for overcoming anxiety and motivational blockage in writing and meeting project deadlines

especially helpful for perfectionism or high pressure from expectations

I'm sure you're familiar with some of these (reiteration may help) but others I doubt you are.

Break your project down into a list or outline so you see it isn't infinite. Pause to appreciate that in fact it is NOT infinite.

Avail yourself of a little reward after each small step accomplished.

Talk out loud to yourself. Say "Okay, what do I have to accomplish now" and then answer thoughtfully out loud as if it were someone else asking. If you like, you can say your cautions, reminders and fears (you can give yourself "a good talking to" if you want). Requiring yourself to have this discussion out loud puts a natural limit on how long you will "discuss" so you can't use it as an infinite delay tactic. It is easier to see that you are repeating yourself and giving stupid, delay-oriented answers if you are talking aloud. Really. This works. It forces you to ask yourself a better question or to get going and do the project.

Put on music that drowns out the world by creating an undifferentiated background screen. For me, stuff with words I can't hear or that are not in a language I know works well: calm chorale, instrumental, classical guitar for instance. Experiment.

Experiment with different reward systems.

Get a friend to grill you about what you're doing.

Get a friend to check in regularly with you and ask about your progress.

Work side-by-side with someone else who is working on their own thing. Be careful to allow a certain agreed upon format for socializing a little before and after work sessions, and very little or none during, or you'll end up being distracted a lot. You can set half hour or hour and a half work sessions, or whatever you like.

Keep handy a book or article that has such good writing that it inspires you to write. Read a few paragraphs whenever you need inspiration, and "absorb the voice." I have found this especially helpful for getting started. When I am really stuck for a launch sensation, I sometimes even open to a random chapter of a favorite book of essays and try to transfer the thought structure of the opening sentence onto my topic.

Clearly decide what your purpose is. If you can't, then ask yourself hard questions—but not "Why can't I?" questions. Instead ask, "Whose work inspires me and how can I use this project to follow that model?" Ask "How is this project going to make a difference in the world in even a tiny way?" (And if the answer isn't forthcoming, resign yourself to pursuing it like you would a crossword puzzle—as a drill for your intellect.) Ask "How does this relate to stuff I know in my bones or have long pondered? How can this project coalesce and articulate that accumulated thought history?"

Break out of your self-image rut: Pretend you have a different profession. Tell yourself you are a zoo keeper feeding the animals (your ideas are the food; the more creative they are, the better fed your animals will be, but if they're not creative, at least you'll still feed them and they won't croak—except the frogs), an archeologist revealing how things worked in an old culture, a butcher slicing pork for your readers. Play with other motivations than your own usual ones by really thinking like those other professions.

Down lots of chocolate, peppermint tea, Guarana, Yerba Mate or other stimulant drugs. Get yourself into a frenzy. Dance like a possessed voodoo practitioner. Wail your misery. Transform it into laughter at yourself. Fall into a heap, sobbing. Breath in and out on a six count until your mind is clear. Stand up like a woman transfixed and walk like a robot to your desk. Begin work with pure focus. Pull back and laugh whenever you notice a doubt rolling in again. See it as an object that you can watch roll by without it gathering you up in its folds. Watch it come, watch it go, and then, smiling, immerse yourself back in your work.

Always think of people who love you. Notice that the air around you is wiggling with their love, is pressing in on you warmly and then letting up the press, still warm, to give you room to work.