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Willpower takes over when motivation and enthusiasm have worn off. It is willpower that gets you going for a run when your muscles are aching and its cold outside, willpower that sees you through the completion of writing a book when you know where it's going and how it's going to end. Willpower that enables you to not reach for the block of chocolate again and again til it's gone. In order to maximise your willpower, and your use of it, it's important to understand that it can be drained away and used up by meaningless things.
These are the times when you have stretched, strained, used, drained, soaked up, dried up and generally bailed out your willpower. The saddest thing is that you probably didn't even spend it on anything good. So let us look at where willpower can go, and how we can plug up these holes to maintain a steady stream of it throughout the day.
There are three major willpower leaches. The Big Three destroyers: Hunger - Sleep Deprivation - Stress
Hunger
How many times have you been told to stay away from shopping when you're hungry? It's based on our complete inability to resist every bad food that leaps into the trolley, because hunger kills willpower If you rationalised it you would realise that if you ate that, and that, and the other thing in there right now, all at this moment, you would explode. But all you can here is your stomach, and your brain is curled in a corner, hugging said stomach, "Moaaare! More food!"
Of course, food cravings are directly related to your hunger; however, hunger also takes away your willpower to do other things as well. It affects your concentration, your mood and your general ability to think about anything that isn't food.
If you have plenty of sleep and are not stressed, you might be able to battle through hunger. If you're planning on going on any severe diet, do everything you can to keep the other two Willpower Destroyers satiated. However, why make things more difficult for yourself than you have to? Make sure you eat sensible meals at regular times. Before you sit down to work, have a small but nutritious snack so your hunger will curl up and go to sleep, leaving you in peace for a while.
Sleep Deprivation
By now, with all the attention it has received in magazines and self-help books, someone has surely told you that you need more sleep. Yes, it is very individual, and there are some people out there who really do only need four hours, but they live healthy lives on those four hours. For the rest of us, we generally need around eight hours of good quality sleep, and can need more in winter or at different times in our personal mood cycle.
Good quality sleep cannot be underestimated. If you want to do one thing to reenergise your creativity, joy and peace with life, look first to your sleeping habits. After years of having broken sleep, you might think it is normal, but it is definitely worth taking the time and effort to improve it. You owe it to yourself as a writer, so think of this as part of your job requirement: get better sleep.
But some sad news for those who were already leaning over to tell their partner not to wake them before midday tomorrow: it's the hours before midnight that seem to do the most for people. Some people do appear to work well after midnight, but first let's check: are you waking up after eight hours of sleep feeling refreshed? It might be that you've just messed up your natural circadian rhythms, rather than being a true night owl. However, if you have a system that is working for you, or you have to have odd hours for work, don't let me interfere. I only offer food for thought.
Simple Steps For Better Sleep Hygiene
There are so many ways to improve sleep, and many focus on 'sleep hygiene'. Sleep hygiene instigates and maintains good sleep habits, and replaces bad habits which cause common sleeping problems. So, it is time to start retraining yourself to get the most out of a night's shut-eye.
Here are five practical tips you can put into practice immediately, and build into good habits (more can be found in my book "The Five Day Writer's Retreat").
1. Train your body clock. Your body likes consistency over a 24 hour period, and it's really good at getting into habits if you'll let it. So do yourself a favour and always try to go to bed at the same time and get up around the same time. Your body will get used to unwinding in time and will be ready to sleep when you are.
2. Turn off the computer screen. We now think nothing of staring at a computer screen all day and night. Yet research is showing that the backlit screens are affecting our ability to switch off and get to sleep. And yes, this includes your smart phone as well. E-readers that have e-ink and no backlighting are okay. So the recommendation is that if you want to fall asleep more easily, turn off the computer/TV etc about an hour before you want to go to sleep. 'But what will I do?' You exclaim. Well, aren't you a writer? You should read of course! Jump into bed after your well-developed ritual and snuggle down with a good book.
3. Get rid of noise. It can be difficult to do much about this, but try to think of ways to reduce the noise in your room. Some people wear earplugs to help with this, but I understand that they can be uncomfortable, and don't really like them myself. (The only time I've used them religiously was when I was traveling with my parents and we shared a hotel room. My father's snoring is atrocious.) Which leads to the question of what to do with noisy partners. Well, if you have suggested and tried various snore-reducing steps, then you will either need earplugs, separate rooms, or just get used to it. My mother somehow did. So do whatever is within your power to reduce noise, but if it affects your relationships, maybe just learn to live with it. A good partner is difficult to come by, after all.
4. Don't work in bed. Okay, I will admit up front that I'm a total failure at this one. I love working in bed and do it all the time. However, I do know that it is reducing the quality of my sleep. If you are serious about improving your sleep, then your bed should be for nothing else than sleep and a bit of pre-sleep fun if you are in a relationship, or a good book if you are happily single. The reason for this is to you train your body to associate the bedroom with sleep and nothing else. If your body is sure of this, it will drift off much more easily.
5. Sleep ritual - mental preparation. Along with getting your body ready for sleep, you can help the process a lot by also getting your mind ready. If you are regularly kept awake by thoughts swirling inside your head, you need to stop this. Effective steps include: writing down everything just before you go to bed, and separating out your 'to do' tasks from general worries. Then, my biggest tip is to take some time to memorise something beautiful. I know this sounds strange, but the process of memorisation is very calming to the mind; the slow repetition of words and the visualisation of what is being read. I use this time to memorise my Bible and think on its implications, but poetry would work the same, and would feed your Genius at the same time.
Stress
To our third, final, and by no means least of the Willpower Destroyers. We know that a little bit of stress can be a wonderful thing; it gives you that kick of energy before a deadline, it is what helps your fitness improve when you run, and kicks in your body's natural self-preservation instincts. However, on-going or high levels of stress are bad for so many reasons. And the worst thing is that we tend to encourage it in our lives, mistaking it for the benefit of good stress.
Reducing Stress
List what currently stresses you, from the big stressors to the little niggles. If the task seems difficult, put them under these headings: Work, Relationships, Home Environment, Personal, Finance. Try to be as specific as you can, narrowing it down to individuals or particular things. Defining a problem is a large part of overcoming it.
For example, under Work you might list: 'Dealing with client X makes me dread Tuesdays'.
Relationships: 'I forgot to wish Susan happy birthday and still haven't contacted her.'
Home Environment: Even little things can make a difference, such 'I don't have anywhere to store the vacuum cleaner without everyone tripping over it.'
Personal: These are attitudes and thoughts that bring you stress, such as 'I committed to writing 200 words a day and haven't done anything', or 'My weight is slowly creeping further up and soon I'm going to be a balloon.'
Finance: Credit card debt can be an ongoing source of low-grade stress, as can a silent fight with a housemate over who should pay the excess on the phone bill, since neither of you made those calls!
List as many stressors as you can, then divide them into three types of stress: things you can do something about Now, things you should be able to change in the Future and things that Can't be changed. Then list them by how much they irritate you.
Deliberately work through the things you can change now and get rid of as many stressors as you can. Every month or so, update the list and keep working on it. Reducing stress in your life is one of the most effective ways you can increase your general happiness and productivity, so don't just let it slide!
These are the times when you have stretched, strained, used, drained, soaked up, dried up and generally bailed out your willpower. The saddest thing is that you probably didn't even spend it on anything good. So let us look at where willpower can go, and how we can plug up these holes to maintain a steady stream of it throughout the day.
There are three major willpower leaches. The Big Three destroyers: Hunger - Sleep Deprivation - Stress
Hunger
How many times have you been told to stay away from shopping when you're hungry? It's based on our complete inability to resist every bad food that leaps into the trolley, because hunger kills willpower If you rationalised it you would realise that if you ate that, and that, and the other thing in there right now, all at this moment, you would explode. But all you can here is your stomach, and your brain is curled in a corner, hugging said stomach, "Moaaare! More food!"
Of course, food cravings are directly related to your hunger; however, hunger also takes away your willpower to do other things as well. It affects your concentration, your mood and your general ability to think about anything that isn't food.
If you have plenty of sleep and are not stressed, you might be able to battle through hunger. If you're planning on going on any severe diet, do everything you can to keep the other two Willpower Destroyers satiated. However, why make things more difficult for yourself than you have to? Make sure you eat sensible meals at regular times. Before you sit down to work, have a small but nutritious snack so your hunger will curl up and go to sleep, leaving you in peace for a while.
Sleep Deprivation
By now, with all the attention it has received in magazines and self-help books, someone has surely told you that you need more sleep. Yes, it is very individual, and there are some people out there who really do only need four hours, but they live healthy lives on those four hours. For the rest of us, we generally need around eight hours of good quality sleep, and can need more in winter or at different times in our personal mood cycle.
Good quality sleep cannot be underestimated. If you want to do one thing to reenergise your creativity, joy and peace with life, look first to your sleeping habits. After years of having broken sleep, you might think it is normal, but it is definitely worth taking the time and effort to improve it. You owe it to yourself as a writer, so think of this as part of your job requirement: get better sleep.
But some sad news for those who were already leaning over to tell their partner not to wake them before midday tomorrow: it's the hours before midnight that seem to do the most for people. Some people do appear to work well after midnight, but first let's check: are you waking up after eight hours of sleep feeling refreshed? It might be that you've just messed up your natural circadian rhythms, rather than being a true night owl. However, if you have a system that is working for you, or you have to have odd hours for work, don't let me interfere. I only offer food for thought.
Simple Steps For Better Sleep Hygiene
There are so many ways to improve sleep, and many focus on 'sleep hygiene'. Sleep hygiene instigates and maintains good sleep habits, and replaces bad habits which cause common sleeping problems. So, it is time to start retraining yourself to get the most out of a night's shut-eye.
Here are five practical tips you can put into practice immediately, and build into good habits (more can be found in my book "The Five Day Writer's Retreat").
1. Train your body clock. Your body likes consistency over a 24 hour period, and it's really good at getting into habits if you'll let it. So do yourself a favour and always try to go to bed at the same time and get up around the same time. Your body will get used to unwinding in time and will be ready to sleep when you are.
2. Turn off the computer screen. We now think nothing of staring at a computer screen all day and night. Yet research is showing that the backlit screens are affecting our ability to switch off and get to sleep. And yes, this includes your smart phone as well. E-readers that have e-ink and no backlighting are okay. So the recommendation is that if you want to fall asleep more easily, turn off the computer/TV etc about an hour before you want to go to sleep. 'But what will I do?' You exclaim. Well, aren't you a writer? You should read of course! Jump into bed after your well-developed ritual and snuggle down with a good book.
3. Get rid of noise. It can be difficult to do much about this, but try to think of ways to reduce the noise in your room. Some people wear earplugs to help with this, but I understand that they can be uncomfortable, and don't really like them myself. (The only time I've used them religiously was when I was traveling with my parents and we shared a hotel room. My father's snoring is atrocious.) Which leads to the question of what to do with noisy partners. Well, if you have suggested and tried various snore-reducing steps, then you will either need earplugs, separate rooms, or just get used to it. My mother somehow did. So do whatever is within your power to reduce noise, but if it affects your relationships, maybe just learn to live with it. A good partner is difficult to come by, after all.
4. Don't work in bed. Okay, I will admit up front that I'm a total failure at this one. I love working in bed and do it all the time. However, I do know that it is reducing the quality of my sleep. If you are serious about improving your sleep, then your bed should be for nothing else than sleep and a bit of pre-sleep fun if you are in a relationship, or a good book if you are happily single. The reason for this is to you train your body to associate the bedroom with sleep and nothing else. If your body is sure of this, it will drift off much more easily.
5. Sleep ritual - mental preparation. Along with getting your body ready for sleep, you can help the process a lot by also getting your mind ready. If you are regularly kept awake by thoughts swirling inside your head, you need to stop this. Effective steps include: writing down everything just before you go to bed, and separating out your 'to do' tasks from general worries. Then, my biggest tip is to take some time to memorise something beautiful. I know this sounds strange, but the process of memorisation is very calming to the mind; the slow repetition of words and the visualisation of what is being read. I use this time to memorise my Bible and think on its implications, but poetry would work the same, and would feed your Genius at the same time.
Stress
To our third, final, and by no means least of the Willpower Destroyers. We know that a little bit of stress can be a wonderful thing; it gives you that kick of energy before a deadline, it is what helps your fitness improve when you run, and kicks in your body's natural self-preservation instincts. However, on-going or high levels of stress are bad for so many reasons. And the worst thing is that we tend to encourage it in our lives, mistaking it for the benefit of good stress.
Reducing Stress
List what currently stresses you, from the big stressors to the little niggles. If the task seems difficult, put them under these headings: Work, Relationships, Home Environment, Personal, Finance. Try to be as specific as you can, narrowing it down to individuals or particular things. Defining a problem is a large part of overcoming it.
For example, under Work you might list: 'Dealing with client X makes me dread Tuesdays'.
Relationships: 'I forgot to wish Susan happy birthday and still haven't contacted her.'
Home Environment: Even little things can make a difference, such 'I don't have anywhere to store the vacuum cleaner without everyone tripping over it.'
Personal: These are attitudes and thoughts that bring you stress, such as 'I committed to writing 200 words a day and haven't done anything', or 'My weight is slowly creeping further up and soon I'm going to be a balloon.'
Finance: Credit card debt can be an ongoing source of low-grade stress, as can a silent fight with a housemate over who should pay the excess on the phone bill, since neither of you made those calls!
List as many stressors as you can, then divide them into three types of stress: things you can do something about Now, things you should be able to change in the Future and things that Can't be changed. Then list them by how much they irritate you.
Deliberately work through the things you can change now and get rid of as many stressors as you can. Every month or so, update the list and keep working on it. Reducing stress in your life is one of the most effective ways you can increase your general happiness and productivity, so don't just let it slide!
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