Hi Nick & Sophie,
A great post to get through to my e-mail after spending two hours on Youtube looking at ‘Tough Mudder’ videos.. I have been trying to get a lot of ideas out of my head and into posts for my new blog and this hits the nail on the head with being productive but also avoiding burnout.
I force myself out of the house and up the mountain, or down to the lake for a few hours to get away from the glare of my MacBook and the seemingly never ending task of writing.
I like the WordPress ‘no distractions’ tab in posts or just use text edit and turn off the internet. Otherwise I start an article, end up looking on my facebook for a picture from Thailand, see my friend in Fiji, get a message from the guys in Perth, look for a song on Youtube, skip to a new travel blog I like… What was I writing again!?…
You have to be disciplined and try to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Also, don’t over do it. There is a whole world outside this screen 🙂
Adam
Yep, I’m with you on that. Keeping procrastination at bay, at least for long enough to get something useful done, is a mission all by itself!
Haha, I know how that is (in a much more mundane way!). It’s a challenge, and it never ends, but just remember that self-discipline is essentially a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
These are all great tips, Nick. All give pause for thought. Your statement: “Forget Writer’s Block – You’re a Pro”, is one I agree with. Writer’s Block is often used as an excuse for not getting down to it, and just doing the business of writing.
It can be tough. Exercising the mind by writing until the nugget arrives is a good technique. I’ve also found that pitching a piece of work before writing it can be a tough one too, because it can lead to a conflict of style. But it’s great for stretching the creativity.
Those are good thoughts, and some that I try my best to follow as often as possible! Thanks for stopping by, Tom!
#6 was what I struggled with for a long time. And you’re right, if you start writing it’s hard to stop. I literally wrote 2000 words in two hours today, and I was complaining how I was so tired before I sat down at my desk!
I really connected with #4 and #5 with out those two key factors I believe your complete lost and just spinning your wheels. Though it can be difficult to fully discover both, it’s very important to find and really zone in on what your do and who your doing it for.
Thanks for sharing,
Eric
So glad you felt a connection, Eric! 🙂
Best of luck getting into your zone, and thank you for stopping by!
Really enjoyed reading these tips, Nick! Number 6 is particularly inspiring for me. When sitting down to work, I tend to dilly-dally far too often – contemplating too much, worrying about life’s other distractions, answering e-mails or tweets and so on – instead of actually writing. Will be sure to bookmark and remind myself of your tips when I slam into a writing rut.
Contemplating too much… THAT certainly sounds familiar. Sounds like the perfectionism demons are nattering at you. I’ve always found perfectionism to be another form of procrastination (and one that I struggle with often!).
As for “life’s other distractions,” I just try to get those out of the way ahead of time. I work best at night so I use the daylight hours to do my “no brainer” chores.
Be good to yourself, Ryan! Don’t worry so much. Writing ruts happen to everyone.
Thanks for commenting!
These were all great, but boy, do I need number #4! That’s a great tip about just jotting down the three-part outline. Love that idea, thanks!
I actually like to take #4 one step further and carry a small notebook in my purse just in case I think of an outline while I’m out-and-about. You never know when inspiration will strike! Be ready. 😉
First off I want to say fantastic blog!
I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind.
I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear
your head prior to writing. I have had a difficult
time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out.
I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to
15 minutes are lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any ideas or tips? Kudos!
If you find yourself zoning out every time you sit down to write, you might not be writing during your best “action times.” Are you a night person forcing themselves to work mornings? Or a morning person who’s saving all their work for later?
Or you could be feeling overwhelmed before you even begin because your writing goals are huge & overly-vague. Breaking your daily writing goals into smaller chunks can really help.
For more about these topics, check out: http://littlezotz.com/2013/08/a-is-for-action/
Kudos to you as well! Good luck. 🙂