I normally am super productive on Mondays. But today, I can’t seem to get anything done. I decided to get through this post by writing about my writer’s block. It actually gave me ideas on how to get unstuck:
Prioritize the revenue
Knowing I had a lower amount of energy today, I prioritized my To Do list by what is closest to cash. This meant I started with my paid writing assignment over my for-publicity-only posts. I could have also done some sales calls today, but I am in no mood to do it, and I might have done more harm than good. So it’s not about the money over anything else, but if I can do something revenue-generating, I will.
Eat a dragon ball
Sometimes you just need a break. Luckily for me, I had picked up a dragon ball on the way home from a morning meeting. For the uninitiated, a dragon ball is a Chinese pastry of deep-fried dough stuffed with sweet black or red beans and rolled in sesame seeds. Really, it tastes good. For me, it meant a treat to jumpstart my flagging energy. (I ate a grapefruit before the dragon ball to balance the bad with the goodJ)
Look for shortcuts
Today would not be a good day to tackle something hard, so I needed to make my activities as easy as possible. With writing, this means picking a topic I am already familiar with. I keep a running list of questions I get from readers or audience from my workshop. I’ve already answered these questions in some way – email response, comment reply, Q&A during the workshop. So writing about this topic will be the second (or more) time I address this issue. The familiarity gives me additional support and a much needed shortcut.
Rely on past ideas
In addition to my running list of questions, I outline an edit calendar every few months where I deposit seasonal ideas, format ideas (e.g., Top Ten List), or pieces of future posts. When I’m feeling depleted I can go back to this creative bank account and withdraw. When I’m having a creative boom, I know to add back to my edit calendar or other idea bank account for later. (I do this, not just for writing, but for business building ideas as well.)
Use what you have
The above helped get me through my first two posts, but by the third one I needed more – hence the idea to just write about the process of not being able to write and what I could do about that. I’m still writing an advice piece but I’m using what is around me – in this case, my own problem to advise myself! Sometimes I’m sparked by a book or article I recently read. Sometimes, I look at my list of motivational quotes to see if there is a post I can start with a quote. In this case, I looked at my folder of pictures and found this image that inspired me to write about writer’s block.
Inspiration exists all around you.
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