25 for 25: Staying on track
You want to see the results and outcomes and positivity—and the transformation it can cause for you.
This essay is part of my 25 for 25 book writing series. The lessons in this series are meant to simplify the book writing and production journey. You can find a guide with links to the entire series here.
When you’re writing a book, life will inevitably get in the way if you let it.
I know that feeling far too well. I spent a decade writing my book about a baseball player, Ken Caminiti. I started working on the book in 2012, at a time when I had no idea how to write a book.
I researched and interviewed lots of people and kept digging. But in the early-going, I didn’t feel quite confident in my writing abilities. So I kept pushing off the book. And pushing it off. And pushing it off.
Call it imposter syndrome or failure to launch, or insecurity, or … ?
It took me until 2020 when I was ready to bring the project forward.
You can work on a book forever and never finish it.
I’ve actually worked on manuscripts started by people who passed away before they could finish writing, and then their relative carried the project forward after their death … which is bittersweet. You want to see a project through while you’re still around to appreciate it.
You don’t want your book to be an anchor and chain, a shadow that constantly follows you. You want to be empowered by it.
You want to see the results and outcomes and positivity—and the transformation it can cause for you.
Set short-term incremental goals
Writing a 100,000-word book feels unattainable at the beginning. But if you write 275 words a day, you could pass 100,000 words on the final day of the year. Thinking of your goal as 275 words each day is a much more manageable goal than 100,000.
It's crucial, as you work on a book, to think in terms of little pieces and little chunks. By setting daily and weekly goals, you’ll be much more inclined to keep on track. That way, if you’ve fallen behind, you could figure out the writing output needed to catch up. If I write 300 words a day for the next two weeks, I’ll be back on my writing pace.
The same applies if you’re ahead of schedule—you could map out the daily and weekly goals you’ll need to meet in order to hit your total milestone, then get to it!
Writing sprints
Do you have 10 free minutes? Six hundred seconds?
Take those 10 minutes and just write whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry about making your words clean or coherent or perfect—just write!
Writing sprints are a great way to unlock a story on the page and bring new energy to a topic.
Afterward, you can go back and clean up and refine the text and see if any of it is usable. They also condition you to make the most of pockets of time.
As a breaking news reporter, every day was a prolonged writing sprint for me. I really found my passion for writing sprints while taking train rides into New York City for work. When I took the Metro North to and from work, the train ride was 35 minutes each way … which was just enough time for me to write 400 or 500 words on a given topic.
I focused on getting as much writing done in those 35-minute increments as I could. I would think about the topic ahead of time, write whatever motivated me, then when the train arrived at its destination, I would pack up my computer and go about my day.
Life is busy, and it’s tough to block out hours-long stretches of free time on your calendar to tackle your writing.
As you get more comfortable with writing sprints, you can increase the time to 30 or 45 minutes or an hour.
But start with 10 minutes.
Do it! Put the book down and start writing! And come back in 600 seconds.
Blocking out time
There are so many things that pop up in our lives—family, job, hobbies and other obligations.
In order to make progress on your book, you need to make it a priority.
I find that mapping out the week and figuring out my best days and times to write can be really beneficial. Maybe you have a block of two hours every Monday morning blocked out for writing. Maybe it’s on Thursday night.
By scheduling out that time, you’re doing your best to ensure that no other obligations are going to get in the way of you writing.
Cut out digital distractions
Digital distractions are a productivity killer.
Book writing requires the deepest of focus—and push notifications and email alerts and text messages are meant to pull you away.
When you are writing, block out every possible distraction. Disconnect the internet if you must. Close your internet browsers.
As Steve Glaveski wrote in a 2019 article for Harvard Business Review, “After a notification has forced us to switch between tasks, it can take us about 23 minutes to get back to the task at hand, according to a study from University of California, Irvine.”
Twenty. Three. Minutes.
Think back to our focus on 10-30-minute writing sprints, and a digital notification could erase all of your potential progress. Your entire window for writing could be derailed by one pop-up, one text message, one email.
Turn off your notifications. Ignore your email. Adjust your phone settings so only important calls will come through. You need focus to write your best book, and digital distractions will undermine you at every turn if you let them.
Watch this!
I cover staying on track in this video.