Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing novelist, instructor, and motivational speaker Colleen M. Story about her new book Overwhelmed Writer Rescue, which offers smart, practical, and research-based advice for writers who are struggling to find time to get their creative work done.
Although the advice is geared to writers, I believe it would be helpful for anyone who feels too overwhelmed by paying work and other responsibilities to achieve personal goals, especially creative ones.
Our conversation follows.
In your book, you describe several things that can make us feel as if we never have enough time to get everything done, much less to achieve personal goals unrelated to work. You also offer advice on getting these things under control. Can you discuss a couple of these challenges and ways to address them?
I was thinking of problems like multitasking, the pressure to do more, and gadget addiction.
There’s no doubt that the technology revolution has had a huge impact on our lives. Unfortunately, most of us have received no education in how to deal with it, so we’re trying to do that on our own, and in many cases, failing miserably.
Whereas we used to do one thing at a time, now we try to do several. While working, we expect to be able to keep up with friends and family via texts and social media. While eating dinner, we expect to be able to keep working via answering emails and sending updates on projects. While vacationing we carry work, friends and family, and even daily tasks like paying bills along with us.
We call it “multitasking,” but science has shown that we really can’t do more than one thing at a time. Instead, we shift our focus from one to the other, which takes mental energy and creates stress. Back and forth we go, from this to that and that to this, severely sabotaging our productivity, as after any interruption it can take up to 23 minutes to get back on task.
Meanwhile, it’s no wonder we’re exhausted. All this shifting and redirecting requires mental energy and leaves us feeling depleted and disoriented. It also raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Yet we feel pressured to keep up this way, afraid that if we don’t we’ll somehow fall behind and be unable to catch up.
This pressure comes from a number of sources, but the end result is a life that’s frittered away in many cases on things that are not that important to us, while our dreams fade and eventually disappear.
What we have to do is realize that this is a new challenge—one that human beings have never faced before—and we must devise our own protective strategies. They can be as simple as making sure all gadgets are put away during the dinner hour, shutting off all technology two hours before bed, and making vacation days work-free days. We can put in place habits that ensure we focus on one task at a time, and set specific periods when we will view social media feeds, respond to emails, and communicate with friends.
We think we can emulate the computers in our lives, calculating new information and spewing out results 24/7, but we weren’t built that way. To enjoy happier, healthier, and more balanced lives, we have to take it upon ourselves to put new boundaries in place.
You offer smart advice about setting priorities to achieve goals. You also note that there are three “priority killers.” Can you describe one or two of these and ways to address them?
Most of us have dreams. Sadly, they often sit in the back of our minds and there they stay until our dying day, simply because we fail to take any action toward making them come true.
There are several reasons for this, but one of the most common is that we convince ourselves that we “don’t have time” to take this sort of action. After all, most of us work hard at a day job, have families to take care of, and other responsibilities that take up our time. We’re also bombarded by all the extra distractions that have been created by technology, to the point where we feel there’s no way we can fit one more thing in.
At the same time, we imagine that in the future, things will magically change, and then we’ll be able to focus on our dreams.
The problem with this thinking is two-fold. Yes, our modern world is busy, but our perception that we don’t have time is just that: a perception. I mention in the book that nearly forty years ago, in 1979, professor emeritus at the Free University in Amsterdam Bob Goudzwaard wrote about “scarcity of time” in his book, Capitalism and Progress:
“Nearly everyone in western society suffers from a frightful shortage of time,” he wrote. “This lack of time is apparent not only from the quick tempo of our lives and from our crowded schedules, but also from the manner in which the modern family spends its time.”
Remember—this was long before smartphones, and even before most people had computers in their homes, and still people felt pressed for time. So it’s not necessarily modern-day technology that’s causing you to feel this way (though of course it doesn’t help). Instead, it could just be how you’re looking at things.
Second, this “I don’t have time” thinking sets up a scenario in which we are always putting out fires. We react to the day’s events and spend our time dealing with the minutia of life rather than focusing on our priorities. It’s called the “time scarcity mindset,” and it’s a panic-based routine that focuses on short-term gains over long-term goals.
There are several steps we need to take to pull ourselves out of this trap, but the main one is to change the messages we’re giving ourselves. We do have time, and it’s our choice how we spend it. Simply taking responsibility for how we’re scheduling our days can help us to realize that we’re choosing to avoid our dreams, and that we can choose to make changes that will free up the time we’d like to have to begin working on them.
I was really intrigued by your advice that to make progress toward goals, it’s better to focus on achievement rather than on the belief that you can or will do X. What are the drawbacks of the long-popular self-affirmation strategies, and why is focusing on achievement a better approach?
The problem with affirmations—and research has shown this—is that they can actually make you feel worse if you don’t believe them. Say you want to become a great motivational speaker. You decide to use affirmations and to repeat daily out loud: “I am an awesome motivational speaker!”
Inside, though, you’re going, “yeah, whatever buddy, sure you are.” You simply don’t believe that you are because you haven’t done it yet. You haven’t proven to yourself that you are a great motivational speaker, so inside, you just don’t believe it. When you speak these sorts of affirmations, you’re actually enforcing your non-belief rather than inspiring any new belief in yourself.
What does work is achieving that which you aspire to. When you give a great motivational talk and your listeners come up to you overflowing with enthusiasm, you’re going to say to yourself, “Hey, that went pretty well. Maybe I can be a great motivational speaker!” That’s the beginning of real belief in yourself. That’s the beginning of true confidence.
So what do you do until you get to that point? You take tiny steps, and you reinforce your belief in things you know to be true. I can learn how to speak in public. I can practice my motivational speeches. I can get help from a mentor. Believe in your own intuition that is urging you to do this. Believe in things you can honestly believe in, and take action.
Action is the key to increasing your self-confidence. Once you do something, you’ll always have faith that you can do it again. Even if you fail, you’ll gain valuable experience that will be much more motivating than any affirmation will ever be.
One of the things I struggle with personally relates to time management and marketing: How do I decide among the seemingly endless possible things I could do to market my books, while still leaving enough time to write? Do you have any thoughts about how I could set priorities or otherwise use my time more effectively?
Each person has to find their own solution to these types of issues, but in my experience with this particular challenge, I find it helps to set up a yearly schedule rather than a daily or weekly one.
The winter months, for example, are when I accomplish most of my fiction writing. When I can’t go outside much anyway, and the rest of the world has slowed down a bit, it’s easier to devote time each day to sinking into my fictional world.
When summer comes around, though, usually all the marketing and publishing stuff is hopping. I’m out talking about my books and doing workshops and presentations and beefing up my online presence and interacting with people. It’s a natural time to work on the marketing and networking sides of the business. At the same time, my fiction writing tends to languish. I may work on it only once or twice a week, if at all.
I used to be worried about this. I used to be afraid that the time spent marketing and networking was somehow ruining my writing time, or that my ultra-focus on winter writing was hurting my marketing efforts, but I have since learned better. Our lives as authors are much more holistic than we realize. Our responsibilities have expanded greatly over the past decade, and if we want to continue to experience some level of success, we have to adjust our thinking and our approach.
Most authors are not just writers anymore. We’re also marketers and networkers and entrepreneurs. We may be thought leaders, product creators, teachers, and philanthropists. Personally, I love that we can expand what we do, as we are likely to push ourselves as a result, becoming much more as individuals than we ever thought we could.
Focusing on a yearly schedule and setting deadlines accordingly has worked for me. Then whatever writing doesn’t get done in the summer, or whatever marketing doesn’t get done in the winter, I’m at peace with that, because as long as I reach the deadlines I’ve set, I feel I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to these questions, Colleen.
Boost productivity, improve time management, and restore your sanity while gaining insight into your unique creative nature and what it needs to thrive. Find practical, personalized solutions to help you escape self-doubt and nurture the genius within in Overwhelmed Writer Rescue, available today at Amazon and all major book retailers. Enjoy your FREE chapter here!
Colleen M. Story has worked in the creative writing industry for over twenty years. Her latest release, Overwhelmed Writer Rescue, helps writers and other creative artists escape the tyranny of the to-do list and nurture the genius within. Her novels include Loreena’s Gift, a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner. She has authored thousands of articles for publications like Healthline and Women’s Health and ghostwritten books on back pain, nutrition, and cancer. She is the founder of Writing and Wellness, and works as a motivational speaker and workshop leader. Find more information on her author website, or follow her on Twitter.
