Let’s get into the specifics of how I actually wrote this thing.
I didn’t sleep much.
In the beginning, right after we had our baby, I was staying up late and waking up early, all sporadic. An hour here. Two or three there.
It started to get into a routine toward the middle of writing it, two to five weeks in. I’d write in the morning, maybe some during my lunch break at work, and then publish at night.
For at least two weeks straight, toward the end, I was waking up each morning at 4am to write before work, before the day started.
That got tiring.
When it comes to last-second motivation, I’m better at night. Drink some caffeine, gear up, do the work. When it comes to longer-term commitments and projects, especially creative ones, the morning tends to work better for me.
The most difficult part for me is getting going. If I stay in the dark, try to get on a laptop, and write, forget about it. But if I turn on the lights, drink some water, maybe even eat something, I can focus much better.
The other key is changing the environment. If got up and could get to work, I could often churn out a chapter or two (no, really just a chapter) on my laptop before clocking in. That way, my foggy time was spent in the car, driving.
Sounds rough, but… really, that leads to my next point.
The lesson from this whole thing is that I can get way more done than I think I can as long as…
- I’m willing to sacrifice everything for it. Sleep. Feeling good. Feeling healthy. Plans for the weekend. Friends. Family. Life itself. I mean, I didn’t go that far with it, but the point is that if I needed to, I had to be committed, I had to feel okay doing things I don’t normally do – like drinking a bunch of caffeine at 10pm – in order to reach the goal.
- I have to have the right motivation, the right Why, as ol’ Simon Sinek would put it. None of the sacrifices make sense if the motivation isn’t there.
