Writers – How To Overcome Anxiety, Boost Your Energy And Improve Your Concentration Skills

As a writer or creative artist, your most important asset is your health.

Have you ever had days when no matter how hard you try, the words don’t flow and everything you write seems wooden and false?

In today’s post I would like to offer you three simple healthy habits you can use to overcome writer’s block and improve your concentration skills, especially on days when your energy is low and you struggle to concentrate and complete your assignments.

Given the hectic pace of life, it can be difficult to always be creative and inspired. When you write you want your words to be remembered, honored and hopefully inspire your reader.

So what can you do to ensure your words always achieve the results you require? Is there a secret formula you can tap into that allows you to always be creative and inspired?

I don’t believe there is a golden formula but I do believe it is possible to adopt certain habits which help you to become a healthier, more focused writer.

1. Healthy Writer’s Habit #1- Hydrate Your Body – Drink More Water

No one can run on empty. Just like a car requires a regular service and petrol to run, so does your body. Constantly burning the candle at both ends to meet deadlines leaves you feeling empty, demoralized and tired.

Water has the ability to hydrate and nourish your brain. Your brain consists of 85% water therefore drinking water helps to naturally lift your energy. Aim to drink at least 5 glasses of water a day. A good tip is to have a bottle of water on your desk and take regular sips throughout the day; this simple habit instantly improves your concentration skills and boosts your energy levels so you feel more alert and focused.

Healthy Writer’s Habit#2 – Breathe

If your mind is full of clutter and you find it difficult to focus and write, a few rounds of yogic breathing exercises instantly leaves your mind feeling calm and clear. On a basic level, breathing allows you to draw in oxygen into your body and eliminates toxins and bacteria which prevent your body functioning correctly. The slower and deeper you breathe, the more you allow oxygen to enter and flow through your body. This expands your lung capacity and makes you feel brighter and more alert.

Here is a simple breathing practice you can try when you feel your energy levels slipping.

1. Sit comfortably, gently cradle your belly with your hands and allow your fingertips to lightly touch each other.

2. Close your eyes and spend a few moments to tune into your everyday breath. Don’t try to control your breath just be aware of how you are breathing.

3. Slowly take a full steady breath in though your nose for a count of four and breathe out for a count of four. Continue to breathe in and out through your nose and as you do so notice your belly and hands rise and fall with each breath.

4. Repeat this pattern of breathing 5-10 rounds. As you do so, notice your thoughts slow down as your body lets go of tension.

5. Slowly open your eyes and be aware of how much calmer and quieter you feel.

2. Healthy Writer’s Habit#3 – Relax Your Eyes

This is my favorite tip to reduce anxiety and calm your mind. As a writer, you spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen; this can lead to eye strain and in some cases headaches. To reduce eye strain and improve concentrations try this simple eye exercise.

Palming Exercise

1. Flap and loosely shake your hands for 30 seconds. Keep your shoulders lowered and jaw soft.

2. Next rub your palms vigorously together until your palms generate heat as they warm up.

3. Rest your elbows on the table. Close your eyes and cover your hands over your eyes with your fingertips pointing up towards your hairline and heels of your palm touching your cheeks.

4. Hold your hands in this position for about 30 seconds. Remember to breathe deeply as you rest in this position.

5. Slowly release your hands from face and rest your hands on your lap. Sit still for a few more moments and be aware of your calm and clear you now feel.

On days when you feel overwhelmed and anxious make sure you keep your body and brain hydrated, practice a few rounds of breathing exercises and rest your eyes by practicing the palming exercise.

Together these simple yogic practices help to revitalize and reenergize your system so you can continue to focus on your work with minimal effort and stress.

If you want to learn more simple yoga practices to calm stressful situations and feel relaxed check out my other posts at The Next Goal.

If you enjoyed this article feel free to share the love and link back to it from your own blog. Take care and thank you.

Mother, blogger, yoga teacher and author Ntathu Allen strives to encourage others to weave moments of calm and rest into their busy life so you have the energy to have more fun time with your family and be positive and productive at work. (Image: Bindaas Madhavi)

One of my recent writing gigs introduced me to a new piece of software – and now I don’t know how I ever lived without it. It’s called OfficeTime and it’s a time tracking application. There are dozens of time trackers around. In the past I have tried RescueTime, which was great for showing me where I spent most time online, and Slife, which showed me which desktop applications I used most. OfficeTime is different – this shows me how much time I am spending on actual, billable work – and it has a number of features which make it a real boon for freelancers.

OfficeTime screenshot

No Learning Curve

Chief of these is that there is no learning curve. If like me you already have too many ways to spend your time, then you will be pleased to know that once you install OfficeTime you can start using it right away. Click on the greyed out play button in your taskbar to start timing, click again to pause or stop. But the question is – what are you timing?

Setting Up OfficeTime

That’s where it’s worth spending five or ten minutes to set it up.  OfficeTime works with projects and categories, and here’s how I use those to keep track of productivity. I have created several new categories for the activities I do most: writing, blogging, promotion, talking to clients on the phone and bidding. For each category I can add an hourly rate. I also created a project for each client. Now, when I am ready to start a project, I click on the client’s name, make sure the category is correct and leave the timer running. It’s fun to see the money adding up – and it also makes me more aware of non-billable time.

Killer Feature

Another killer feature is that the program detects if you have left your computer for a while and keeps track of how long that’s for. When you return, you get the option of subtracting that time automatically from the current timer. And if you start doing a job but forget to start the timer, you can edit the time easily from within the same mini window. And there’s more – you can also add notes which will help you to remember exactly what you were doing – great if you want to note down an article title, for example.

Reporting Functions

I love stats and reports and OfficeTime provides plenty. A click of a button allows me to see recent activity (by day week or month) segmented by project or category. Another click lets me summarise activity into a Word invoice (and you can edit the template if you need to). The default template isn’t particularly attractive, but it does the job.

The Verdict

There really isn’t anything I would change about this application, though one addition would be useful – the ability to mark time as unbilled. When I was writing this review, I created an invoice to check the functions and forgot to check the box which would allow me to keep it unbilled – now I can’t find a way to fix it. I know it’s my own fault, but it should be easier, I think. That aside, I love OfficeTime. Though it’s a bit pricey at $47 (especially with all the free timers out there), it has a lot of useful functionality.

I mentioned in my last post that I was doing something about getting organized. To help me, I’ve used two Firefox extensions, GTDInbox and Remember The Milk for Gmail. I’ve reviewed these elsewhere (links are to the reviews), but here’s how they help.

Achieving Inbox Zero

GTD Inbox makes it a snap to deal with your email (in Gmail). You have five email statuses (next action, action, waiting on, some day and finished) that you apply to your email when it comes in. The theory is that if you can do something immediately, you should, otherwise you apply a priority label and archive it. Then you deal with items in order of priority.

This has worked well for me. My inbox is almost always empty (the famed ‘inbox zero’) and I know exactly which emails are most important. So, what if you don’t use Gmail? The system will work with any email program that allows you to use tags, labels or smart folders. My friend Mitchell Allen has outlined a similar system which he uses with Thunderbird. (These labels also work for processing real mail. I instituted a six-tray system under the influence of my DH some time ago. Labels are now, soon, file, read, info and pass on.)

Making Lists And Getting Organised

Once I had the email sorted, I turned my attention to task lists. I’ve made several attempts to get organised when it comes to tasks. I’ve used Google Calendar, with a separate calendar for writing deadlines. I’ve used a paper diary, which is still on my desk. And now I’m using Remember The Milk for Gmail.

I’ve flirted with RTM in the past, but gave up because it just added one more thing for me to do. Now that I can add tasks from the inbox, assign priorities and see a handy list of what I’ve got coming up, it’s perfect. The task list only appears in the inbox list view, which works for me. When you click on an email it disappears. But here’s the beauty of the system.

Working Together: GTDInbox And RTM

Now, when an email comes in, I either deal with it or assign it a GTD priority and archive it, which takes me back to the inbox. I can immediately input a task related to that email, along with a due date. It should mean that I never forget anything important and am always on top of what has to be done. Marking tasks complete is also satisfying, though postponing them is less so.

So that’s how I’m getting organised at the moment. I’m not even using all the features yet, but I’ll let you know when I find out more. I’ve always met my deadlines, sometimes with time to spare, but using these extensions makes me feel more control over the process.

(Photo: arundo)