5 Simple Life Hacks to Help You Write Better

5 Simple Life Hacks to Help You Write Better

by | Career, Communication, Communication Skills, Content Writing, Managing Yourself, Motivation, Productivity, Writing

Being a writer is a full time job. You are not on vacation even when you are on vacation because you are constantly thinking about what to write next! Being creative 24*7 is quite a challenge and a very difficult one to live up to. We, at Oorja Biz Ops have been brainstorming about changes we can bring about in our daily life, to help refuel the creativity. Here are five hacks that will work for you to write better (they certainly did, for us !):

Write Better Hack #1 – Start your day early

Being an early riser has a lot more advantages than you think. This is the best way to give your day a head start. Schedule the first 45 minutes of your day to write five hundred words of anything you can think about. With consistent practice you will see your writing skills improve significantly in just a matter of weeks. Accomplishing a task right at the beginning of the day is also a great confident booster and keeps you pumped up all through the day.

Write Better Hack #2 – Replace the caffeine

Did we hear a collective gasp? We know what coffee means to writers. For many, it can be impossible to start a day without a cup. However, it is a proven fact that a regular dose of caffeine is not a very healthy thing for your body. Caffeine also causes anxiety and restlessness which may not be what you need when you are already on the edge due to work stress. Try and replace caffeine with healthier options like green tea or even regular tea or some other healthy beverage. Might be worth it to give it a shot and notice the difference!

Write Better Hack #3 – Find ‘me time’ 

Gifting yourself some time is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself and the best hack to trigger your writing creativity. Set aside about 45 minutes of your day, every day, to recharge your soul simply by indulging yourself. Cook, bake, garden, sing, dance, paint – whatever helps you connect with your inner self and makes you happy. Finding ‘me time’ can be a tall order given the lifestyles we lead. This problem may be solved by going back to what we said about waking up early. That way, you will have more time than you usually do. Even if it’s just an hour earlier, it still gives you some space to fit ‘me time’ into your otherwise cramped day.

Write Better Hack #4 – Read Often, Read More

Read as much as, or more than you write. Reading helps recharge your intellectual resources and keeps those brainy ideas flowing. Reading fires your imagination – the stuff writers are made of.  As Stephen King wrote in “On Writing”:

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. . . .

It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I had a nickel for every person who ever told me he/she wanted to become a writer but didn’t have time to read, I could buy myself a pretty good steak dinner. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

Just like a balanced diet is essential for a healthy body, balanced reading is crucial for a healthy mind and will make you think in different directions. Make sure your reading list consists of a mixed dose of current affairs, fiction and non-fiction. What you read, reflects in what and how you write.

Write Better Hack #5 – Be Honest with Yourself

While it is crucial to have expectations from oneself, at the same time, it is important to have goals which are practical and achievable. Setting long term targets on a high-on-red-bull day, probably isn’t a good idea. What we mean is, enthusiasm is vital, however, a lot of times we tend to become over enthusiastic with our goals and go on over drive trying to achieve them. Being honest with yourself about what you can and cannot achieve in a given period of time does not mean tardiness, it means being practical. But then, a little pressure now and then does help to shoo the devil called Procrastination away!

And finally, after putting our neck on the line, we leave you with the words from our idol and mentor, Seth Godin :

The biggest takeaway for anyone seeking to write is this: don’t go looking for the way other authors do their work. You won’t find many who are consistent enough to copy, and there are enough variations in approach that it’s obvious that it’s not like hitting home runs or swinging a golf club. There isn’t a standard approach, there’s only what works for you (and what doesn’t).

We hope you enjoyed our post. We would love to hear from you on what you do to help you write more and write better!

5 Essential Skills You Need for a Happy and Successful Life

5 Essential Skills You Need for a Happy and Successful Life

by | Motivation, World of Work

A poor workman always blames his tools, an alibi for his lack of skills. We can safely apply this metaphor to our personal and professional lives. Consciously or subconsciously, we all look for excuses to make up for our lack of skills in some area of life or the other. While some may regard this as far-fetched and too formulaic for leading lives, we are sticking our necks out to say this: if at all, there were 5 skills that you needed to assess yourself on, it would be the five listed below. Somewhere down the line, all these five skills merge to help us manage ourselves better and be happy and successful in both professional and personal life alike.

1. Adaptability – Whether it be having to switch jobs because you cannot see yourself growing at your current workplace anymore, or having to adjust to rapid changes in your personal life, we all know this – if there is anything that is constant, it is change.  The catch is, the faster you make your peace with it, the better and quicker will you be able to grow. True that it is easier said than done. Look for stability in whatever the situation is right now, do not root for stability in the long run, you never know how that is going to pan out. No one does. Taking one day at a time would be the best thing to do, and a mantra that will take you a long way is being “#HappyInTheNow”!

2. Organizational skills – If you are in the midst of a career flux, we would recommend getting your bearings together by doing a skills assessment, having an updated CV, having your career Rolodex organized and more. If you were in the midst of a personal crisis, agony aunts would recommend inward and outward detox – cleaning up your emotions, your thoughts as well as your surroundings. Being organized in the way you live life is actually a great way to live! It takes less effort than you think it would but has manifold advantages!

3. Communication – No prize for guessing this one. We all know how important communication is when it comes to the world of work and to our personal worlds as well. All our worlds would simply come to a grinding halt if we weren’t good at this particular skill! Be it responding to emails, presenting oneself in interviews, (or conducting interviews for that matter), managing a long distance relationship, how on earth would we get on if we didn’t know the art of reaching out and communicating in an appropriate manner?!

4. Assertiveness – Being a pushover is the worst thing one can do to oneself. Actually, worse is, we seldom realize if we are pushovers, because we are so used to be taken for granted. If you find yourself doing unnecessary amounts of work, mostly for other people and have nothing to gain for it, or if you find yourself being constantly goaded into saying yes to several things you’d rather say no to, (both at work and in your personal life) probably it is time to take a step back. Learning how to put your foot down, assert yourself and making yourself clear about something you want or do not want is a non-negotiable.

5. Decision-making – Indecisiveness has cost many of us some of the best things we could have decided for ourselves. Decision making is a crucial skill, at work and home alike. Being indecisive could severely affect our goal setting abilities in our professional lives. Knowing what you want to achieve is the first step towards actually achieving it. Find out what you want to accomplish and don’t turn back until you have. Taking a stand is crucial in such situations. Being confused is but normal. However, confusion should not become a constant state of mind, to the point where it clouds all our judgements.

And that is all you need to be the HERO of your own life story!

Worldly wise, much?! Well, you can forget it all and just be #HappyInTheNow ! That has worked for us quite as well 🙂

We are waiting to hear and learn from you. Let us know your take?