When You’re On A Roll

When you’re in the zone, on a roll, and feeling especially productive, do you keep the pedal to the metal while the fuel is burning hot and crank out as much work as possible, or do you stop while there’s still a little gas left in the tank to avoid burn out?

One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received was to quit writing for the day while you still had something to say. This method allowed you to stop on a high note and feeling good about the work you were doing, and provided a logical place to pick-up your work again the next day right where you left off. There was no writer’s block or wracking your brain to start something from scratch — you knew exactly where to begin because you couldn’t wait to continue the previous day’s fruitful results.

On the other hand, if you keep going at top speed until the tank runs dry you leave your work for the day feeling drained. Diminished. Like you’ll never have another original thought again. And you don’t know where to pick-up again on the following day because you ended the previous day all out of ideas.

If you’re on a roll and you really want to maintain a productive pace in order to reap the greatest benefit from your inspiration, redirect yourself from the project that is freely flowing to a past project that you put aside because you hit a brick wall.

Blow the dust off project that had you stumped and review the situation again while you’re in your state of productive flow.

This twist gives you the benefit of leaving that first project while you’re still feeling inspired and ready to continue working on it tomorrow, while applying your heightened state of creativity to the older project desperately in need of a fresh perspective.