Getting down to work is hard. It takes a time and a place and these are not easily found, even when someone takes our hand and says here is the time and place for you to do this.
A teacher or a boss gives you an assignment. “Have this done by Friday.” But Friday is so far away. It’s hard to even see it from Monday. Or Tuesday. Suddenly Friday seems too close on Wednesday. We need to remove the end goal (Friday, done, assignment). We need to replace the goal with a process (today, worked on, acceptance).
We achieve a process by breaking up a project, building a repeated routine, and accepting effort instead of expecting perfection can help with work and school. They are even more important when it’s about our own personal goals and creative projects.
Long ago, I decided to write a novel. “Decided” may be too strong a word. “Realized I was writing a novel” is more accurate. I knew this was the goal, and on some level had always been a goal for me, but here I was suddenly doing it. This is where writing is a bit like hunting. I had been making progress because I had just been writing in small steps instead of trying to finish a novel. But the moment I realized I was in fact working on a novel I froze. A novel is big. That means big chunks of writing, right? That means hours, right?
I didn’t have chunks. Or hours. I had a job, and a growing family, and a dog that liked to go on walks for reasons we won’t discuss.
I did have a commute. If I used my time on the subway to work on my—dare I say it? Novel—maybe I could get things done. It worked. I got a novel done. Then another. I found my time by using the time I had—downtime on the train—to do the thing. What was my process? Not trying to finish. Just trying to do. For me, staying on track was literally on the tracks. It’s changed since then. (Pandemics change commutes.) That means I’ve reinvented my process. Staying on track became finding a time, setting an alarm, and pretending I was still commuting. I mean that literally. (Here’s the youtube soundtrack I had to use for a few weeks to restart my morning writing routine.)
Process for me is three steps:
Planning a routine. What time do you have that you know you can regularly use? Draw a simple calendar on a piece of paper, or grab your planner. Write down the time and place you’ll sit down to work on your project. As much or as little time as you have, and also what you think you can manage. Sure we’d love to write for 4 hours straight, but maybe 14 minutes is more realistic.
Turn routine into habit. Now that you’ve mapped out your routine… STOP. THINKING. ABOUT. IT. Little bits done repeatedly turn into big things. Look at an anthill. Imagine if an ant had to consider what they were going to do before starting. Talk about depression. Follow your routine consciously…sometimes painfully… for a few weeks, but remind yourself each day that it’s starting to become an automatic habit. “This is what I do,” you can say. “I write at this time.” You’re trying to turn the work into something as automatic as washing your hands before eating, or covering your mouth when sneezing. (Don’t tell me if you don’t do these things.)
Practice Acceptance: This may be the most important stage. Acceptance arrives in waves, and in between there is shame and anger and self-doubt. Ride those out. Talk to yourself. “I wrote today, and that’s enough.” It is not about perfect writing. It’s about any writing. It’s not about 500 or 5000 or even 50 words. Sometimes it’s about 5. Or 4. Or… maybe you just sat and thought about the project. Sometimes that’s enough.
There’s a final step to process that no one wants to recognize but life has a way of forcing upon us: be flexible. Things change. Remind yourself that you started a process once, so you can start a new one. Breathe. Repeat.
Exercise: Don’t work on something you care about, work on something you haven’t thought about: your process. Be UNREALISTIC: how much fantasy time would you use to write if you could. How many words a day? How fast would you finish writing that thing if there was NOTHING in your way. Now… be realistic: how much time do you have? When is it? Where is it. Carve out moments.
What do you do? How did you build your process?