Productivity--where art thou?

Marcus Goodyear is holding meme week at his blog, goodwordediting.com, and he tagged me with writing about productivity. Specifically, Marcus wants to know what my productivity secrets are, which is really quite amusing, because my productivity this week could be kindly assigned to a subterranean category.

But when I am successful at being productive, I have three secrets. The first thing I try to follow is to always love the work I'm doing. Marcus did I nice job laying out the argument for this. Unfortunately, most people's love/hate continuums run in the opposite direction of their starve/prosper continuums. In a world where eating and shelter are still an inconvenient requirement of life, love doesn't always fit the bill. So, after quickly abandoning hope of always loving what I do, I fall to my second secret, which is to have a deadline—or in other words—always work with someone with whom you have the potential to disappoint. Probably because I'm a pleaser, I abhor missing a deadline and can't really remember the last time I did.

In reality, I try to strike a balance between those two secrets as best I can. I love being a writer much more than any other job I’ve ever held, but not all writing projects inspire enjoyment. So, I pursue some projects that I love doing, but pay modestly, and intermix them with other work that is deadline heavy but not always fun. Sometimes work is just that—work. But to be honest, I can't think of anything I do that isn't a party compared to digging ditches or emptying septic tanks.

My final secret, which is really more of a reminder to myself, is that quality trumps quantity. I could produce more articles and books, but the quality of my work would take a hit. If you look at Mark’s blog, for example, he doesn’t post five times a day, but his content is some of the best out there. You want to visit his site because you know you’ll come away with new knowledge that will enhance your thoughts and abilities.

Returning to the meme of this blog, however, one of the most productivity-killing tasks a writer has to do is promote his or her book (you knew I'd get that in here somehow). Many authors simply take several months off from writing to do promotional activities (activities that are near the bottom of the "love" meter for most of us).

So how do authors promote their books and stay productive writers? Randy Ingermanson has written extensively on the idea of starting a blog related to an upcoming book. But I'm hearing of some writers who are considering writing their book material in blog entry form. Then, at some point when they have a critical mass of ideas and material (and maybe readers), they'll be ready with a rough draft in hand, or at least a detailed outline. Later, when they have a completed book, they'll be ready with a content-deep blog to promote their ideas. Many people have tried to retroactively turn their blog into a book, and the jury is still out on how successful that can be. But someone writing and producing a platform simultaneously…that sounds interesting.

Now, speaking of productivity…I need to find where mine went…