Unusual but effective tricks to explode your productivity as a writer

When a writer feels unable to write and productivity plummets, life can look bleak.

Luckily, there are simple tricks you can rely on to curb your procrastination and spike your enthusiasm.

Some of these tactics may seem unusual, but you will find it’s impossible to fail when you embrace them.

Failing as a writer always boils down to not writing at all; if you take this advice to heart, you will trick yourself into writing significantly more, significantly faster, with significantly better results than ever.

You already have the talent – otherwise, you wouldn’t be spending your time reading websites like this.

If you feel you’re not writing as much as you could/should, there are two major obstacles standing between you and your best work: lacking ideas and lacking motivation.

In this article, we have a simple action plan that will allow you to overcome these issues and just write as naturally as you breathe, without ever holding back. Are you ready for a change?

You will put together your most powerful work in a while, and you will also feel better in your own skin.

This is how you turn your passion into palpable paragraphs that feel substantial and worthwhile, both for yourself and your readers:

Learn to write mentally while exercising physically

If you aren’t getting regular physical exercise as part of your daily routine, then you need to make it a priority, right now:

Not only for the obvious benefits for your physical health but also for the subtle benefits where it concerns your mental well-being.

With a little practice, you can effectively learn how to write mentally while you exercise physically, simply by thinking things through while you are out and about

Once you get into the habit of exercising regularly every day, you’ll soon notice how physical exercise invigorates your mind and your best ideas will frequently pop up during your exercise breaks.

With a little practice, you can effectively learn how to write mentally while you exercise physically, simply by thinking things through while you are out and about – and also by learning to take notes whenever a really good idea unexpectedly arises (see the next section in this article).

If by chance you believe you couldn’t possibly find the spare time or the inclination to embrace 1-2 hours of daily exercise, you need to reframe your perspective in two key ways:

All that time spent exercising will add your focus and energy levels, which will truly make you more effective and productive when you’re getting things done.

While during the first couple of weeks you may feel exhausted all the time, your body will quickly adapt and thrive.

Within just a few weeks, you’ll start requiring a little less sleep and you’ll feel more in control of your daily routine.

This could lead to a rather paradoxical, but satisfying effect: setting aside some time every day for physical exercise will actually seem to make your day stretch… leaving you with more free time than before, despite the extra time you spend exercising.

Just set aside one hour in the day where you can indulge in walking around freely, in a relaxed frame of mind, with no other goal but to collect the useful and interesting ideas that will surely be going through your mind as you walk.

By “exercise” we don’t necessarily mean strenuous physical activity, although that’s entirely up to you – different folks, different strokes.

Most creative blokes, however, seem to get the best results where it concerns their energy levels and inspiration by engaging low impact exercises for extended periods of time.

This could be anything from jogging, cycling, swimming or yoga to simply… walking.

In fact, we recommend you to start by walking around aimlessly at a brisk pace if your main goal is to stimulate the mind.

Just set aside one hour in the day where you can indulge in walking around freely, in a relaxed frame of mind, with no other goal but to collect the useful and interesting ideas that will surely be going through your mind as you walk.

Simply put, the first and foremost thing you should do when want to increase your productivity as a writer is to condition yourself physically.

You can become a true word athlete, by priming your body until your mind follows suit.

Get in the habit of collecting your best ideas

Once you start working towards improving your physical stamina, it won’t be long before your energy levels start rising.

At this time, your mind will suddenly start being bombarded with interesting ideas at the most unexpected moments.

You need to get in the habit of writing down these ideas for subsequent inspection since that’s the raw material that will be the base for your best writing.

You may have heard about the difference between amateurs and professionals: the former keep waiting for inspiration to strike, while the latter simply show up and do the work.

It doesn’t really matter what is your favorite medium for taking notes, as long as notes are taken and ideas are preserved for future reference.

There is a little known secret of creative professionals that allows them to conjure inspiration on demand, though… and the secret boils down to collecting ideas whenever they arise, in order to keep a workable archive they can draw from as needed.

It doesn’t really matter what is your favorite medium for taking notes, as long as notes are taken and ideas are preserved for future reference.

A pencil and notepad will do just fine, provided you always carry them around – after all, you never know when inspiration will strike… so you need to be prepared at all times.

Since you’re already presumably carrying around your smartphone everywhere, why not start using it as a digital notepad?

Apps like Google Keep and Evernote are incredibly useful and effective for collecting your ideas on the spot (and keeping them conveniently cataloged for future reference) as you go through your day.

You should know the best ideas tend to be really slippery and will only crop up at the surface of your mind once every blue moon, so you want to really write down your creative thoughts aggressively and consistently, without ever judging the idea that arises: just write it down and leave the reasoning, polishing and sorting out for another moment.

Keep a momentum going by writing every single day

Writing a masterpiece is not that different from running a marathon – in the sense that you will have to eventually get started, and then stay focused all the way through until you cross the finish line.

When you embrace the action plan laid out in this article, you’ll be energized to write great things, and you’ll have a growing archive of your own valuable ideas to draw from and flesh out at will, whenever needed.

At this point, you’re really off to a great start… but it won’t be of much use unless you effectively start writing for the sake of doing so; it will be the practice that will help you build your writing muscle and really polish your skills into perfection.

All that matters is the mileage, even more so than that elusive and subjective ideal, the “talent”.

To succeed at refining your skills, you have to take the focus away from perfection and be concerned only with the practice.

A masterpiece is what happens when you have trained so hard, so often, that writing eventually becomes second nature to you. In order to achieve mastery in any field, practice must become your daily mantra.

When it comes to writing, it doesn’t really matter where you do it, or what is it for, or even who is going to read your words.

All that matters is the mileage, even more so than that elusive and subjective ideal, the “talent”.

One could argue that true talent is simply unwavering determination to amass mileage in an area of expertise.

Embrace your on-going practice as your road to mastery, and make it a core part of your lifestyle.

Scribbling, writing letters to loved (and hated) ones, casual blogging, daily journaling… it doesn’t really matter which you prefer – in fact, you may want to mix it up and try different things until you know what works for you at any given period in your life.

Nevermind the results, to begin with. All that matters is to keep building a writing muscle; writing every day will keep the momentum going, which will lead you to more and better results as you hone your craft.

Warm up by writing about something that piques your interest

There will be times when you’re just not in the mood for writing, or when you just don’t find anything particularly inspiring in your ideas archive that you feel like writing about at the moment.

During these moments, you have a great opportunity to further build on your writing skills and professionalism, by learning how to set the mood when it is nowhere to be found.

A fun and simple way to do this is to browse websites where you’ll be exposed to thought-provoking writing on a random basis, covering a wide range of topics that go far beyond your established interests.

You have a great opportunity to further build on your writing skills and professionalism, by learning how to set the mood when it is nowhere to be found.

Websites like Quora can be really useful when you want to break free from a creative rut, as long as you make sure to limit your time there (otherwise procrastination might ensue).

Just set a timer for 30-60 minutes, go in there looking for bits of writing that appeal to you, do a bit of casual writing when you see a question you find interesting – as soon as you start feeling those creative juices flowing, make sure to run to your word processor and start typing away where it really matters.

Be prepared to write whenever inspiration strikes

There’s an odd thing about inspiration: professional writers can’t depend on it, but they can still benefit enormously from it.

In order to succeed as a writer, you have to be able to do it at will, and you must be able to stick to a productive routine that will be conducive to your advancement in the craft. But if you can do so along with using unexpected bursts of inspiration to your advantage, then you’ll really start making fast progress and getting serious work done.

With a little ingenuity, you can easily set things up in a way that allows you to engage in doing solid chunks of writing anywhere, anytime, with minimal paraphernalia involved.

A core aspect of doing this involves embracing the cloud, since by keeping your work in progress docs stored online, you will be able to build upon the writing whenever inspiration strikes, simply by reaching out to the nearest internet-enabled computing device – rather than being dependent on a single gadget that may or may not be always at arm’s reach.

If you often lug around your laptop, it will be a valuable tool for mashing away on the keyboard as intensively as a virtuoso pianist does in their best performance.

If you don’t find it convenient to always carry it around and keep it powered up, there’s a really inexpensive gadget that will allow you to do solid writing in times and places that you never anticipated as viable for doing so:

A simple Bluetooth keyboard could be your new secret weapon towards improving your productivity as a writer. It’s a compact and inexpensive gadget with huge autonomy, that you can readily connect to your smartphone or tablet, effectively turning them into viable tools for typing.

If you have never considered doing so, you may be surprised at what an amazing productivity tool a mere portable keyboard can be, even for something as simple and casual as writing e-mails.

Go somewhere quiet carrying nothing but writing tools

Sometimes, when you really need to get work done, boredom can provide incredible motivation.

When you can’t seem to get focused on the writing, it’s often because you’re surrounded by entertaining distractions.

By removing yourself from those distractions, you will create a good setting to get productive.

So when you really want to get writing done but you can’t seem to find the motivation to get started, try going for a chance of pace.

Taking nothing but your preferred writing tools and the sheer determination to pursue writing – head to a quiet, secluded place.

It can be a library, a public park, a cafe, or anywhere else you like… just make sure there will be no distractions, no one familiar to talk with, and nothing to do but write.

Taking nothing but your preferred writing tools and the sheer determination to pursue writing – head to a quiet, secluded place.

Think of this as a flash writing retreat that you can join anytime, simply by removing yourself from your usual routine for a few hours.

This particular tactic could involve leaving your phone behind and just sticking to a good old-fashioned, analog notepad and pen, or otherwise installing some kind of app or software that blocks you from using the Internet during a pre-set time.

But it won’t be much of a flash retreat unless you can truly focus on writing, so you need to make sure there will be nothing interesting to do asides from writing.

Establish your ideal writing quota, set goals and stick to them

How do you know when it’s time to start writing your masterpiece?

You could eventually be struck by the inspiration fairy, in the exact moment the outer planets magically fall into quantum alignment; but if you want to be realistic and stay in control of your creative output… you must get in the habit of setting goals and effectively working towards them, in order to really structure your efforts in a way that produces actual results.

Once you’ve worked on building up consistent productivity coupled with a versatile knack for writing anywhere, anytime, as well as being able to shift your mood in the right direction and having a nice list of ideas in store, you’re off to a great start.

At this point, you’ll be writing naturally and you’ll have a steady writing flow that you will make you proud of yourself.

But when you get to this stage, you can find yourself caught up in the whole “writing for the sake of it” concept, which too could undermine your potential for accomplishment.

By setting writing goals and working towards them diligently, you will push yourself to get specific results that might otherwise be left to chance.

So if you’re looking to actually do something with your writing – whether it’s a novel, a website, a play or anything else – it’s a good idea to set goals, decide on a timeframe, and aim to accomplish a daily writing quota for that project specifically (asides from the casual and warm-up writing activities that you should keep embracing as part of your on-going training).

By setting writing goals and working towards them diligently, you will push yourself to get specific results that might otherwise be left to chance.

Just don’t forget about something really important: you can’t possibly be a good writer unless you have substantial experiences to substantiate your content and make it meaningful.

This means part of your development as a writer will involve stepping away from the writing occasionally and just living life.

Improve your writing by not writing and just living life

Life is full of nuanced contradiction. We started this article on writing tips by encouraging you to move around more and increase your levels of physical activity.

You then learned some actionable tactics to help you improve your motivation, tap into your inspiration, collect your best ideas, develop a routine, and wholeheartedly practice, practice, practice. We really cannot overstate how important it is to practice often, practice joyously, practice continuously.

In life as in writing, striking a balance is essential for your well-being.

We are now about to encourage you to finish working on your writing by stepping away from the actual writing and simply living your life, every now and then.

Just like you can’t get far in your writing ambitions unless you actually write, you also won’t do much if you’re too obsessed with doing amazing work; the perfectionist mindset is also paralyzing, nearly as much as the procrastinating mindset.

In life as in writing, striking a balance is essential for your well-being. So why not start now and just do what it takes to get into your stride while keeping the eye on the prize?