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Write Your Book: The Longest To-Do List

Write Your Book: The Longest To-Do List // jenniferesnyder.com

You're looking at the longest to-do list I've ever made. I'm a big fan of making lists, but this one is a monster. I've written plenty of shorter e-books, drafted multi-page reports, crafted content for entire websites and created script upon script for the podcast. Yet, the book writing process is so daunting. So overwhelming. 

A friend of mine recently wrote an e-book and she noted that she had a ritual of getting up an hour earlier than normal each day to write. The logical part of my brain knows she's on to something. Just spend a little time each day writing bits and pieces until you have enough to put together the whole thing. I've used that tactic in the past (see: e-books). It works. Yet, my creative brain—the portion of my mind that won't stop looking at the big picture, the big ideas and the endless possibilities—is making it tough to focus.

I've set out on this 90-day experiment to attempt to write the majority of the book, craft a proposal and decide how to move forward. I'm doing it while juggling freelance work, but that's no excuse. People do that all the time, right? To be fair, I have been working on it each day, but not all the work has been focused on writing the actual book.

So, I guess I'm jotting down these thoughts so I can hear more from all of you. How do you tackle giant projects that feel a bit overwhelming? Do you break them up into small bits and do a little bit each day? Or do you hole up in a cabin somewhere to plow through the work in a marathon session? I want to hear how YOU do the big work, my friends.