Something Like Writer’s Block

I’m not going to call it writer’s block. I’ll call it a lack of motivation. Or maybe I’ll call it distraction prone. Whatever it is, that feeling that makes me dread opening my laptop some days, can be conquered, so I’m thinking about all of the ways I usually defeat it.

Too bad I’ve only come up with three four so far:

1. Know where I’m going next. It’s so much easier to get back to my project when I know exactly which part of it I will tackle when I return to it. For example, as soon as I’m done blogging, I’m going to return to my project, and I’m eager to get to it because I need to work on the suggested reading section.
2. Deadline, even if it’s self-imposed. Deadlines are like magic to me. I can muster up the strength to complete any project when the dagger of a deadline is looming.
3. Focus. Sometimes I dread opening the laptop when I have too many projects to work on. Everything is due. Everything appears urgent. I am paralyzed until I say, “Look, either focus on one of the projects today or devote a certain amount of time to each one. Whatever you do, you need to decide and get busy.”  I usually listen to myself and get to work.
4. Hey, I thought of a fourth one. When I don’t want to work on my project, I use the things I do want to do to make me get busy. The conversation with myself goes something like this: “Look, you want to go to the gym today, right? Well, then, you have to do this, this, and this, or you will be so distracted in spin class, you will not have a good time.” This conversation with myself is motivational because I hate being distracted in spin.