The BIG Lie That’s Sabotaging Your Book

We have all have this image of a person we view as a ‘writer.’ a person hunched over a typewriter or keyboard when it’s pitch black outside. Writing long into the night when other, non-writers are sound asleep. 

This is a stereotype that persists in our culture; movies, TV shows, even books themselves back up this mind- picture. 

However, it’s one of the WORST things you can do for your book. 

Here’s why. 

Study after study has shown that our creative mind needs sleep in order to work. When you try to steal time from sleep, you’re actually LESS productive and creative than you were previously. This is going to stop your book dead in it’s track. 

That’s why there’s an old Chinese Proverb that says in order to put more hours in your day, you need to put more hours in your sleep. 

Getting up at 4:30 to work on your book or staying up to 3am to work on it without accounting for that time, is the surest way to never finish it. 

Now, some people are morning people and others are night people. This means your energy is either highest in the morning or the evening. A night person should never get up at 6am to work on their book, and a morning person should never stay up until midnight to work on it. 

So what’s the best way to figure out just how much sleep you need to be effective? 

Simple. This is a trick I learned when I was sleep training myself. 

You let your body tell you. 

Here’s the simple 3 step process that makes it work. 

Determine what time you can get up every morning; whether that’s early or later

Get up at time EVERY SINGLE TIME, every single day, regardless if you’re off or on vacation 

Eventually, you’ll start getting sleepy at the same time every day. That’s your natural bedtime. 

Then GO TO BED. Each and every time.

That last part is the hardest part, especially if you’re not used to it. It’s easy enough to watch more Netflix or Disney Plus episode, but if you do that, you’re stealing sleep from your body, and productivity from your day. 

It’s also common to sleep more at first, but after a few months, you’ll find you actually need less sleep. What’s going on is that your body is catching up on missed sleep. But once it’s done that, it doesn’t need the same amount of time anymore. 

So remember; to put more hours in your day and your book, put more hours in your sleep. 

So set your alarm tonight, and every night hereafter. 

You’ll soon find it makes all the difference in your life and your book. 

About Post Author