Can we ever be productive enough?

We’ve all heard the Tortoise and the Hare fable. “Slow and steady wins the race,” remember? But in our productivity-crazed world, there’s a lot of pressure on writers to continuously perform.

We’re torn in multiple directions with a typical day being fragmented by our desire to grow social media audiences, connect with email followers, work a full-time job, write new content and—somewhere in the mix—take care of a family.

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.

One of the best ways to avoid a stress overload, or a guilt trip, is to create a writing schedule that works for you. If you’re an indie author, this is a lot easier than when writing for a traditional publisher but you still have to keep it all in perspective.

In the end, you may not have as many books out as you’d like, but that doesn’t mean that the books you do produce won’t have an impact. An author’s definition of productivity is different from most other career paths. For us, productivity means creating a product worthy of our name. It is NOT simply hatching out books with little to no meaning.

So ditch the productivity dream and, instead, choose the productivity plan—a low stress writing schedule that allows you to create at your own pace. Like the tortoise, you may inch toward creating a product that you’re proud to call your own.

But, when you get there, the view will be worth it all.

My recommendation:

I previously shared a quarterly schedule that has helped a lot of writers but am posting it again since it can help you apply the info in this week’s post. The write up on how to use this schedule is here .