I’m always on the lookout for writing productivity tips! And on my internet travels, I came across this infographic which I thought was really interesting. It’s from Lorna Faith’s website, and it covers seven steps to accelerate your writing productivity.

Here’s the infographic in question, and I’m going to talk a little more about my thoughts below:

Decide what you really want – why do you want to improve your writing productivity?

You’ll see this referred to as ‘why power’ sometimes. The thing is, it’s hard to get excited about doing anything when you don’t know why you’re doing it. Why should you want to put the effort in? Why should you dedicate regular time to something like writing? What do you want to eventually get out of it?

Knowing why you want to do something, what you want to get or make or do, makes a huge difference. It can really unlock productivity for you, so it makes sense that this is the first step!

Solidify your thought process by writing it down in detail

There’s an amazing thing that happens when you start to write something down. You suddenly realise exactly how fleshed-out your ideas really are. You see this all the time with writing! An idea feels interesting, detailed and consistent… until you start trying to write it down.

So, I think it’s really smart to put your hopes and goals for writing, in writing! I personally love writing out goals in a proper notebook, but I imagine this process works equally well digitally. You might even find you can achieve the same effect by talking through your goals with a trusted friend or family member. Or, I don’t know, blogging about your goals…?

In essence, I think anything that forces you to get really serious about the specifics of your goals is a great move if you’re looking to improve your writing productivity.

Choose a deadline to jump-start your writing productivity

We’ve all heard of ‘SMART’ goals, right? For maximum effectiveness, our targets should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Picking a deadline ties into the T of SMART.

Without a particular deadline in mind, it’s easy to put off taking steps towards your goals. After all, if you don’t have to do anything by a certain time, tomorrow is as good as today. Right?

Of course, it can be difficult to pick a realistic deadline for some goals. Particularly if there are elements of achieving that goal that are outside your control. One thing that I think can help with this is building in check-points along the path to your goal. Points where you give yourself permission to take a look at what you’ve achieved so far, and what’s left to do, and decide whether you think your deadline is still sensible.

There can be a fine line between motivating yourself to increased writing productivity, and killing your productivity with unrealistic pressure.

Write a list of the steps you’ll need to take

I love a list! And nothing makes me feel more in control of my goals than a nice list of action steps. I think it’s great to make a point of working out exactly what you need to do to get where you want to go. Make sure you break up the goal into the smallest individual steps that you can. While still making sense, of course!

What I think this step helps with massively is the difference between productivity and just being busy. Having a firm idea of all of the steps that will get you closer to what you want to achieve means you can act with purpose. It also helps with those days when you don’t really want to work, since you’ll have a bunch of possible steps to take, some of which should be very low effort!

Turn that list into a plan of action

Okay, so you’ve got your list of steps, great. Now what? Now you need to arrange those steps into something a bit more coherent. Some of the steps you’ve come up with will be things you can do right away. Others will make more sense later down the line. With some steps, you might have to wait for other things to happen or succeed before you can do them.

Figuring this out will mean that you know exactly what you need to be starting with, and what milestones you’re looking out for to put other steps into action. It helps you to approach your goals with structure, which makes it much easier to achieve them!

Make a start

You knew it was coming eventually… at some point you have to stop planning and start doing! Otherwise you’re not so much improving your writing productivity as your planning skills. Luckily, thanks to the steps you’ve taken so far, you’ve got a convenient list of steps that you can start taking right now!

Writing productivity comes down to consistency: take steps every day

I think this is the most important part of writing productivity, and achieving your goals. Consistency. Taking action, every day, even if it’s only small. Steady and regular steps towards the things you want to achieve. It’s not always fun, and it’s not always easy, but it is the best way to get what you want.

Ideally, there will be some component of your plan that you can turn into a daily habit. Something you carve out time for every day to make progress towards your ultimate goals. If daily writing is that habit that you want to build, I’ve got some advice on finding time to write in this post.

Whatever it is though, if you can do something every day, or at least 9 days out of 10, you’ll find that those little steps add up faster than you’d think.

What’s your favourite writing productivity advice?

Share any tips on productivity or goal-setting in the comments below!