Overcoming My Laziness

My long-term goal is to earn $36,000 per year as a part-time freelance writer. That means about $3,000 per month, $750 per week, and $100 per day. My goal is 100% possible if I can somehow land enough $25 per article gigs.

I can land more gigs by using many methods. I can respond to job advertisements, I can cold call (or email) businesses, and I can blog. Of course, the latter caught my eye. Thus, 3 Grand Month was finally born.

After setting up my blog, I decided to learn more about blogging. I soon realized that it takes a ton of time and hard work before you see the effects of blogging. I just shrugged and thought, "Oh well, better I start now than never!"

This brings me to my speculation. What if I had started blogging one year ago instead of now?

Before Instead of Later

One year ago, despite how little I knew about blogging, I was fully aware that it would help me land more jobs by building my portfolio. I knew that blogging would improve my writing, my presence on the internet, and it would provide me with multiple sources of income (advertisements, platform to sell products).

Yet did I have the common sense to start one? Nope. To tell the truth, it had nothing to do with my intelligence. In fact, it had more to do with my laziness. Freelance writing was already hard enough, I had no desire to run a blog to top it off.

But it kinda hurts to know that if I had sucked it up and started a blog back then, I would be pretty close to achieving my goal now.

Old Habits Die Hard

Sadly, despite my speculation, I still have trouble overcoming my laziness today. You have no idea how much I had to kick myself just to write this blog post. Moreover, my laziness is not just with blogging.

My mindset is always: "Ugh... I don't want to write this article for 'so-and-so' at all," or "Maybe I could write this article tomorrow..."

Frankly, I find it sad. I don't lack the talent or intelligence to succeed, yet I seem to lack the drive. I want to accomplish my goals, but I don't want to work hard. Fortunately, I came up with a plan to increase my productivity.

Overcoming My Laziness

To overcome my laziness, I decided to come up with a list of reasons why I'm less productive than I should be.

• I'm always surfing the internet instead of working.
• I'm not getting enough sleep? (Always feeling sluggish and tired).
• I don't have much motivation.
• I take large breaks instead of small breaks.

Stop Surfing

The wonders of the internet are always distracting me from accomplishing my work. Every five minutes, I find myself reading threads on the WAHM Forum or skimming my favorite blogs.

Interacting with other freelance writers and reading advice is fine and dandy, but "too much of a good thing" does exist. I'm hoping to limit the amount of time I spend on these websites by tinkling with Internet Explorer Parental Options.

Lack of Sleep

I'm not sure what to do about the "lack of sleep" thing. This may sound greedy, but ever since I started freelance writing, I've been unable to sleep due to thinking about the money I could be making. It's nearly impossible for me to tame these thoughts! Reading and writing (in a journal!) has helped ward these thoughts away.

Motivation

Lucky for me, I don't need my freelance writing skills to survive. If I ever stopped writing, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my house or not having the money to pay my bills.

Yet this big convenience has a small downfall. I have nothing to motivate myself.

I stuff all the money I earn as a freelance writer into my savings account. Now, I do love seeing my savings account grow, but I’m not receiving any instant gratification. To solve this, I've decided to treat myself whenever I accomplish my goals. For example, if I earn $1300 in April, I’ll finally get myself one of those nifty Kindles!

Breaks – Large or Short?

I get my work done by doing everything at once and then taking a break for the rest of the day. Usually, I'm exhausted after knocking out three or four articles (pitiful, I know) in a row.

Yet I realize I can write so much more articles if I took tiny breaks after each one.

Now, each time I write one article, I take a break for half an hour or so, and then I hop back onto the computer to write another. If I do this consistently, I can get five to seven articles done per day instead of my usual three.

So far, my plan has helped me increase the number of articles I write for Demand Media Studios, and it forced me to write this lengthy post!

What are you doing to increase your productivity?