When you’re trying to write, it can be frustrating if the words don’t start flowing straight away. But getting frustrated doesn’t help. It’s better to relax into the writing with a calm, focused mind.
The author, Neil Gaiman, has a simple rule to help with this:
You don’t have to write. You have permission to not write, but you don’t have permission to do anything else.
This takes the pressure off. It gives you time to think, to daydream, to juggle ideas in your head.
More importantly, perhaps, it lets you experience the slight discomfort of not producing.
I would go down to my lovely little gazebo at the bottom of the garden, sit down, and I’m absolutely allowed not to do anything. I’m allowed to sit at my desk, I’m allowed to stare out at the world, I’m allowed to do anything I like, as long as it isn’t anything. Not allowed to do a crossword, not allowed to read a book, not allowed to phone a friend, not allowed to make a clay model of something. All I’m allowed to do is absolutely nothing, or write.
I’m giving myself permission to write or not write, but writing is actually more interesting than doing nothing after a while. You sit there and you’ve been staring out the window now for five minutes, and it kind of loses its charm. You’re going, “Well, actually, let’s write something.”
Write, or don’t write, but don’t do anything else.
Procrastination Hack: Get to Zero
That thing you just don’t feel like doing
Quote Source: Neil Gaiman interview on the Tim Ferriss Podcast
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Applicable to virtually any field of study, it covers everything from finding a research topic, getting to grips with the literature, planning and executing research and coping with the inevitable problems that arise, through to writing, submitting and successfully defending your thesis.
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