Writing Quote Wednesday: Looking Forward

“In every situation, at the beginning or the end of the workday, you have a choice. You can look back or you can look forward. My advice: look forward. Always think about the next day.” 

—Twila Tharp,  THE CREATIVE HABIT

On days that I don’t prepare the night before for my morning writing session, I end up staring at a blank screen (or worse, reading stupid stories on the Internet). But the night before, I look ahead to the next day, I often have a more productive writing session.

Heather Sellers talks about preparing for the next writing session in her book CHAPTER AFTER CHAPTER. Michael Hyatt talks about the importance of setting yourself up for a productive day in a recent blog post. They both say that you can set yourself up for success the day before. In essence, they are encouraging you to “look forward” just like Twila Tharp says in her book.

While I make a weekly to do list, sometimes deciding what to do from that list each day can be daunting and a big time-waster. So, I’m trying to put the next day’s most important writing task out on my desk the night before. When I stumble to my desk at 5:00am, I benefit from “looking forward” the night before.