We’ve all heard ourselves say it before: next year I will get healthier, leaner, smarter, richer, more philanthropic. Or a variety thereof. I’d like to hear from anyone how manages to meet all their new year’s resolutions, because they more often than not fail. The reason why we can’t seem to keep our promises to ourselves could be as simple as setting the bar too high, hitting the ground running too hard (sometimes literally), and ending up too hurt and demotivated to continue (figuratively). According to Dr. Koestner at McGill University, we’re likely not going to stick to our goals for 2010.  So, if we are doomed to fail at realizing our new year’s resolutions, how can we increase the chances of actually making some positive changes that last well beyond being recycled for next year’s new year’s resolution?

How to turn New Year’s Resolutions into a Reality

• Don’t be vague: saying you want to “lose weight” doesn’t define an achievable goal. As long as you lose a pound, you’ve lost weight, but that doesn’t mean you will be any happier. You’re more than likely trying to lose more than that, if you’re putting that goal on your 2010 to-do list. So, setting a realistic goal (for example, lose 1 pound per month), could work a whole lot better.
• Once you set your goal, you need a way of keeping track. Getting to July and realizing you should have lost 7 pounds by then, make $100 more a month, or write 70.000 words just sets you back so far that you give up on your goals entirely. Break the bigger goal up in manageable chunks, and schedule them. I’m already almost fully booked for January, so unless I schedule some goals it is just not going to happen.
• When it comes to scheduling the first 10.000 words you are going to write towards completing your novel by 2011, start with scheduling the first 2000 for the first week of January. Perhaps writing 5000 words by the end of January will also meet your New Year’s Resolutions, so figure out what might work best in your schedule in order for you to keep your commitment to yourself. Then, schedule it, and stick to it.
• How to avoid breaking your promise: if you set the goal of losing a pound per month, consider scheduling gym time like another appointment. If someone needs you for something during your gym time, just tell them you are already booked and will need to schedule another time. I find it far too easy to give in, and give up on my personal goals, when other people need me, whether for work or professionally. However, a commitment to yourself is just as important as any other one, so start treating is as such.

With a few days to go before the new year, this is an amazing opportunity to set new goals and plan out your ideal 2010. A little while ago I wrote about CompactCal. It illustrates how the time to plan your goals is now: with a handy overview of the entire year, in a vertically organized way, you can create a plan you can actually stick to.

Ironically, reading blogs about productivity can often be the perfect reason for procrastination, and actually diminish our actual productive output. There is one blog, however, that seems to avoid just that. It is the Ultimate Productivity Blog, and also the ultimate minimalist blog.

It is published through Tumblr, which is another microblogging tool. It is supposed to be anywhere just in between Flickr, and regular blogging. Short and sweet like Tweeting, meets the ability to share anything and everything, from any platform (including your phone). I am going to look into Tumblr some more, and follow up on whether it might be useful in business, marketing, or writing at a later point in time.

Bookmark the Ulimate Productivity Blog though. I think it is to the point and perfectly true; ultimately… you get more done if you just get to it. So stop reading about how to get more done, and just do it.

Although Google Docs has been around for years, I am still trying to get into the habit of using it regularly. Without a doubt, having access to certain documents anywhere in the world, from any computer, is an amazing luxury that far surpasses the inconveniece of carrying around USB keys and portable harddrives. I always seem to misplace my USB keys, and they have to shuttle between the three bags I carry routinely, only varying in size to meet my storage needs on any particular day.

Google Docs can save you from all that USB key misery though. There is nothing to remember to bring with you, and nothing to really lose, when using Google Docs. Any document is available at any point in time, basically making your documents in progress mobile. And with “mobile” I actually mean portable, not necessarily restricted only to being available on a mobile device (although that, too, is possible).

The secret to using productivity tools

Like any productivity enhancing tool, the tool is only as useful as the user makes it. In other words, if you don’t get yourself in the habit of using something, it will of course not do anything for your productive output. Google Docs is exactly the same, and as I mentioned, I am also still getting into the habit of using it regularly.

However, essentially there are factors we cannot change in our day that influence (or reduce) our productivity. One of them is time: there are, and probably always will be, only 24 hours in a day. No sense in wishing there were more, I’ve tried and it doesn’t change anything. We also cannot change activities that cost a certain minimum amount of time without having to deal with serious long term consequences, like sleeping, commuting, and socializing. What we can do, is make use of those minutes here and there that are lost by simply not filling them with a useful activity.

Using two minutes here, and five minutes there, to work on your next novel (for example), will actually result in said novel being done years sooner than when you are constantly hoping to free up three solid hours of writing time. Anyone who has tried to sit down and seriously write, will know this will never happen. Although this is an example for writers, it applies to anyone trying to produce something over a longer period of time. If you are a student and are given an assignment, you should really start early and do bits and pieces of it. Yes, most students (and I used to do it too) cram all the work into the evening before the deadline. This is setting yourself up for reasonably bad habits though, because deadlines will still exist in the “real world”.

How Google Docs ramps up your productivity

When you upload your documents that are a work in progress (reports, assignments, novels, short stories, poems, you name it…) to Google Docs, and keep a Google Docs page open in one of your browser tabs to function as a reminder, then you can easily fill those lost minutes with some productive typing. Even if you are just free writing, you are probably going to produce something more useful than if you don’t try at all. You might also spend those minutes you are on hold on the phone editing some of your work uploaded to Google Docs. I almost ‘lost’ at least an hour and a half on hold with various airlines and organizations this week, had I not filled that time with some editing and some writing as well. It is amazing how much more you get done by just not wasting the five minutes here and there that tend to get lost during the day. It is almost like reckless spending, but instead of money we’re losing time. There are people who routinely buy small ticket items that are not really necessary (candy bars, pop, etc), and when adding up the real cost over the course of a year, it is shocking.
The very same goes for our productivity. By wasting those ten minutes on hold on the phone, taken over the course of a year, that’s at least one more chapter for a book, a short story, or an article.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in time-well-wasted on occasion, but the reality is that there are many instances during our day when we might as well use our time wisely, and productively.

Writing is a business, and increased productivity is as imperative to a writer as it is to any other professional. Aside from writing faster, there are other ways you can pump up your output, and keep more free time to yourself (or just take on additional projects).

1. Mobile Writing Tools

Depending on your lifestyle, you might get some good use out of writing tools you can take on the road with you. This can be simple, such as a (paper) notebook, BlackBerry, or a ‘hipster PDA keychain‘ (pictured above).

The benefits of a tool like a BlackBerry is the fact that you can check your Google Reader on it and use it to keep on top of the latest news and articles. Of course that’s aside from the benefit of being able to write down notes and even edit articles on the road.

2. Increase focus, improve your writing

I came across a neat little program called JDarkRoom. It helps for people who are easily distracted and do better when they just type without having to deal with any pop-ups or email notifications. JDarkRoom makes your screen completely black, and allows you to focus just on your writing without the temptation of checking your email obsessively.

3. Simple Accounting Tools

I recently signed up for BillingBoss, which is a fantastic tool if you routinely send out invoices. You can keep track of your income, outstanding invoices and paid invoices.

You also need to keep track of your spending. Writing related courses, office supplies, or even literature are tax deductible. Instead of dealing with an avalanche of receipts at the end of the year, just open up a separate bank account, and get a separate credit card, for your business expenses. Have financial institutions actually do some work for you by doing your bookkeeping for free. As long as you separate your finances completely, you’ll have painless tax filing, and you will know how much you are actually making.

Seems easy enough right? Well, I had not actually fully mastered this skill yet. It is my new year’s resolution though, so today I went out and opened a new account. For six years I successfully managed my business without strictly separate accounts, but tax time was never a happy time when it comes to making sense of my deductions (I did always obsessively keep track of earnings, so that’s never a problem).

4. Stay posted on Writing Markets

There are tens of thousands of writing markets you can sell your work to around the world. Knowing where to submit your articles, or other writing, if a first step to your next paycheck. Although the Writer’s Market is a fantastic resource (and the online version takes up no real shelf space), there are great free resources that supplement a Writer’s Market subscription as well. One of these is Funds for Writers

What is your favorite writing tool? There are endless things that can be put to good use by writers, and this overview is just a bare-bones beginning to the tools any writer cannot do without, but which has really fueled your productivity?

Happy new year! And happy writing in 2009! I’m setting some lofty new years resolutions for this upcoming year of writing, and I’m sure some of you are too. To help out with this, I tried introduced you to writing really fast yesterday, but today I stumbled across an interesting website with yet another strategy to get your writing. It’s called “1ne, 2wo, 5ver” and describes a strategy that helps you get started on writing. It starts with one word. Basically it sounds like it could be just any word, and is meant just to get you started onto the second word, and then onwards to the next X words.

Why I like it

I always have a lot of trouble getting started with writing. Being the perfectionist I am, I do not always follow the rules of writing fast, but use the excuse that I just don’t have the right wording to not write at all (on my own projects, of course). As a consequence, the book I’ve started has spurts of movement forward whenever I come across some good writing strategies that completely discredit my procrastination strategies.

This is one of them… it basically comes down to the advice I always give:

Just sit down and write….

Many people, writers and professionals, spend the better time of their day writing. The sheer amount of information produced (and possibly discarded) on a daily basis is enough to make you depressed, if you stop writing for a second to think about it.

In addition to all the wild writing going on, we all have our other daily commitments: shopping for groceries, cooking healthy meals, family, and maybe friends too if you don’t want to become a complete hermit.

So any trick to speed up the writing process would be a good one, right? Writing faster means you finish that novel faster, you get your work done before 5 p.m. or you get to simply become more accomplished. Either way, writing faster can benefit anyone who ever picks up a pen or touches a keyboard.

How I learned to write fast

I was forced to type very fast when helping my mother through her divorce. Aside from the fact we were on other sides of the world, and writing hundreds of emails a month, I helped her draft all court related materials. Often, due to health reasons, she would dictate what she wanted to say to me, and I would type it out almost as fast as she would speak. Only sometimes I’d ask her to repeat or slow down. So how did I do it?

• I would often write notes in bullet point form and work them out later
• I would “Throw up on the screen”, as suggested by Alisa at ProBlogger.
• I write fast, and rewrite later. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about the right words, now I insert a note-to-self and get back to it later. Often, when rereading my work, the word will come to be automatically.
• If all fails, just free write for a few minutes to get more ideas going.

As Alisa mentioned in her article as well, it helps to know what you want to say. Clearly you can only write fast if you are not doing any research for ideas at the same time.

Tips for Bloggers and Freelance Writers

The biggest time drain on any writer, whether you are a blogger thinking up 7 articles a week, or a freelancer who needs to make ends meet, is researching topics. Sometimes good ideas strike at the worst possible times, and it is important to write down those ideas in one place (and one place only). Keep a dedicated small notebook in your purse or pocket for article ideas, and whenever you have one on the subway or in line for coffee you can write it down. Whenever you’re sitting at your desk ready to write an article for your blog, or a query to a magazine, take out your notebook and start writing… really fast.

Managing a large project, or scheduling multiple projects, can be more challenging than it needs to be with a traditional calendar. When you are in a meeting, being able to quickly map out a time frame within which a project needs to be completed, and perhaps delegate who will tackle it, can really move things forward.

Although not a substitute for your regular calendar system, Compact Calendar provides you with a spreadsheet that can easily be printed out and used as a global overview. Time is shown in ‘blocks’. You can easily block off a period for a particular project, and add notes in the side-lines.

The major advantage of Compact Cal is that time is shown horizontally, and ‘distance’ on the calendar equals time directly. Traditional calendars show time divided into months, or weeks, which makes it more difficult to have a clear overview of time on a continuous basis. When dealing with projects that span multiple months, this can be a great tool to doodle out progress and time lines.

You can download a Canadian version of CompactCal, or the US version directly. For other international versions, see the official Compact Cal website.

Show off your intellectual side (and find a place for all those books!) by making floating book shelves.
It’s an incredible way of showing off your attractive book collection, and for the self-loving writer it is also a great way to brag about your publications! If you’re not as prolific a writer as Steven King though, then perhaps you may not have enough published books of your own to ‘float’, in which case you could just float all those ‘how to’ books about novel writing.

Business owners could ‘float’ their trade books, lawyers could even ‘float’ their law books to trade their stuffy office look for a more trendy appeal. Think of the number of books nutritionists and doctors could float! There is hardly a professional out there who could not spice up his professional ambiance with this simple trick.

Love the idea? Here’s a simple video showing how you can make this floating bookshelf happen!

How To Install Invisible Shelves

See the floating books on flickr.

Forget all those shiny productivity tools you have lying around on your desk. The one most powerful productivity tool you might ever come across is a simple sheet of paper and a pen.

To-do lists are not only for the forgetful, or the unproductive. It is rather a way to blow through your tasks one by one, and eventually just keep far more time to yourself. Almost effortless free time, who doesn’t want more of that?

So, why are to-do lists so universally effective?
Have you ever stared into space, wondering “where to start” on everything you need to do? Eventually, you might get a thing or two done, but not even close to as much you could be capable of if you have some clear direction on what needs to be done, and when.

When you put together a list, and write down absolutely everything that needs to get done, not only will you not forget a crucial item (only creating MORE work down the road!), but you will also feel more productive as you start crossing off completed tasks.
In addition, you’ll look at your list and realize that a number of these tasks on your to-do list are quick little things, like sending emails. You can finish them off while you download some files or listen to your favorite podcast. While they are easy enough to strike off the list, together everything can seem so overwhelming that you don’t get anything done before you actually put it down on paper.

Why they work
To-do lists work because of a few simple concepts:

• You don’t forget what you have to do
• While it may be hard to prioritize in your head, within a second you can see oversee what needs to be done when tasks are written down, and what should be done first.
• You can focus entirely on completing the tasks, instead of worrying about forgetting them
• Last, but not least, you can work down the list without losing valuable time deciding what to do next. Over the course of a day (or week) that can free up anywhere from an hour to half a day of free time.

Although pen and paper is as good a tool as any, most phones and computers also have to-do list options. Just pick one and stick with it, because you don’t want to end up with five to do lists in different places, and get confused by the number of places you are writing things down.