Have you ever left writing an essay until the last minute because you didn’t know what to write? Or perhaps because you were overly harsh and critical of your writing?
An empty word document can bring up all kinds of uncomfortable mental and physical states such as anxiety, self doubt and overwhelm.
“Is it going to be any good?”, “Can I do it?” and “I don’t know what to write” are thoughts that may come to mind thanks to your inner critic.
In case you’re wondering, your inner critic is the annoying little voice in your head that has a negative comment about everything you do.
And it’s often this little crippling voice that is the cause of writer’s block and makes sure you leave writing essays until the night before they are due.
Writer’s block is rooted in two unrealistic expectations. These are:
1. You expect that you can write the essay all in one go.
2. You expect you need to write the essay perfectly the first time.
The reality is good essay writing doesn’t just happen in the first draft. It’s the result of many drafts.
Dr Particia Huston, author of the journal article “Resolving writer’s block” advises:
“It is important to relinquish your perfectionistic streak and set yourself more realistic goals. Give yourself permission to be less than perfect. Tell yourself that you just want to write a first draft. Reassure yourself that it is OK that your first effort is not great; you can improve it later”.
Often we can feel intense anxiety about starting a piece of writing. But the sooner you start writing the better. Even with just a few words (e.g. a title and some headings) you can experience a big decrease in anxiety around the writing task you need to do.
What other strategies can you use to overcome writer’s block? I’ve listed a few below.
Pretend to be someone else
If you think you can’t write then pretend that you’re someone else. Imagine you’re an expert in the area you’re writing about or an accomplished writer and ask yourself–
How would they tackle the writing task?
This simple strategy allows you to get out of your mental rut and focus directly on the subject matter.
Start your own writing bootcamp
One study tested the effectiveness of an intervention to overcome writer’s block and increase writing outputs amongst a group of academics who were stuck with their writing. 26 academics enrolled in the intervention which involved committing to doing the following –
Failure to produce 3 pages per day would result in the participants having to pay $15 to an organisation in which they hated.
Sounds harsh?
Well, it worked!
Out of the 20 academics that stuck it out (6 dropped out) 17 had published significant works after the intervention was complete. New writing habits were established.
You may not want to donate money to organisations you don’t like but perhaps consider making writing a regular part of your day and imposing some targets (e.g. minimum number of new words or pages) to achieve each day.
Outrun your inner critic
Don’t give your inner critic a chance to get a word in with two effective writing techniques: free falling and free writing.
Free falling is a writing technique that involves zooming your word document down so you can’t make out the words (40% usually does the job) or turning off your computer monitor so there’s a black screen. Once you’ve made sure that the cursor is placed in the word document then you start writing.
Free writing involves setting your timer for a set period of time (e.g. 20 minutes) and writing down whatever thoughts come to mind. If you can’t think of what to write, write “I can’t think of what to write”. If your mind goes blank then all you need to do is write “Blah blah blah blah…”. The aim of the game is to keep your hand moving until the 20 minutes is up.
Both techniques stop your inner critic in its tracks because your inner critic can’t see what you are writing (free falling strategy) and doesn’t get a chance to make a negative comment as you are moving too quickly (free writing).
The reality is you inner critic will always be with you. But there is comfort in knowing that there are techniques available that can outsmart your creepy inner critic, help you overcome writer’s block and have the words quickly flowing into your word document.
Share This:
Have you ever said to yourself, “I won’t start writing that essay until I can get it absolutely perfect?” or “I won’t start that project until my desk and room are spotless”.
Welcome to the world (and trap) of perfectionism.
I come from a family of perfectionists. So I have first-hand real world experience of the debilitating and crippling effects of perfectionism.
When you hold yourself to an incredibly high standard, it’s really hard to get anything done. It’s no surprise that perfectionists start dozens of projects but don’t quite manage to finish any of them. If perfectionists finish a project, they do so in most painfully drawn out way.
Psychologist Dr Sharon Melnick says perfectionists live in the hope that one day they will be a success. One day they are ‘gunna’ do it. And they hang onto this hope instead of taking the first step.
Why don’t perfectionists take the first step? What’s with that?
The reason is they’re scared. They’re scared that they may not have what it takes or they won’t be able to handle the criticism. So they protect themselves from criticism by never putting anything out there.
Instead, they make excuses for why they can’t get started. The conditions aren’t quite right. Plus the bed needs to be made. The dog needs to be fed. They’ll start when they’ve ticked those things off the list and they feel ready. Sound familiar?
Trying to do things perfectly is just plain crazy. Writer Anne Lamott says perfectionism “will keep you cramped and insane your whole life”. Do you really want to live like that?
Your work will never be perfect. My PhD supervisor’s 8-year-old daughter can tell you that.
On the day I handed in my PhD thesis, I mumbled something to my supervisor and her daughter about my PhD not being perfect. My supervisor’s daughter looked at me with this serious look on her face and said:
“Jane, nothing can ever be perfect!”
I was shocked. Such wisdom from an 8-year-old child!
I shot back, “How did you learn that Elizabeth?”
She shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “Come on Jane, isn’t it obvious?”.
Indeed, writing coach and author Catherine Deveny says in her book ‘Use your words’:
“The best thing you can hope for is that it gets finished. It will never be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good. Embrace your inner completionist. Tell your inner perfectionist to go sort the cutlery drawer. But not until you’ve completed your writing!”
It feels good to be a ‘completionist’. It feels great to get stuff done.
Over the last few years, I’ve learnt strategies to help me shift from being a perfectionist to ‘completionist’. Below are a few strategies that you may find useful too.
Tell the little voices to go away
Most things are usually a lot easier to do than we think they will be.
I find the toughest bit of doing any work is usually the getting started part and having to deal with the negative voices in my head.
You know the voices I’m talking about. The little voice that says, “You’re work is rubbish”, “You’ll never be able to do this”, “This isn’t up to scratch” or “You’re going to fail”.
Unfortunately, these voices never go away. But you can learn to manage them.
I visualise the negative thoughts as being a pesky little monkey on my back. Whenever the monkey of self-doubt strikes, I strike back. I usually say something along the lines of:
“Go away you feral monkey! You can come back once I’ve finished writing this paragraph. Now go eat some peanuts. I have work to do here!”.
I know it sounds nuts, but it works. Try it out for yourself.
Exercise to clear out the mental cobwebs
Research shows that exercise can help you think more clearly, sharper, and boost your creative outputs. When I exercise it’s like all the toxic gunk in my brain is being washed out and replaced with feel good chemicals. Indeed, research shows this is what happens.
I’ve reached the point in my life where I need to exercise before I can work on anything substantial. But is this just another way to procrastinate?
I don’t think so. Exercise plays a critical role in mentally preparing you to pump out your best work. As Deveny states:
“..it [exercise] gives you access to parts of your brain you can’t get to if you are sluggish. Chess players exercise for the same reason. To get the wriggles out, think clearly and remove the sludge off the top. To get into the ‘good rooms’ in their brain”.
When I exercise, I also find that I’m in a better position to tell those little negative voices where to go (“Get out of here monkey! I’m busy!”).
Focus on one project at a time and take it to completion
Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere?
This is what can happen when you take on 10 different projects all at once.
Psychologist Sharon Melnick recommends you focus your time and energy on just one project and take it to the finish line.
She uses the analogy of rugby players taking the ball all the way over the line. She encourages us to imagine taking the next step on that project, then the next step and the next..until touch down!
Completing one project gives you the confidence to take on the next project.
Eat the frog first thing
Brian Tracy wrote a bestselling book called ‘Eat that frog’. The idea behind the book is simple: if you have to eat a frog every day of your life and it’s the worst part of your day, you should eat the frog first thing.
In short, start your day by tackling the hardest thing you need to do.
If you do manage to eat the frog, you’ll feel relieved and awesome for the rest of the day.
Find your ‘completionist’ mantra
Whenever I hit struggle town, I need words of wisdom. I have a little deck of palm cards with quotes I’ve scribbled down that I flip through when I am doubting myself or in a funk.
When I was working on my PhD, I had a saying (you could call it a mantra) that I would tell myself to keep me going. It was this: “Just keep chipping away”.
If I wasn’t telling myself to chip away, I would say “Done is better than perfect” or “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”.
You want to find your ‘anti-perfectionism’ quotes. Quotes that resonate with you. And then write those quotes out on palm cards and carry them around with you. When your inner perfectionist starts running the show, grab your cards and read those quotes out loud.
Life has a use-by date: Create a sense of urgency
Towards the end of my thesis, I travelled overseas to Japan to say goodbye to a friend who was dying of cancer. She was only 45. It was devastating because I thought she would live for a lot longer.
Sitting by her side in the hospital had a profound impact on me. It made me realise that you just don’t know when your time is up. You could live until 100. Or you could be dead in a year’s time. So what do you want your life to be about? What do you really want to do? I couldn’t help but think about these questions.
I knew I wanted to finish my PhD. So when I arrived back in Australia I worked on it with a sense of urgency to get it done.
I knew I could spend the rest of my life tweaking my thesis but I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to get it done.
Writer Catherine Deveny suggests that you should write (or work) “like you are on fire and you’ll be dead this time next week”.
Don’t be afraid to make a mess and make mistakes
When you first start working on an essay whatever you write isn’t going to be great. The first draft of my thesis was a complete shambles.
But that’s just how the process goes. Your work starts off being not so crash hot and gradually, it gets better.
I’ve learnt to enjoy making a mess with my early drafts and not compare my early drafts with other people’s finished products.
Catherine Deveny talks about the futility of comparing your ‘behind the scenes’ work with someone else’s ‘final cut’. She says:
“Imagine you turned up early to my place for a dinner party – say, at 4pm. There would be a mountain of washing on the couch (with the dog sleeping in the middle of it), the kitchen surfaces would be covered in dirty plates, half-eaten food and half-unpacked shopping bags. There’d be three dishes in preparation on the stove, and the only music would be the sound of the electric mixer droning at full bore. You’d think, ‘This is the worst dinner party I’ve ever been to. And what are you wearing, Dev? Are they jeggings? Crocs? A nightie?’ Because it’s not done yet! This is not the dinner party. This is the getting-ready-for-the-dinner-party”
I find when you think this way (“It’s not done yet, I’m still working on it”) it gives you permission to make a mess in the kitchen. You know that later on you’ll get round to tidying things up and making everything look pretty.
To sum up (and get this blog post done!)
I could keep perfecting this blog post for days but I’m not going to do that. Done is better than perfect, right?
What project would you like to take over the line and score a ‘touch down’ on? Could you apply some of the strategies mentioned above to help you do this? Do you have any strategies that I haven’t mentioned above that help you be a ‘completionist’? If so, I’d love to hear what works for you.
I used to agonize over writing essays. Writing every sentence was like sticking a pencil in my eyeball. It was a painful process.
But over time something has shifted. I now really enjoy writing.
How could this be? From pencil in the eye pain to enjoyment?
Well, I gave myself permission to write rubbish.
I write every day. Some days when I wake up, I say to myself “Go make a mess”. Other days I tell myself, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”.
This is my way of slaying my inner perfectionist so I can get on with my writing tasks.
As Anne Lamott says in her book “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”:
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a s*** draft”
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you look at other people’s completed and polished writing. Occasionally when I read a really good book or article I experience a wave of terror (“I could never write something as perfect as this!” I think) and perfectionism kicks in.
But then I remind myself of the simple fact that it’s very hard to get things perfect the first time round. Unless you’re an absolute genius and literary whiz-kid, good writing evolves with lots of editing.
Social psychologist Ellen Langer says “Every outcome is preceded by a process”. But so many of us forget this. As Langer states:
“[students] begin their dissertations with inordinate anxiety because they have seen other people’s completed and polished work and mistakenly compare it to their own first tentative steps. With their noses deep in file cards and half-baked hypotheses, they look in awe at Dr So-and-So’s published book as if it had been born without effort or false starts, directly from brain to printed page. By investigating how someone got somewhere, we are more likely to see the achievement as hard-won and our own chances as more plausible”
If only we could see all the previous revisions and scribble on the draft pages of award winning novels, perhaps then we would be a little easier on ourselves when it came to our own writing projects.
If you’ve been struggling with your writing, my advice to you is this: don’t be afraid to make a mess.
In her book “Writing your thesis in fifteen minutes a day”, Dr Bolker says, “Good writing emerges from making a mess and cleaning it up!”
This simple idea has completely changed the way I approach my writing projects.
She tells us to forget the elegant topic sentences or having a neat outline. Throw your ideas down. At this stage, you don’t want to be too concerned about whether it makes any logical sense. What you’re doing is creating a ‘zero draft’ (the draft before the first draft). You need to hold you nose and go through it because there will be gold in this that you can work with later on.
Dr Bolker goes onto state:
“I suspect many writing blocks come about because people aren’t used to playing in the mud when they write; they think writing is a neat, clean endeavor. I don’t…my aim is to make mud pies! I’m making a sketch, not a finished oil painting”
So whatever writing task you’ve been putting off, I invite you to go make a mess. Remember, you can always clean it up later.
You may be pleasantly surprised that once you get your ideas down and you have something (rather than a blank page) to work with, the writing process becomes a whole lot easier.
I recently worked with a teenager girl who used a bright pink pen with a big diamond on top to take notes. This pen even had its very own feather bower.
Another student had a pencil case covered with a picture of a big fat pug dog. Pencil cases with multiple zips and pockets seem to be all the rage too.
Now I love stationery. But it’s the designer, overpriced and over-the-top stationery that I’ve started to question.
For instance, take a basic pencil case from kikki.K priced at a whopping $19.95. That’s right, $19.95!
Think of it like this: in terms of your time and energy, a fancy pencil case or notepad (priced at $20) is 1–2 hours of your life energy, slaving away at a job. You have to stop and ask yourself, ‘Is it really worth it?’
For less than $2, you could buy a simple exercise book and decorate it with pictures and ideas that mean something to you. In the past, I have done this with old comic strips, reused gift wrap and vintage magazines. All you need is access to some pictures, scissors, glue and a bit of clear contact to protect your creation (saving you over $15).
An obsession with fancy stationery can also deplete your willpower reserves and precious brainpower. It can even thwart the creative process. As author Fiona Scott Norman states,
“The more expensive, precious and important a notepad is, the less likely anything of note is going to ferment or foment between its pages. The stories of great creative minds writing their groundbreaking, best-selling works always run along the lines of: “I wrote it on table napkins in between my waitressing shifts” or “he bangs out all his novels on a poxy old typewriter”. They never go: “It all started when I bought a notepad made of horse hair and recycled 1950s children books at a design market”…these notebooks are not made to be used. Far too intimidating”
She goes onto say:
“The gorgeous journal, frankly, is the creative equivalent of the cross trainer ordered at midnight from the home shopping channel. It will end up in the spare room taunting you for your lack of discipline”.
As a recovering stationery addict, I can tell you that stationery can provide inspiration and motivation to study for about a day.
Then the inspiration wears off.
If you’re like me, I guarantee that you’ll get used to your pug dog pencil case. It won’t seem so cute on the second day (those bulging eyes will eventually start to bug you). And before you know it, you’ll be back to the stationery shop for your next hit.
In my early days of mind mapping, I purchased an exquisite set of 50 coloured pens. I thought “These pens will provide me with unlimited inspiration to mind map!”
Well, I was wrong.
I was happier and more productive when I just had a set of 6 basic colours.
Why would this be?
It all comes down to willpower depletion and the paradox of choice.
We all have a set amount of willpower and it gets depleted every time we have to make a decision.
I was rapidly draining my willpower reserves by agonizing over which colour I would use for my next mind map branch.
“The light shade blue or the slightly lighter shade blue? Or how about that pretty bright green?”
So I gave those pens away and returned to my basic colours.
The amount of time and energy you spend trying to find the perfect inspiring notebook or set of pens is time and energy taken away from you focusing on more important work such as preparing your mind for your upcoming subjects, exercising to sharpen your thinking and reflecting on your goals for the week.
My advice to you is this . . .
Productivity and organization expert David Allen (author of the bestselling book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity) says:
“ . . . good tools don’t necessarily have to be expensive. Often, on the low-tech side, the more “executive” something looks, the more dysfunctional it really is”
He suggests the basic stationery you need is as follows:
1. Paper-holding trays
2. A stack of plain paper
3. A pen/pencil
4. Post-it notes
5. Paper clips
6. Binder clips
7. A stapler and staples
8. Stickt tape
9. Rubber bands
10. Files
11. A calendar/diary
12. Rubbish bin/recycling bin
Extra tools I recommend are a set of basic coloured pens and art diaries (for visual note-taking), a couple of highlighters and a storage pouch for important documents so they don’t get damaged when you’re out and about.
If your fellow students or work colleagues are buying up big on fancy stationery, it’s probably a sign that they are struggling.
Whenever I used to go on a ‘stationery shop binge’ it was always because I felt stuck and/or uninspired by my work. The words weren’t flowing for an essay and/or I felt mentally overwhelmed by a subject.
But stationery will never give you a genuine boost in confidence. Stationery won’t make you smarter. It won’t help you overcome serious writer’s block.
The only way you can get unstuck is by doing the hard yards and nutting out your ideas by writing out your thoughts or mind mapping out your ideas. Any paper and pen will do the job. As Fiona Scott Norman says, even a napkin will do!
You might be thinking, “But what about decorating your study space? Surely, a nice study space will lead to elevated levels of creativity and productivity?”
The stationery superstore Officeworks now has an entire section dedicated to colour coordinating your study space. You can colour coordinate your notepads, desk lamp, pen holder, paper-holding trays, paper clips and files!
IKEA also presents you with examples of funky study spaces, displaying all the furniture and accessories to buy to maximize your study power.
But just know if you choose to go down this path, you may regret it. Denis Diderot certainly did.
In his essay, ‘Regrets on parting with my old dressing gown’, 18th century philosopher Denis Diderot describes the effect receiving a new scarlet dressing gown had on his life. Upon receiving the new beautiful gown, Denis decided to throw out his old gown. As he was walking around his apartment in his new gown, he noticed everything else looked old and drab in comparison.
Bookcases = Drab.
Table = Drab.
Chair = Drab.
So what did Denis do?
He threw out his old furniture and replaced it with brand new stuff.
The problem was, Denis didn’t feel comfortable in his new gown and with all his new furniture. The new chair wasn’t as comfy as his old one. He longed for his old gown and furniture. He realised the error of his ways, with every new purchase driving him to buy even more. His consumption was out of control.
The Diderot Effect is the term given to describes people’s desire for their items to match one another. But since every new purchase creates imbalance, one is forever consuming new items to achieve a state of balance. As Professor Juliet Schor states:
The purchase of a new home is the impetus for replacing old furniture; a new jacket makes little sense without the right skirt to match; an upgrade in china can’t really be enjoyed without a corresponding upgrade in glassware. This need for unity and conformity in our lifestyle choices is part of what keeps the consumer escalator moving ever upward. And ‘escalator’ is the operative metaphor: when the acquisition of each item on a wish list adds another item, and more, to our ‘must-have’ list, the pressure to upgrade our stock of stuff is relentlessly unidirectional, always ascending.
Having an understanding of the Diderot effect may help you to think twice before redecorating your study space or purchasing a new study chair.
Now I understand that everyone wants to work in a nice space. In terms of productivity, having a neat orderly workspace make a huge difference. But all you need to do is spend 30 minutes cleaning things up (e.g. removing clutter), add a pot plant and/or a simple picture to your wall. Boom! You’ve got a great new space.
The vast majority of items in my workspace are secondhand. My big L-shape desk came from Gumtree. My whiteboard from a skip bin. A bright colourful painting from a garage sale ($10). My files from a ‘Free – Please take’ box at university. Nothing matches but I don’t care. I’m comfortable in my workspace like Denis Diderot was before he received his new dressing gown.
So before you start spending up big for the new year, ask yourself “Is this new item a good use of my precious time and energy?” and “Is a new notepad the answer to my problems?”
Chances are the answer is “Probably not”.
Remember, it’s your ideas and work ethic that matters most. And you can’t buy those things at a stationery shop or IKEA.
Dr Jane Genovese delivers interactive sessions on learning to learn, combating procrastination, exam preparation, how to focus in the age of distraction, habit formation and much, much more!
Get FREE study and life strategies by signing up to our newsletter:
© 2024 Learning Fundamentals
