Want To Achieve Your Writing Goals? Say Them Out Loud.

It’s affirmation with a clear, immediate purpose

One of the first rules of daily writing productivity is to set clear goals. Whether it’s a certain daily word count or a fixed number of tasks, pretty much any kind of writing career needs that structure. I’m currently balancing my freelance work with my fiction writing and have recently started blogging on hiking and travel too. So obviously, without daily goals, it becomes very messy.

Historically, I’ve had trouble with meeting goals. I get distracted — a lot — and I have the attention span of half a goldfish. Even if I force myself to put away the physical distractions (ie the phone), the mental distractions keep zooming around. At any given point during my workday, my mind looks something like this:

Okay, I’ve been delaying this article a long time, I really have to do it. But it’s so boring, can I do a fun one first? Oh, but then there’s that other long piece I should probably get a start on, at least research something. Oh wait, someone I follow posted a Medium article. Hey, that’s a cool headline, maybe I could try something like that! Oh, but I have 96 unfinished drafts already, maybe I should work on one of those first? How about this one? Or that one? Okay, maybe I should just write an Instagram post instead. Ooooh, Reddit drama!

You see?

And sure, maybe the obvious answer is just to make lists of tasks and then do them one by one. But to-do lists hardly ever work for me — I inevitably list more than I can complete, which means at the end of the day I’m facing a column of unchecked boxes and feel furious about myself.

I needed something different. Very different.

I started this affirmation technique without design on a day when I was feeling overwhelmed about all the things I had to do. There were a couple of overdue articles I had to send out, an email from a client asking if I could pick up a third one, a Medium post that I was itching to write. And all of them were swirling around in my head, each demanding my full attention and failing to claim it.

It was getting to a point where my head was physically hurting. Almost without thinking, I closed all my Chrome tabs, took a deep breath and said out loud:

“I will finish Article A first, then move on to Article B. When both are finished, I can respond to that email and say I can take up the new piece tomorrow and not today. Only then will I start the Medium piece.”

When I reopened the Article A tab, suddenly, I’d stopped worrying about Article B or the email or anything else.

I was thinking solely about Article A, which meant I could complete it much faster.

And then I went straight on to B and did everything pretty much as I’d said I would.

And this wasn’t just a one-off occurrence. I’ve used this verbal statement technique multiple times since that day and it’s been consistently working. Whatever I state I will do, I do.

So what’s the big deal about affirming out loud?

Most people think of affirmations as motivational statements to improve your self-esteem, such as “I am worthy of love” or “I am capable of financial independence”. That has its merits, but the positive effect of those affirmations takes a while to make itself felt. As in, if you struggle with self-esteem, it’s going to take many days of affirming that you’re worthy of love to truly start feeling that day.

But affirmation doesn’t have to be about big mindset shifts like that. Affirmation is also about harnessing the power of your own mind to gently discipline itself. When you’re affirming that you will complete Task A, you’re pinning down your commitment to that task — giving it more of a body than when it’s just a nebulous must-do in your head. You’re telling your mind — that wild, overstimulated creature — that this, specifically, is what you need to be doing. It’s a great way to stay on track for neurodivergent writers like myself — and honestly, for anyone who struggles with concentrating and balancing multiple inputs.

The best part is that saying your goals out loud helps with so much more than just prioritising tasks. Here are some other ways in which it has helped me.

Coming up with multiple ideas at one go

I do this a couple of times a week — when I want to ideate, I tell myself “I will come up with 20 headline ideas within 10 minutes.” By setting a fixed goal, your mind has a track along which to run, and you’re also putting a deadline on yourself so you can get going faster. Best of all, you may actually surprise yourself with how many ideas you dream up — often even more than 20 (it’s happened to me).

Completing short work sprints

So much of the writing work we do, especially routine client tasks, can be completed in short bursts of concentrated effort — except that we’re too distracted to muster up that concentration. Which is why they seem to take forever, mocking us with their near-completion.

The simple way out — tell yourself, calmly and clearly: “I will work ONLY on my current article.” Help yourself by turning off all other tabs and putting distracting elements (your phone, the book you’re reading, your cat) out of your reach. Put the beast to rest — then, and only then, start thinking about (and affirming) your next set of goals.

Working proactively, not reactively

There are all kinds of things that could pull at our attention, from social media notifications to client emails. And we’ve convinced ourselves that we must respond to those messages as and when they pop up. While we may discipline ourselves to not respond to friends, client emails are much harder to put off — they’re part of work too, right?

Wrong! Emails are almost always not as urgent as they might seem, and by breaking your concentration to answer them, you end up taking longer with your current task, which means you take more time to get to the task you’re being emailed about. So tell yourself: “I will finish my current task and then respond.” And then do that. Complete your task first. Trust me, the email can wait another 30 minutes. And if it’s really a life-or-death situation you’re being emailed about, well, you wouldn’t be having this internal debate anyway.

Combatting deadline panic

Raise your hand if you’re a writer who procrastinates. It’s okay, I know you do. We all do. And one effect of procrastination is that you can end up in a situation where there’s a lot to do and the reality of that hits you — hard — and makes you feel like you just can’t do it. I used to get panic attacks because I’d be stuck with three articles that had to be completed and sent off within the next three hours. It was paralysing, in a way, the knowledge of so little time left — and even something that was 80% done seemed impossible to finish.

The ideal solution, of course, is to not procrastinate so much. But since that ain’t happening, the next time you’re confronted with a deadline crisis of this sort, calmly tell yourself “I will finish this article and then start on that blog post, and then I will email the client saying I need an extension.” When picking which one to do first, you could either choose the one with a tighter deadline, or the one that’s more difficult — depends on your work style. I like taking up tighter deadlines first myself — the high of completing something motivates me to finish the next one faster.

And on that note, don’t be afraid to ask for extensions. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I’ve seen that a client won’t begrudge you an extra hour or two. The thing you shouldn’t do is to delay without notice — that’s disrespectful. Just ask for more time! You’ll get it, no stress.

Permitting yourself to play

Maybe there’s a fun blog post or poem you want to write, but it’s Monday morning and you have a mountain of client work to do. The obvious answer — do the work. That’s what pays the bills.

But you know how sometimes you just really need that chocolatey treat before dinner? Well, sometimes your brain needs a treat before it can be compelled to focus on duller things. As with all treats, portion control is key — so use affirmation to give yourself that portioned treat. State a fun writing activity and a specific time slot “I will work on my poem for the next 15 minutes”. And then do that. Have fun. You’re neither compromising on work, nor are you denying yourself the joy of writing something fun. And as every writer knows, in a full-time writing life, we need our daily doses of fun.

Saying your writing goals out loud might feel funny at first. You might feel like you’re chanting something, or that you’re giving in to some sort of trend. Honestly, I felt like that at the start — affirmation culture has blown up online and anything that’s too popularised feels weird to buy into. But there’s no trickery here, no need to feel spiritual or anything. You’re simply stating intentions and then immediately following through on them. That way, your mind doesn’t have to feel overwhelmed — you’re eliminating all choices for them except the most important one — and you’re much likelier to complete your goals steadily rather than flit from one to another without making real headway. And yes, it does take some practice at first, but stick with it! I have, and the rewards have been amazing. :)