What’s a tool you can’t live without as a writer?
This is something authors ask each other a lot. It gets phrased in a lot of different ways, but it all boils down to wanting to make sure you’re not missing out on something that would really help.
Every author would answer this differently, and on some days, I’d tell you it was my little electric tea warmer (basically a hot plate for a teacup). It’s amazing and makes sure that when I forget my tea I don’t come back to a yucky cold cup.
Most of the time, I’d say it was an add-in for Word that does a countdown timer or a word countdown (ishouldbewriting.net). I love it. It’s wonky and doesn’t always work right, but I love seeing the timer or words go down. I change it up depending on what I need or what motivates me more, but it’s a great visual for me to stay focused and not jump away from the page until I complete my goal.
Because some days, staying on track and not wandering away every five minutes from what I’m supposed to be writing is the hardest part of being an author.
Comment below: If you’re a writer or self-employed or even just working from home, what’s something that really helps you?
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Rewards work best for me. Makes sense given my nature lol. Usually it’s reading time but I do throw in other things. Ice cream is a great one for big things. I’m not a writer and I physically can’t work much but I do have a chaotic bunch in my house so I’m always trying to get some ground back on the clean and organized dream.
I don’t have the will power for rewards lol but my daughter uses a to-do list app that makes checking things off your to-do list into a game. If she doesn’t get everything done she has on her list then the little animal thing in her game looses health. That would be too stressful for me but it works great for her and she loves the in game rewards she gets when she consistently gets things done.