Writers Unbound

Here is a quick look at the best productivity tips I’ve found (for writers, especially) and a few trade journal opportunities.

Probably the best tip for productivity is this:

Quit reading blogs and get to work!

Yeah, I know. I waste time reading blogs, too. And then more time writing blogs. I do learn stuff, though. Sometimes it’s all meaningless stuff, but there are a lot of smart people writing out there, and many of them actively, consciously seek higher levels of productivity. So if we’re going to be reading blogs anyway, we might as well learn…

• LThe top one has to be this: Do all that productive stuff you’ve been reading about. Donald Latumahina at Life Optimizer mentions this in his Top 5 Productivity Tips Most People Know But Do Not Do post . So remember this tip as you read through the rest. When you learn something good, make it part of your daily routine. Otherwise the learning is for nought.
• Another very common productivity recommendation (it’s all over the place on productivity and life hacking sites) is to rise early. Every day. Get out of bed. Early. At the same time every day, early. Very early, not early as in “sometime before 10 am.” I know from my own personal, daily, early vs. late morning experience that an early morning makes for a much more productive day. It’s painful but true.
• The Veggie Principle is all over the place too, in various forms. It means, simply, do the hardest thing first. Eat your vegetables before your ice cream. Write the article that’s more challenging before the one you could produce in your sleep.
• Plan your life and use your plan. Start smaller, maybe, by just planning your day. Then use the schedule. Remember the original tip: it’s not good learning how if you don’t actually do it.
• Set up routines for the stuff you do all the time. After the first tip, this is really the most effective one, I think. We waste lots of time making decisions over and over again, and we’re really doing the same stuff every time. So we can streamline it by making one routine for each of those repetitive processes. Write down the routine, go through it step by step each time, and soon it will become a habit you don’t even have to think about. Less mental clutter.

Now that you’re feeling productive, here are a few opportunities for you in the world of trade journals:

• Nursing Spectrum covers “people, practice, and profession of nursing.” Query. Looking for nonfiction interview/profile articles and personal experience articles.
• Clergy Magazine is seeking “seeking articles that address current issues of interest to Christian clergy; emphasis on practical help for parish pastors.” Query or send complete manuscript.
• The Pastel Journal is “the only national magazine devoted to the medium of pastel.” Query or send complete manuscript. Seeking How-To, Interview/Profile, and New Product articles.

Make it a good day!

Image Credits: Laffy4k at Flickr.