Procrastinate No More: Non-Zero Days Will Save Your Goal
Writing is hard. It’s way easier to procrastinate. You’re not alone. It happens to the best of us.
I tripped over an article on Medium a few weeks back that stopped me. It made me think. It made me feel like there was really no excuse for my current procrastination. The article was titled “The Concept of No More Zero Days and why Motivation is fleeting” by Fayadh Ahmed1. Check it out.
No More Zero Days
He’s talking about a concept he learned about on Reddit coined “no more zero days.” I’ve heard of this concept: essentially avoiding days in which you take no action toward a goal or dream, a zero-day. But his take was simple. He looks at life like the binary number system—a whole lot of 0s and 1s. It took me back to my tech days, but it was so on point.
So a zero day is 0 and a non-zero day is 1. Simple, right? One is obviously better. We strive for ones.
But what does “one” mean? One means anything more than zero. One step, one task, one thing toward your goal.
To Write More, Write Something
So let’s put this to writing. You want to write a book, but shit that’s hard. You sit down ready to write and you decide you’re hungry. You get a snack and then you have to hit the bathroom. After that, you feel a touch tired and that headache your 9 to 5 sent you home with is still lingering. And every time you sit down that scary cursor is taunting you on the blank page and you're done. Fed up. You chalked up another zero day. The thing about zero days—and we all know this—they compile. It’s like they’re rabbits. One becomes two, becomes four, and so on right before your eyes.
Then that goal in the distance feels like it’s moving, practically sprinting, away from you. You couldn’t catch it if you ran like the cops were chasing you.
Hold up, you can!
Today.
Write one sentence of that story or book or outline. Just one. Guess what. You took a step forward. You had a non-zero day. Boom.
Do it again. And again.
It’s one sentence. You can tackle that while you are shoveling breakfast into your face. You can do that during your morning constitution. You can do it in that meeting where your boss is saying the same thing he’s said for a week. Just do it. Peck it out on that tiny phone keyboard if you have to.
Do it early in your day. Heck, you never know maybe two sentences will come flying out. Maybe you’ll find it's so easy to hit that goal that you strung together fifty sentences.
It all starts with one non-zero day.
“The truth is what you do matters, what you do today matters. What you do every day matters. No matter how insignificant it may seem.”
--Fayadh Ahmed
In truth, I’m having a non-zero day right now. I’m trying my damndest to apply Todd Brison's Smart Notes system that I learned in his class with Tim Denning called 10x Writing Speed Blueprint. And this productivity theory is the perfect match to help me write and publish more content online.
Carving out time to write in a day full of editing books is tough. I look at words all day and then in the wee morning hours and when the sun goes down, I’m supposed to write some of my own. It’s been like an intracranial joke for a year. My brain just mocks me.
But I’m trying. One step at a time. One idea at a time. One article at a time.
And I figured I’d share this concept with you. Apply it to your writing. See what happens.
Go Get What You Want
More and more writers come to me for coaching and accountability who struggle with just showing up to do the work. Maybe they show up but nothing comes of it.
Truth is, you have to show up and write something over and over until the faucet is always on. It will happen. You have to be consistent, make it a habit. I’m finding that as I just simply make it a to-do on my list. It doesn't have to be daily, but make a habit of carving out time.
Hell when I drafted parts of my first book, I wrote while pasta was boiling or while I was stirring sauce in the kitchen. I found bits of time while waiting in the car between playing Uber driver for my kids. I broke the mentality that it had to be the perfect time and place. I really just needed five or ten minutes to jot down some ideas or a few sentences, because that’s what I had.
Don’t let the perfect place and time stop you from doing anything. Remember even one sentence makes this a non-zero day.
Start today. No more zero-writing days.
Do you have other productivity tips or tricks you use? Share them. I love a good mind trick to get me working.
Good luck and happy editing!
For more tips and in-depth guides on revising your stories, check back for more posts.
1 Fayadh Ahmed. (May 26 2016). The Concept of No More Zero Days and why Motivation is fleeting. https://medium.com/@fayadh56/the-concept-of-no-more-zero-days-and-why-motivation-is-fleeting-9c1c307f8948