Anyone who wants to be a writer dreams of being able to sit down and write every day and earn money from it. However, the problem is that being a writer is much more than just being able to write. It’s more about having a wealth of ideas to write about and the creativity to bring them to life on the page in such a way that it captivates the reader and creates a vision in their minds, making them want to read more.

However, even knowing this, it is difficult to sit down and write every day. So why is this?

I find that I have to have the right mindset before I can write. I need to be in the right frame of mind, which means I need to have my proverbial ‘writer’s head’ before I start.

And the way I do it is by using my 15 minute ‘trick’ to get my mind where I need it.

You see, it’s hard to sit back and instantly empty my mind of everything else that’s going on in my life so I can start writing. I am also cursed for having a crazy monkey mind that constantly jumps from one thought to another until I feel mentally drained.

So to calm the monkey down, I sit at my desk and use the first 15 minutes to screw my writing head down.

I do this by first taking out my journal and looking at what I have written for that day. Every day, before I leave my desk, I write down everything I have to do the next day. So each morning begins by checking my journal.

Then I look at what I wrote the day before to find out exactly where I was doing. Then I adjust the to-do list for that day by numbering what I need to do in the order I need to do it. For example, if something I wrote the day before needs a quick review before I send it by email, I will do it first to remove it from the list. Number 2 could be working on my latest books, so if something else comes up during the day (and things usually happen), even if I don’t write anymore, at least it will have progressed on my book.

And that is. Once I start looking at my journal and what I have to do, it instantly puts me in ‘writing mode’ even if I didn’t feel like writing when I sat down.

Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes and sometimes almost half an hour, but usually the average is only 15 minutes, and by then I am full of enthusiasm and eager to write.

And that is the other secret to being creative and having an abundance of ideas, is to enjoy writing. It should be fun, and it usually is for me, especially when I spend a few minutes every day putting my mind in the writing zone, where ideas come thick and fast and I feel like I can write for hours.

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