excess voice: nick usborne's blog

Procrastination-induced Stress

I came across the phrase "Procrastination-induced Stress" in some feedback I received on my Writing Rituals guide.

Here's the full text:

"I just wanted to drop you a line and say "thanks" for the Rituals. Although I have been very blessed in my writing practice, and I love what I do... I find myself constantly struggling with distraction.

I've never missed a deadline... but I have probably shaved a few years off my life because of procrastination-induced stress.

Now, thanks to your book, I have an understanding of why I behave this way. Even better, I now know how to overcome this problem once and for all. I really appreciate this book -- so again, thank you!"

Ray Edwards

The concept of procrastination-induced stress is an interesting one. And it's real too. So many writers end up feeling stressed out by looming deadlines simply because they have put off getting the project written.

If we all managed our time better and maintained a consistent level of productivity, we would significantly reduce the amount of stress in our work lives.

I should have added a section on this in the guide!

Great observation, Ray. Thanks.

More on Writing Rituals here...

Writing Rituals – How to increase your productivity as a writer.

Wow. It has been a very long time since my last post. In my defence, I have been very busy.

I have been working on a huge online copywriting course, which will be published later this month. As soon as it is available, I'll be sure to let you know.

During the period between finishing the course and waiting for its publication I got busy catching up with client work, and also started work on a guide to help marketing writers and copywriters with their productivity.

The guide was inspired by a couple of things.

First, working on the copywriting course forced me to really maximize my daily writing output. I had to get serious about my own productivity, or I would never have finished the course on time.

Also, looking back through the feedback I have received from other writers and copywriters over the years, I realized I wasn't alone in my occasional struggles with productivity.

It seems that a very significant proportion of writers live with a very variable level of output. Some days are good. Others, not so good.

So I did some research, asked a lot of questions and studied my own writing habits very carefully.

The result is a guide I have named Writing Rituals.

I have broken down the process of writing into five separate stages, and created a "ritual" around each stage.

The outcome, I hope, is that writers and copywriters will be able to read the guide, apply the rituals and then maintain a much higher and more consistent level of productivity.

You can learn more about Writing Rituals here.

If you do buy a copy, I would be very interested to hear what you think of it.