The Top 5 Pieces Of Advice That Helped Me Overcome Procrastination When Writing

After a decade of stopping and restarting, I recently hit 2 huge milestones in writing my first book.

I have outlined the whole story and I hit 50 thousand words written.

I set a schedule, I stuck to the schedule and now I am on track to finish my book before 2025.

How did I do this? I stopped procrastinating.

Of course, I still have doom-scrolling sessions on Instagram on some days. On another day, I might still stare at an empty page feeling increasingly guilty for not starting.

But these days are now less frequent and I now spend much more time working toward the goals I set for myself.

Out of the huge collection of tips I have tried over the years these are the 5 that work best for me.

Put your phone out of reach

I have a wireless charger just behind my keyboard, which is great. It charges my phone fast and all I have to do is put it down in the spot I was putting it anyway.

The problem. My phone is always at my fingertips. Checking notifications became like a reflex. If that notification were an email that needed a response even if not urgent I would feel obliged to reply because I had read it. Worse still if it was something from social media there was a chance I would get sucked in for 20 minutes to an hour.

After this, I always feel like I have wasted my time. I would feel unproductive and demoralized to continue with the task at hand.

To break this cycle, when I sit down to write, my phone is placed out of reach across the room. I also put it on Do Not Disturb. This means I do not see or hear the notifications and no longer get distracted by my phone. Almost every notification can wait.

You can add important numbers such as your children's school or your spouse to the allow during Do Not Disturb list. This way you block out nuisance distractions while ensuring those who matter can contact you in an emergency.

Take active breaks

Taking regular breaks is one of the more popular pieces of advice posted online. Dutifully I always took breaks every so often. But I did something else on the computer or fulfilled a basic need like refilling my water.

When I went to the task it was a challenge to continue. Writer's block kicked in and I stared at the screen hoping the words would come.

Now during my breaks, I usually do something active in the form of exercise. I go for a walk if the weather permits. If the weather is awful I do some stretches and a quick home workout. This also helps with my goal of getting into better shape.

On some days I get some housework out of the way. Even a few quick tasks completed changed my brain chemistry positively. When I sit back down I am already on a roll and it feels easier to continue writing. These tasks are mindless to do, sometimes ideas come to me that I can act upon when I return to the computer.

The longer the writing session the more powerful taking an active break becomes.

Write different content for fun

When writing a book or even a longer article after a while I often feel boxed in. Ideas are coming to me that I like, but do not work for this project.

This stems from a want to stretch those creative muscles a little further or in a different way than the current project. I did not want to have multiple projects underway so I started to write some short stories. These were not posted anywhere and were just personal writing exercises.

Back in November 2023, I found r/WritingPrompts on Reddit. This subreddit is designed to help and encourage writers to get started writing. Many varied prompts are submitted by users every day. These prompts vary in genre and detail. Some prompts lead you down a specific path, while others open up a new world within which you can craft a story.

This was a new way of me doing what I already was to flex those creative muscles. Now though, I had the added benefit of getting feedback for the stories I posted. This has been a wonderful way to challenge myself to write new and unique stories I would not have considered before. I have now created a separate Reddit account just to answer these prompts.

Change your writing method

Is typing or pen to paper the only way to write? I certainly used to think so.

There is another tool you can use too, your voice.

There are many different AI transcribing tools out there to try out. But you can get started just with Google Docs' built-in speech-to-text tools. Is it perfect? no. But is it functional for first drafts, ideation, and journaling? Absolutely.

The added benefits of dictating your drafts are increased opportunity and speed. You can dictate while walking or doing those mindless housekeeping tasks.

Additionally, the average words per minute when speaking is around 150 whilst the average typing speed is only 40 words per minute with professional typists usually coming in at around 80 words per minute.

Even accounting for the added editing time for the mistakes the transcribing software makes I can usually double the amount of words I get down in an hour.

Write in short bursts

This is another popular price of advice that worked wonders for me. The thought of sitting down for a few hours and completing a full chapter or article can feel daunting.

5 minutes to just get this introduction down, that sounds doable. I’ll even set an alarm so I know when I can stop.

5 minutes later when that alarm rings I rarely stop. I am in the right mindset now. Those excuses stopping me from starting are replaced with the want to continue. The words are flowing and I am far more productive than I used to be.

The secret. I never intended to write for 5 minutes. I wanted to write for more. This method gives me a gentle push over that procrastination hurdle.

On those rare occasions, I do stop after 5 minutes. I still wrote for 5 minutes. This is far better than staring at the screen for an hour and then feeling guilty for not starting.

The combination

Every one of these methods has helped me on their own. But together they have been transformational.

That being said. I do not recommend starting them all at once. Too many changes at once can be overwhelming. Instead, I recommend reading over the list and picking the one you can implement first with the least friction. For me, this was moving the phone away from my desk.

I hope that these methods can also help you achieve your writing goals or any other goal you are putting off due to procrastination.