There is only one way to eat an elephant, according to Desmond Tutu, and that is one mouthful at a time. He meant that everything in life that appears difficult, overpowering, or even impossible may be completed gradually by taking on just a little at a time.
I was stressed when I first got the edits for my black history book back. “This is going to take forever,” I thought.
But that’s because I was looking at the entire book with no system or organization to get it done. It was just one big pile of words that needed to be sorted out. So, what did I do?
I left it alone a couple days.
The time helped me to see how I would attack it. I decided to work on two chapters at a time. And by work on, I mean do everything that needed to be done: revise, add citations, summarize. Using a dope Black history planner I ordered from Black Prints on Instagram, I blocked off the entire month of January and February with the chapters I would do for each day, leaving one day (every Sat) as a rest day where I would not work on the book at all.
This changed my outlook immensely!
I find myself looking forward to work instead of dreading it (even the boring stuff like formatting citations). If a chapter is short enough, I could do three in one day. With this system, I am already on chapters six and seven.
Doing less feels like I am getting more done!
Moral: Few people who want to write a book get around to doing it because they are thinking about writing a whole book. But how about just writing a chapter? And if that’s too much, a paragraph?
If you can commit to writing a certain amount a day instead of all at once, you will look up to a finished book in no time.
However, it’s equally important to honor your commitments, or this strategy does not work. That’s the thing about writing, no one can do it for you. If you say you will write a chapter a day, try really hard to write a chapter a day.
I am really not all that organized. I just honor the commitments I make to myself.
I would also recommend staying within schedule. While I do three chapters if the two I have for the day are short, I never go on to four.
Which means I have time to draft this blog post!
I hope this helps someone.
The PBS Blog 