30 days to finished

How to motivate yourself to cross the finish line

If you read my blog or listen to either of my podcasts, you know I am a big fan of National Novel Writing Month. During “NaNoWriMo” in November, thousands of people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The genius of this concept is that many would-be writers have an idea for a book, and start writing, but then stop because what they’re writing isn’t any good. But of course it isn’t good! Most first drafts are terrible. A challenge like NaNoWriMo forces you to write quickly without second guessing the quality. You get out of your own head, write a story, and then once the story exists you can do the careful edits that turn the book into something you actually want to read.

My novella Juliet’s School of Possibilities began its life as a NaNoWriMo novel. I also wrote the first 50,000 words of a currently unpublished novel called The Norwegian Secret to Enjoying a Long Winter during a NaNoWriMo.

Anyway, you may not want to write a novel. But maybe there is some other big project in your life you’d like to undertake. So here’s an idea: Could you aim to finish in the next 30 days?

Create a challenge

If you start now you’ll be done around July 4th, and can spend the rest of the summer basking in the glow of accomplishment.

I’m not sure what it would be for you but I can think of all sorts of projects that would benefit from a real push. Maybe you’re writing a new curriculum for your school or for the training program at work. Maybe you’re revamping your employee evaluation system or creating a series of new classes for your house of worship. Maybe you want to finish a grant application, or even clean out your basement. I’m sure there’s something that you’ve been telling yourself for a long time that you really should do.

So why not adopt the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, and commit to finishing your project in 30 days? You could take today to map out a plan. Look at what still needs to be done. Break it down into 30 roughly equally sized steps, or perhaps more like 25 if you’re traveling or taking weekends off. Maybe you spend 5 days on each of four training modules and then spend 5 days making the whole thing more coherent. Maybe you’ve got 25 boxes in the basement and you do one each day.

Make a plan

But whatever it is, break it down into 25-30 pieces, just like NaNoWriMo participants do. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days means writing 1,667 words a day if you do it every day, or 2000 words a day if you take some weekend days off. Figure out how long each step will take. Figure out where in your schedule you can block the time. Figure out a back-up slot for when the first slot gets taken away from you — because some days it will. People who finish a challenge plan for the unexpected!

But then picture yourself, by July 4th, with a complete version of your project. It’s pretty motivating. Thirty days is enough time to do a lot, but it’s a short enough time that we can see the finish line. Really picture yourself enjoying your accomplishment.

And then, get started. Keep going. That’s all there is to it. In thirty days you just might be done with something big. But if you don’t start, you won’t be — and thirty days are going to pass no matter what you do. Won’t it be nice to be on the other side feeling proud of what you’ve done?