Getting Out of Your Own Way

Recently while looking for a way to address my waning ability to focus, I remembered a presentation on ways to get back on track when one's writing suffers I'd been asked to give a few years ago. I dug through my files and found it. As I read it, I realized many of the items could apply to anyone, not just writers, who felt overwhelmed, stuck, or discouraged while working on a project, but I also realized I've developed new techniques since. 

So, before we start, let's take a moment. I'd tell you to close your eyes, but then you couldn't read the next part. Take a deep breath and exhale. Another one. Let go of your day. Focus your thoughts on a project that you're struggling to complete. Don't focus on the why, just on the project itself. Imagine it completed and how you feel. Imagine abandoning the project and how you feel. Imagine working on it and how you feel. Now, I suggest you close your eyes as you imagine all that again while you slowly inhale and exhale ten times. If need be, repeat until you feel ready to move on.

And... that is a quick meditation. Sometimes that is enough to get back to a project. Meditation can calm overwhelm. It can quiet self-doubt. It can remind us why a project is important to us. It can help us remember that completing a project is a step-by-step project. We can do it one step at a time if we break it into small pieces, particularly ones that provide a sense of completion for each step building to the next step and on the previous one.

Take a walk. Getting out in the fresh air, getting a little sunshine, stepping away from the work can help clear the mind. We can take a deep breath, close our eyes, and exhale slowly. Then just put one foot in front of the other. Think about each step being taken until the problem project quiets down and we can see the world around us, feel the air against our skin, breathe in the scent of nature and industry, hear birds chirp and tires on pavement, and taste the air. Pay attention to the moment and the movement, each step we take.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen or even some colored pencils. Start to randomly write or draw whatever comes to mind. This can result in nothing but doodles, scribbles, random words, or even scratching out everything that comes to mind. The point isn't to find a solution but to release the need to find a solution. Relieve the stress of needing to finish the project.

Do research. Sometimes gaps in our knowledge can create a block that keeps us from making progress. Our incomplete knowledge base makes us unsure about what we're writing, and so we begin to fudge around the edges or find we can't concentrate. Sometimes the best thing to do is step back and see if we need to expand our knowledge base in order to proceed. If so, do, but don't let research become an excuse for not getting back to the work. The idea is to bring informed focus back to the project.

Break the project into smaller tasks. Focus on one of these smaller tasks to make the larger project feel less overwhelming. Accomplishing a smaller task is a step toward finishing the larger project and can often inspire one to keep going on to the next task. I'm currently doing this with several book projects that require me to sort my poems into themes to determine which ones go in which books, shouldn't be published at all, or can be used in some other way. By breaking the overall project into multiple tasks, I can complete a little bit each day without feeling like I have to do everything at once or like I have to sacrifice my other projects.

Put the project aside and work on a different one for awhile. I realize this can feel like the opposite of finding our focus on a project. But, here's the thing, sometimes when we're trying too hard, we just can't find the focus. When we release our focus and tackle another project, we can accomplish a few things. If it's a small project, one that we can tackle and complete quickly, we can give ourselves a sense of accomplishment that energizes us to get back to the other project. Also, it allows us to let the problem project slide to the back of our mind where it can benefit from diffuse thinking as described in A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. Diffuse thinking allows our brain to make connections it wouldn't make during focused thinking because it allows the brain to consider things outside the direct focus.

One way to put a project aside and work on a different one is to work on something in a different medium. Sometimes I cook. I sometimes color in a coloring book. I sometimes do an art project. On occasion, I've even worked on a household project that needed completed. I once heard Sue Grafton recommend doing a hated household chore.

And sometimes, as much as I hate to admit it, the only thing to do is, as Robert Crais once told me when I asked him his advice for writing, "Sit your ass in the chair and write." or something to that effect. Just do it. Just sit down and take the project one step at a time until its done. Even if all we produce is garbage that we can hope to pull a gem from later. Sometimes it's just the getting started that's necessary. 

Use the Pomodoro method. Set a timer and work for a period of time. There are many apps that can be used for this, or you can just use the timer on your phone. Technically, the Pomodoro method says to set a timer for 25 minutes and focus for the 25 minutes. Take a break. Set the timer for another 25 minutes and work again. I have used versions of this method quite effectively many times. So much so, it might warrant its own post at some point.

Once we've started, we have momentum. Once we have momentum, we have progress. Once we have progress, we feel more motivated to achieve completion. Taking one tiny step at a time, even if it feels like a sideways step forward, we can complete the project.

We're going to have moments when it feels like one more step forward is just too much to take. And we're going to have moments when it feels like we're flowing along far too easily. And we're going to have moments when it feels like all we can do is stumble over our own feet.

When that happens, we have choices. We can give up. We can barrel through. We can make ourselves miserable. Or... We can take a deep breath, accept the moment, and find a way to get out of our own way.

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