What To Do When You Don't Want To Write

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5 years ago

Ever get to that point where you just feel burned out? You don't want to write, so you do literally anything else just to make yourself feel "busy" so you can avoid the guilt of not writing?

I think we all do this sometimes. We do research, watch a live class here at Wealthy Affiliate, read competitors blogs to get the edge on them, etc.

All of that stuff is a valid and even critical part of the process, but at the end of the day, if we're not creating content, all that other work is for nothing. So what do you do when you don't want to write?

And The Answer Is...?

You write.

Nothing groundbreaking here. You just write anyway.

You don't have to be writing because you want to write right now. You're writing because you're playing the long game. You're writing today so you can get paid in 4 months from today.

So you write, even though you don't want to.

That's easy enough to say, but what about when you're actually facing the burnout? It's easy for me to sit here and tell you to "just do it" but sometimes it feels like you physically can't write.

Here's what I do. I tell myself I will sit down and write for just 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, or 20 minutes. Just however much I feel like I can handle right now. If it's 5 minutes, I set a 5-minute timer on my phone and write for those 5 minutes, and then I allow myself to stop if I still don't feel like writing.

But let me tell you what happens every single time. I end up writing for much more than 5 minutes. My 5-minute timer goes off and I dismiss it so I can finish typing out that last thought I had. Then suddenly it's an hour or two later and I'm hitting save or publish on my completed article.

I don't always finish the article in one sitting, but that's fine. I only told myself I had to write for 5 minutes, and I wrote for 30, or 50, or 100 minutes, so I'm satisfied for today.

There are lots of sayings for this:

Rome wasn't built in a day.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Etc...

It's the same for your online business. When you feel like you can't write, write anyway. Decide how much you CAN do, and then sit down and do it, even if it's only 5 minutes of writing. 5 minutes a day is a LOT more than 0 minutes a day.

Build the Habit of Writing

Another benefit of writing every day, even if it's just 5 minutes, is you are building a habit. Who do you think has an easier time sitting down to write, the person who writes at least 5 minutes every day (and most likely much more than 5 minutes once they get in the groove) or the person who waits until they're up against a publishing deadline and then sits down and pumps out 2,000 words in one sitting, but only does it once a week or less?

After a year, person #1 has a habit of writing every day. Person #2 has a habit of letting the burnout control them until the deadlines are creeping up.

I don't want to get too far away from my original point, so I'll just finish off with this:

What do you do when you don't want to write?

You write.