Today it was 2:37, so I decided to push myself. But it's hard to keep up a sprint for five miles. What I did today that worked really well was to pick something about 20 feet away - a leaf, a crack - and focus on running hard to that point. Then once I got there, I picked another point, again about 20 feet away, and just repeated the process. And I had the best time I had in months.
I'm approaching my writing like that today. Focusing on small goals, not being overwhelmed by my killer deadline, about how yesterday I worked for hours and only had a net 300 words to show for it. Sure, on paper I should be writing between 1,000-2,000 words every day to make my deadline, but what I need to focus on now is going through my outline, step by step, and making sure it makes sense and that it keeps the tension high. Today I need to concentrate on writing in 20-feet increments.