"I'll try new clothes" I said. "It'll be fun" I said. How the hell do you make this
look normal? I don't understand.
What's up guys. Welcome back to the channel. My name is Megan Tennant. You
probably already knew that but some of you guys might be new to this channel
and if you are new there's a subscribe button. You should probably wait till the
end of the video before you push it cuz this could be a terrible video you don't
know yet. So yes, video topic! What are we talking
about? Today we are talking about how to stay focused. Now some of these tips are
kind of how to stay focused on your project long term some of the tips are
how to stay focused in the moment when you're sitting in front of the computer
and everything around you wants your attention. It's just kind of a mixed
bucket of advice and again we're counting the list backwards because
that's what we do now. So top tip for staying focused on your novel number 13:
make a nest. If you can, make a space dedicated solely to work or at least
find a place that isn't dedicated to relaxation. I know a lot of people who
write in bed and maybe that can work for some people but it also trains your
brain to view the bed as a possible workspace which makes you
psychologically more likely to have trouble sleeping because when you're
sleeping your brain doesn't necessarily know if you're supposed to be working or
you're supposed to be sleeping. I know that sounds kind of dumb but brains are kind
of dumb. Basically if you have separate spaces for sleep and relaxation your
brain will have tons of cues all around it telling it what mode it should be in
and I know that sounds silly because we are our brains so we should know but there's a
subconscious level to it and that subconscious level of our brain is dumb.
And you have to treat it as such. You should also keep your work area fairly
clutter free and this is in regards to both things on your desk but also tabs
and I know what you're thinking "we follow your Twitter, we've seen all the
posts" and yes I have a billion tabs open at any given time on any computer I so
much as look at but when I'm writing I open a fresh window on top of all the
windows with the tabs and I write from that. I write in Google Docs, so I write
in browser. But yes fresh window because anything that's within your range of
view when you're sitting down and trying to focus is something that's going to be
trying to get your attention. Maybe if you have a couple decorations that inspire
you that's fine but try to keep your area fairly clean. "Can I use your
computer while mine updates?" "Of course." "I'm not dealing with that".
Tip number 12, shut out your companions for short intervals. Have kids? Escape to the coffeehouse or
duct-tape them to a tree. Sometimes when you need to focus on writing you need
time to yourself. Kids, cats, husbands, actors on Netflix
shows. Go find a space where they don't exist. Are your cats bothering you? Make a
fortress out of cardboard and tape catnip to it, they will be busy for hours.
Use headphones with some nice background music, move to a remote cabin in the
middle of the woods and hope you don't get murdered or at the very least that
you only get murdered a little because then you can write a book about it.
You know, just average everyday ways to escape the companions in your life.
Number eleven, know your weaknesses. Breaks are important, I say that as I am
someone who does not know how to take breaks so don't take advice from me...That
wasn't the right thing to say in a video giving you advice but breaks are
important. I don't take them I should take them. I need to learn how to take
them. But if your issue is with you taking too many breaks take some time to
identify what specific things are your weaknesses and then combat those things.
Turn off the internet if you have to, if you have no self control. Get LastPass
and then change all of your social media passwords to be
these super long strings of characters, log out of all of your social profiles
on your phone so that the only way to log into them is to manually copy over
this gigantic string of characters which of course you're not gonna do because
who has time for that. And then yeah you are free from social
media! Congratulations! You'll also be very frustrated any time you want to
access social media but that's the cost of freedom. So LastPass, go get it because
I use LastPass and I love it. And I don't use it for this purpose because I, unlike
you guys, have the self-control to not take breaks ever and slowly let my
mental health deteriorate until I can no longer function in a creative fashion
because self-control... Yeah... Another great way to achieve this is take your
computer and start two separate profiles, one for work and one for play. Then on
your work side only install apps that you need for work, don't leave your
browser logged into social media, don't install the LastPass extension unless
it's a separate LastPass account that doesn't have your passwords to social
media, and then use that side just for work. This has a double benefit that it
also separates out your files between work and casual stuff so you don't go
looking for a work file and stumble upon a folder full of funny memes and then
get lost in it for an hour. You can also have different backgrounds so you have
again a separation and cues so that your brain more quickly falls into the
right mode. Number 10, set a timer. This one only works for some people. It's
not something I implement but some people have a lot easier time focusing
when they know that there's a time limit and they don't have to track the clock
themselves because as soon as that time is up and they get to go back and check
social media a very annoying sound is gonna play to break them out of their
focus. Don't set a limit to how many words you should get out in this time
period, but just sit down in front of the computer and pay attention to nothing
but writing while that timer is running. Number nine,
make to do list. I know this sounds like something overly used and like how
helpful could that really be but there's an actual psychology behind why making
to-do lists actually really helps you focus. Because the thing is if you know
that there's an email you have to respond to or a video you need to edit
you're not gonna consciously think about it but there's gonna be a part of your
brain that's holding on to that information because it knows it's
important and as long as it thinks that information is important it's not gonna
let go of it and the more information is being hoarded in this part of your brain
the more distracted you're gonna be. You want to clear all of that out. The
easiest way to do that is to just write it down because then your subconscious
knows that this information is being tracked somewhere else. Now you might
think that this just encompasses things like tasks but it actually extends a lot
further than that. This could be anything from "buy milk" to "think about how I feel
about the ending of How to Train Your Dragon 3 and go rewatch that one scene
again so that I can cry again and then probably watch it some more because I
want to suffer apparently why am I like this?"
Number eight keep a blank page or a blank open notebook next to you on the desk
and whenever your focus is broken from writing for any thought or thought
process just take a second to jot it down. Don't pay any attention to
coherency, don't pay attention to the fact that your handwriting looks like
you're a drunk toddler chicken, just scrawl it down and then let yourself
forget about it. When your brain is trying to hold on to information and
commit it to memory that's taking brain power and then another thought adds to
it and then another and before you know it you have all of these thoughts just
bouncing around taking up energy that doesn't you to be taken up. Number seven
don't multitask. Believe me this is one of my biggest issues. This is something
that I need to learn myself because my brain likes to trick me into thinking
that if I'm multitasking I'm getting more done, I'm being more productive,
because I'm doing all of these things at the same time. But the thing is
when you're doing multiple things at once your focus is obviously being
pulled in multiple different directions which means that none of those items are
getting your full focus which means they're gonna take way longer to
complete and you're gonna be more frustrated while trying to complete them.
If you just take one task at a time and focus entirely on it you're ultimately
gonna get all of your tasks done way faster and with way higher quality.
Number six, keep your mind and body healthy. You can't focus when your body
is deprived of sleep or food because your mind's performance is very heavily
influenced by your health from mental health to just overall physical health.
So put your help first because it will make your writing better. For this you
can do anything from eating healthier to taking breaks if maybe you don't take
enough breaks, but put time aside to focus on improving your health.
Number five have good reasons. If your brain doesn't think what you're doing is
worth it it's gonna be really hard for you to focus so ask yourself why do you
want to write. And I want to clarify here you can want to make money that's
perfectly fine if you want this to become a full-time career you're gonna
need to make money, but if you're in this just get rich I hate to break it to you
but you are in the wrong career path. If you want to get rich fast make an app
where people can get higher-quality captious they don't look like they were
filmed on a flip phone. But alternatively if you don't believe you could learn to
program there's plenty of other easier ways to make money. You can sell pictures
of your feet online, that's the thing apparently. Don't ask me how I know that.
If you're a visual person and again have handwriting that doesn't look like a
drunk toddler chicken you can write your reasons on pieces of paper or rustic
looking wood (I don't know what crafty people do) put it up behind your desk and
that can help motivate you throughout the day.
Number four keep a semi strict schedule. By this I mean be strict about when you
force yourself to sit down in front of the page, but if you're super into it
that particular day let yourself write longer if you're not feeling it at all
maybe let yourself end a little early but if it's on the schedule for you to
write sit down in front of the computer put your fingers on the keyboard and if
nothing happens and nothing happens but you tried. Remember long breaks from a
book are good if you just finish the first draft in which case you need to
walk away for a while.
But long breaks are not good in any other period of writing the book because
if you walk away for two weeks or more you're gonna start to slip out of that
world and when you come back to writing you're not gonna be in the same place
you used to be, you're not gonna have the same connection to the story or your
author voice. All that stuff starts to slip away very quickly. Believe
me I have been there. I have a vacation home there. And without a schedule you'll
end up like me where you're ninety nine point seven percent sure that you wrote
like a few days ago but then you open up the Google Doc and it says last edited
sixteen days ago and then you start to really think about it and you realize
that it has been 16 days. Strict schedule. I'm forcing myself into that this month
we'll see how that goes. Number three consistently feed your
creative beast. To create we have to consume and it might not seem like that
and if you quit consuming you're not gonna notice the effects right away but
it will catch up to you. Nothing in the world
creative is truly original. We build stories out of materials and those
materials have to come from somewhere. Our life makes up some of the building
blocks but you need more than that. Find a frequent event that happens on a
schedule in your life and then tie that to consuming other people's creative
work. Maybe every single time you eat you stop and watch a show you enjoy maybe
every single time your cat falls asleep on your leg and you get trapped for
hours on end you open up your YouTube app and you watch my videos. This isn't a
plug you're a plug. Go subscribe! But also go consume creative things, preferably
things that relate to stories. Or my videos, you know either one of those.
Number two this is definitely kind of a more long-term one and this is
track your habits. After you've finished a writing session write down the end
time and how productive you were and then of course also you want to write
down the start time. Do this over a couple weeks or a couple months and this
will help you find what times of the day you're most productive during as well as
possibly help you identify what things are breaking you out of the flow and
ending your writing early. Because our brain isn't the same amount of focused
throughout the day and you might think you're a night owl but maybe your focus
is actually highest three hours after you wake up. There's not really a way to
know that besides just trying out a lot of different times and seeing which
one's work best. And last but not least number one set achievable goals. Your
goals should be challenging enough that you have to reach for them but they need
to be something you can actually grasp because if you never achieve a goal
you're not gonna get that nice dopamine hit and therefore you're not gonna get
that same addiction to the tasks that you would otherwise. There are only a few
things that make us truly happy as humans, serotonin and dopamine.
Dopamine is extremely important for creating habits and you get that by feeling
accomplished. You can't feel accomplished if anytime you start to getting near
your goal you take that bar and you raise it up just a little bit more out
of reach. Let yourself succeed and I don't just mean for short-term goals
like a to-do list I mean in terms of long term goals. And that was it for this
video! If after listening to this you're starting to wonder if maybe your
work in progress is the problem I did two videos covering that so make sure to
go watch both of them I'll link them in the description down below. Let me know
in a comment what's the thing that most helps you focus? I'm interested to
see what you guys do. If you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and
share, it actually really helps this channel grow helps us continue to bring
this content to you. If you aren't subscribed already go hit the subscribe
button. If you are subscribed there's a bell you should hit that instead. Thank
you guys so much for watching and as always I will see you in the next video!