If you have a big writing (or other) project, one great way to build momentum is to spend a full day working on it with support from your peers.
IT'S GOOD TO GO MAD
That's what we do on my monthly MADs--Massive Action Days. It's all online. You sign in to our exclusive website, declare your goal for the day there, and get to work. Every hour I do a brief live video broadcast to answer questions and offer tips. You update us on your progress and everybody supports each other.
The people already doing the MADs find it incredibly productive and it's inexpensive--only £5 each when you sign up for ten. You can find our more at www.MassiveActionDay.com.
What else can you do to build momentum? Let's start with the basics:
The formula is Velocity x Mass = Momentum
The more you apply effort, the more momentum you get, unless you encounter another important aspect of momentum, Resistance. Resistance can increase the mass of a molehill to that of a mountain.
FOUR POINTS OF RESISTANCE
In writing there are four points at which you tend to have resistance:
1: Getting started. The best solution is chunking down the goal into manageable chunks, scheduling regular time to work, and getting support.
2: The middle. You’ve done a lot but there’s a lot yet to do and the initial excitement has worn off. The best tools are: knowing this is normal, using a variety of brainstorming techniques (like the ones in my writing books) to get a fresh perspective, and making sure your Inner Critic doesn’t talk you into quitting.
3: After the first draft. The first step when you're ready to critique your first draft is to use methods for getting a more objective view of your own writing (wait a week, change location and posture, print it out on different colour paper and/or a different typeface, read once for general reactions and don’t try to fix it as you go—note the necessary changes, then go back into creative mode, at your usual writing location).
When it’s as good as you can make it, show to someone you trust to be constructive. Tell them you want them to jot down any problems they discern—where it’s boring, where it’s confusing, where they think what’s happening isn’t plausible, etc. Tell them you don’t want them to suggest solutions, only problems.
Fix the problems and repeat, but stop rewriting when the new version isn’t getting better, just different.
4: When you send it out into the world. Put on your business hat, not your sensitive artist hat, and make a plan. Let your sensitive artist get busy on a new creative project so it doesn’t hang around getting tense.
>> In the next post we'll see how you can also build momentum for every working session.
(Want to get more things done, more easily? Using creative methods rather than more hard work? You'll find the ansswers in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
