Authors, Do Go Gently into That To-Do List
When you’re raging against the work, make it tiny and take one gentle step
The Gentle Principle
Some days you know what you should do for your author business, but everything inside you is running the other way while tasks are nipping at your heals.
You should email a potential partner about co-hosting an event. You should update event pricing on your website. Your phone pinged you with a quarterly reminder to reach out to bookstores about re-stocking your titles. You haven’t yet created materials for the workshop you committed to.
These things and dozens more beckon.
You know they matter. Matter!? They’re the stuff of business, the lifeblood of sales and marketing. They’re part of your proven systems; they comprise your author business model.
At the very least, your to-do list contains sales and marketing ideas auditioning for permanent roles in your systems and business model.
Then there’s the fact that you’ll also feel better once you’ve done them. But for now, they remain on your list, their hollow checkboxes taunting you.
It’s merely resistance, and resistance is a common human experience, says Steven C. Hayes, PhD. “You’re just not feeling it.” Understatement?
Chill. Nothing’s broken and you’re not uniquely flawed. Treat yourself with some kindness and compassion. Because Hayes offers up what he calls in a Psychology Today article from 2024, “the gentle principle” for getting unstuck:
Do something small. Minimal viable small.
Feel what this feels like.
Take another step.
No Need to Wait for Motivation
We think motivation works like this: feel motivated → take action.
Sometimes it works like that, but it also works just as well in reverse: take action → feel motivated.
Instead of waiting until you feel ready to send personal invites for your upcoming event, draft a bulk sales email, or re-do your website welcome video—do something. Anything. Make it small enough that you’re willing and able to take action, even if you don’t feel like it. Ridiculously small counts.
Not only are you shuffling forward, moving past resistance gently is proactive. It’s building agency and possibility for your author business one baby step at a time.
Make It Smaller (Then Smaller Still)
Too hard to send a partnership proposal?
Make it smaller: Open your email program (look at me go).
Make it smaller: Draft the email subject line (whew, accomplished).
Make it smaller: Find the contact’s email address (done and done).
Make it smaller: Write “Dear NAME,” and stop (on a roll now).
Too overwhelming to plan your book club event?
Make it smaller: Open your calendar (breathe).
Make it smaller: Look at next month’s calendar and identify three possible dates (how do I feel? still resisting, but doing).
Make it smaller: Pick a date (wow, I don’t feel like it but I’m *working*).
Make it smaller: Take a moment: What do I do with this date? (ooh, I appear to be getting someting done).
Too intimidating to update your consulting rate?
Make it smaller: Decide what your rate should be.
Make it smaller: Write the number on a piece of paper and say it out loud to yourself.
Make it smaller: Edit your website and brochure file/s with the new number and see its reality coming into existence.
Make it smaller: Feel this as your new rate; visualize yourself repeating it out loud on phone calls and writing it in emails.
Do the smallest version you’re willing to do. Then pay attention to what this feels like. Then take another step when you’re ready. Have a towel handy to wipe the sweat off your brow.
Watch Your Experience
Hayes suggests asking yourself when you feel stuck:
When in my author business was I more willing to take action?
What was different in those cases?
How can I recreate those contexts?
Maybe you took more action when you had an accountability partner. Or when you blocked time on your calendar. Or when you treated it like a job instead of waiting for inspiration. Or when you had a deadline.
Or when you weren’t trying to make everything perfect first.
See if you can recreate what worked before.
The Gentle Line Between Resistance and Movement
Motivation can be a fickle friend. You don’t know when it will show up. But you can always take a breath, choose to apply Hayes’s gentle strategy, and do a tiny thing.
Do something stupidly small. Pay attention to what it feels like. Do whatever next itty-bitty thing you can bear.
Again, it’s not just getting by, it’s building agency and capacity in your author business. Your agentic behavior accumulates, growing competence and confidence.
These books don’t market and sell themselves. But they also don’t need the stars in alignment and your mood in paradise. Just you taking minimum viable steps.
Tell Us in the Comments
What author business task have you been avoiding? What’s the smallest possible version of that task you could do right now—something so small you can’t refuse? What would change if you stopped waiting for motivation and took a gentle, tiny approach instead?
When You Need Help Breaking It Down Into Smaller Steps
Sometimes you can’t see the smallest version of the task because you’re too close to it. That’s when an outside perspective helps. One Hour with a Publisher gives you strategic guidance on whatever author business challenges have you stuck—whether that’s figuring out how to start outreach without feeling presumptuous, deciding what your actual pricing should be, identifying the first tiny step toward a partnership, or breaking down an overwhelming project into actions you’re willing to take. In one focused hour, we identify what’s keeping you stuck, break the task into manageable pieces, and determine the smallest next step you can take tomorrow. Not ongoing coaching or a long-term commitment—just one hour of strategic clarity when you need to stop raging against your to-do list and start moving gently forward. Schedule your hour.
This works. And I appreciate the reminder!