On Writing: Deadlines, Discipline, and Dedication to Your Work
By: Anisa Nasir
Tags: Productivity, Writing Tips, Writing, Writers Life, Inspiration

You wake up worrying about getting to work on time, about making it to that meeting, about turning in that work that has been piling up on your desk, and you ask yourself: “When have I written last?” I had a moment like this quite recently, when work seemed to take over my time, and before I knew it I had been completely submerged in everything I didn’t necessarily want to be doing, wishing I had a way to sit down and let myself be creative. I knew that it would be too difficult to try to implement a writing session after the workday, because I know how tired I am when I return home, and I also know how many other things I need to do upon walking through my front door, and how daunting they can all be. So, I decided it was time to make a change. I woke up one morning tired of the way my everyday life was progressing, so I made a decision to do more even if there was no time do so — or so I thought.

I got serious about my writing, I treated it like a job, not a hobby. I began by simply working on my current projects during my break/lunchtime at work, and that led into me waking a bit earlier to get back to work, or sectioning out a good chunk of my time every day to do the one thing that makes me the happiest and this had an incredible affect on my mood, productivity, and overall way of life.I stopped wishing “I could write” and started deciding that writing was exactly what I planned on doing. I worked hard at my novel, set a deadline to finish editing it so I could move forward, I take my time drafting blog posts and articles every week, and I exercise my creativity through short stories and poetry as much as possible. There was a time I felt that this wouldn’t be possible, that it was just wishful thinking, but I made the decision to begin and I remained dedicated to make it a constant in my day-to-day life. For such a long time, all I wanted to do was be consistent — and I found a way to do that by just changing my perspective, thinking of writing as something that needed to be done, but also something I wanted to do as much as I possibly could.

If you’re struggling to implement writing into your daily routine, and it is really and truly something you want, you will find the time to do so. Waking up an hour earlier may seem to be unsettling to some, impossible to others, but that extra hour of creative work can really change your entire day. Give your creative work the dedication, time, and effort it deserves to flourish. Even if you only have fifteen minutes to spare, those fifteen minutes could spark an idea that would eventually bloom into something you’re undoubtedly proud of.

So, set your deadlines. Schedule writing sessions in like meetings that cannot be missed, and find a way to incorporate it into your day-to-day life that works best for you. One thing that has noticeably helped me is that I set up my writing sessions like a meeting whenever I can. I take the extra time to lay out what I need, to make notes before I begin, to journal a bit to discuss where I’d like it to go (but only for about ten minutes) so that the chunk of my writing session is spent actually writing. I learned what worked for me from years of trial and error, and I can safely say that now that I look back on those times, there is no place I’d rather be, there is no work I’d rather be doing. I wanted to write, but I didn’t have the discipline to work at it — now I do, because I’ve decided it’s time that I started calling myself a writer and work tirelessly at all of those goals that have seemed to remain untouched all these years.