It’s a brand new year while here you are again writing on your goal list the same old reminder being jotted down year after year: I NEED TO WRITE A BOOK!
There are so many people out there who are so talented at what they do and are itching to write a book, but they can’t seem to take that one step to accomplish it. Does that sound familiar to you? Are you one of them?
Let me tell you the one thing you need to do to become an author THIS YEAR!
MAKE YOUR BOOK YOUR ONE THING!
I found a book that inspired me to talk about the concept of being productive. The name of the book is The ONE Thing, and it’s a fantastic read! The author teaches how to focus on the one most important task in any given project. And I would like to share my own ideas with you, which I, and other successful authors, use.
If you want to make your dreams come true and launch your book this year, you need to make your book your number one thing. There is no other workaround to it. But what do I mean about making your book your one thing?
Big Projects require Big Focus
If you’re a firm believer in Goal-Setting, like me, I’m sure you have a big list of yours just for this year. As the type of person who wants to be successful with achieving the big things in life, you seem to want to do it all – all at the same time! Surely that can be exciting, yet it can also trigger anxiety and panic. Usually, you’ll end up finishing nothing.
Here’s the most important thing you need to remember: Not every goal is equally important. Realize that!
Out of all the items in your bucket list, a wise option would be for you to choose your Big Three for every year so that you may achieve at least one goal per quarter. If writing a book is one of your many goals in life, make it your one main goal for this year and dedicate an entire quarter just working on it. Unless you give a level of importance in your book, your book is never going to happen. Big projects require big focus.
Multitasking is a Myth!
Now that you have decided to devote a whole quarter to writing your book, you need to step back and first look at reality.
With all the opportunities and big chances that might knock on your door, you will feel bad turning them all down just so you can focus on this one thing, your book. That’s totally normal!
Here’s what you need to look out for to overcome distractions and stay focused. Whenever a different and whole new opportunity comes your way but it’s not as important as what you have on your main list of goals right now, it’s perfectly okay to procrastinate it in the meantime.
If it’s not necessary now, then feel free to put it on the back burner until such time you’re ready for it. You can’t be a master juggler doing more than one big thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth! Commit your time and energy to your one important project and that is writing your book.
Again, be intentional in saying NO to projects that don’t require your full attention right now. Learn to defer plans that can be considered for the future. And make that decision to focus yourself on your one main goal for that quarter, which in your case, writing and finally finishing that book you’ve always wanted to publish.
High achievers focus on one thing at a time. Are you a high achiever? Do you want to be one? Then don’t feel bad if you need to delay a second project just so you can finish the first. Keep in mind that this is the only way to succeed!
Live in Alignment
Once you have finally removed all the distractions around you and have put aside projects that don’t require your full care and devotion, you are now ready to dedicate all this time in your hands in writing your book. However, you will still need to ensure that your time is used up wisely. You can do this by looking at your productivity level on a daily basis.
How is your time getting used up in a given day? Is a whole chunk of your day being used up towards your book or is your day taking you in other directions?
You also have to consider that your 24 hours is made up of several different events and activities that can and will happen during your day in different areas of your life. Which is also great! But it must be that your one main thing for that day every day for three months should be aligned to your one main thing for that whole quarter.
Classify your Priorities
What about all the essential things in your life that are equally important? Such as your family, friends, your health, your spiritual life? There’s a trick that I can share with you which I learned from reading the book, “The One Thing”.
Look at all the seemingly important things in your life that you need to attend to on a daily basis. Classify these in two buckets. One goes to the “Professional Bucket” which has all business, career, and other work-related tasks and the other bucket is for everything else which may include hobbies, passion, family, friends, health, etc.
Just because you’re focusing on your one thing doesn’t mean you need to forget all the other essential things that make up your life. You can’t forget your health, you can’t shake off your wife, and you can’t tell your kids to take care of themselves. In short, you can’t skip life so you can focus on your one main thing. The only way to manage all these is to learn how to classify your priorities. Divide half of your time accordingly for everything you have in the “Everything Else” bucket while devoting all the rest of the time to your one main thing in the “One Main Thing” bucket. I promise you that this is the only way to balance your one main thing that’s related to your business or career versus all the other important things in your life.
Schedule large chunks of time in your calendar for your one thing
If you plan to dedicate a minuscule amount of time here and there for your book writing, then you are not giving your book project the focus that it deserves. Give your book project a long stretch of time to work on. At least 2hrs or more each day would make it possible for you to finish the book in 3 to 4 months.
Let me teach you how to distinguish deep work from shallow work.
Shallow work is all low-priority work that doesn’t require your focus and attention. These non-core tasks may only actually take anywhere between 10mins to 20mins.
On the other hand, deep work such as writing your book and doing any other tasks which require creativity takes longer hours. This is the sort of work that you can’t break down into small chunks of time. Ideally, you would classify deep work as your high-priority tasks which are the main reasons for your huge time-blocks on your calendar.
I see many authors booking themselves for a week’s staycation in a resort to finish the full outline of their entire book. Because if they were to do this at home, there would be so much distraction enough to lose their focus, and eventually, they may even forget to write their book.
Looking at your book as your one thing and classifying it as your deep work will definitely help you accomplish your book project this year!
I hope you find all these tips and tricks helpful! Do let me know if you have tried all of them. Did it work for you? Did it not work at all? Leave all your comments below and I will reply to each one of you.
Share your thoughts so we can all benefit together!
If your book is your one thing for this year and you need some support in making it a reality, head over to www.happyselfpublishing.com/apply and speak to my team at Happy Self Publishing!
Having this commitment towards your book project is JUST one of the five attributes that a successful author needs to have. I have another episode where I discuss the remaining four attributes which you should not miss. You can either watch me on my Youtube Channel or listen to it on my Podcast. And before you leave, make sure to Like and Subscribe!
Until the next! Happy Authoring!