Write Now. (How To Do The Project You've Been Putting Off...)

A few years ago, I was in a counseling session with a stressed-out teenager who had a BIG paper due in a few days.

The more she procrastinated, the more stressed out she was, and thus the more she avoided it (ahh… memories of my high school self).

At some point I realized that she wasn't able to hear anything I was saying about how to manage the stress and anxiety she was feeling, or how to prevent this situation in the future, because this paper was weighing so heavily on her.  

I gave up and switched tactics: “Ok. Let's just write the damn thing here.”

I got out my dry-erase markers, stood up next to my whiteboard, and had her call out the main thesis-statement, while I wrote on the board.

“What are three points you want to make that relate to the main idea?”

“Now what's an example, metaphor, or story you can tell to illustrate each point?” I jotted her answers.

“Now what's your ‘So What’? Why does this matter?" Jot, jot. Now we had her intro and conclusion concepts.

10 minutes left in the session. “Can you finish polishing this off tonight?”

“I can finish writing it this afternoon! I feel so much better!”

It may not have been therapy, exactly, but she was much less anxious when she left my office than if we'd just talked about her feelings.

She just needed help starting.

Guess what?

I still have this conversation with my solopreneur-clients all the time.

They'll be talking about the big talk/article/training they're stressed about writing, and I say, “Let's start on it now, then." Just having something to start with suddenly makes the rest of the writing go faster.

So, let me turn the question to you:

Do you have something you need to write? Maybe something you've been putting off?

Here's my challenge:

Go back and read the first part of this story, and take the next 10 minutes to fill in the blanks of the questions I asked my teenage client. Do it imperfectly. But start. 

Bam. Now you've done the thing. All you have to do is polish it up and make it pretty. 

You're welcome.