Reading time: About 3 minutes

This might sound like heresy on the last day of the year, but I’m encouraging you to ditch the resolutions and opt for rituals instead….

The lure of making resolutions for Jan. 1 is practically irresistible. Lose 10 lbs. Go to the gym three times per week. Stop smoking. Start meditating. Save more money. Do a better job of managing stress.

But I’ve been thinking about resolutions, and I’ve realized that I’ve been misguided. Despite my earlier entreaties to make resolutions, I’m now inclined to think we should abandon them altogether. Instead, we should replace them with rituals. Here’s why:

1) Ritual is a nicer word than resolution. It sounds friendlier and more relaxing. If I play the word association game, “resolution” makes me think willpower, deprivation, pain and hard work. On the other hand, “ritual” brings up: incense, bowing, fine ornaments and calm. Rituals are particularly important for writers who, after all, do something quite magical. Did you ever see Murphy Brown, starring Candice Bergen? I didn’t watch it regularly, but one funny line has remained with me. Murphy had just given birth to her baby and was reflecting on the wonder of breastfeeding. “The next thing you know is someone will tell me I can slice off pieces of my arm and serve them up as ham,” she said. I feel just as incredulous about writing. Isn’t it remarkable that we can create entire sentences when nothing existed before?

2) A ritual is something we’re more likely to do willingly rather than resentfully. Because we can choose the rituals we follow — and we choose what feels right to us — we’re more likely to do them. When my husband and I married almost 35 years ago, we chose to meet all our guests at the door to the church. To us, this felt friendly and welcoming, and besides, I didn’t want the pressure of being the bride who is expected to surprise everyone with her fabulous dress. The ritual didn’t suit all of our guests, but it pleased us.

3) Rituals create safety and security. We know what’s going to happen next, so we feel calm and relaxed. If you’re a student and you have a ritual of using a particular pen to write exams, taking that pen out of your pocket or purse lets you know it’s time to write an exam. I once took a writing course from a New York–based author who worked from his dining room table. Every morning he’d clear off the table and place a half dozen tchotchkes on it — they were his symbols that he’d transformed the table where he ate his meals into a writing desk.

4) Rituals allow us to take advantage of automaticity. Once we learn how to ride a bike, we don’t have to think about how to maintain balance. Our bodies know exactly what to do. The same principle is true of reading. Once we get past Grade 3, we don’t “sound out” words anymore, because we recognize most of them immediately. This automaticity allows us to sidestep the need for willpower and, instead, relax into our work. (Isn’t that delightfully ironic? The idea of relaxing into work?)

5) Rituals don’t require our belief — or even any logic — to work. Tennis player Serena Williams wears the same pair of socks, without washing them, through a single tournament. Check out this list of seemingly crazy sports rituals that nevertheless work.

Here is my writing ritual. Upon waking, I pull on my housecoat and quietly grab the clothes I’ve carefully laid out on my dresser the evening before. I tiptoe out of my bedroom so as not to wake my husband, and I go into our kids’ bathroom to dress. (I don’t have a shower or breakfast until I’ve done at least an hour of work.) I climb the stairs to my office, which is in a loft in our house, and put on the kettle for tea, a cup of Cream of Earl Grey.

While waiting for the water to boil, I set my digital timer — an app that makes a sound like a tick-tocking clock — for 30 minutes. (Whenever my husband hears it, he says the ticking sound reminds him of a crazy Tinkerbell. I never thought I’d be able to write with that blasted noise in the background; turns out, it helps me focus!) Then, as soon as the tea is steeping, I open a file, and I write at least 500 words.

I do take this action five consecutive days every week. Paradoxically, while the ritual is rigid and highly structured, it gives me a delicious sense of freedom and possibility.

In the same way a frame helps define a photo or a piece of art, my writing ritual helps define my writing. It can help define yours as well.

An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on Dec. 31/13.

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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.

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My video podcast last week addressed how to deal with reader’s block. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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What’s a ritual that you’re already using to support your writing? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section, below. If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by midnight on Dec. 31/24, I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the “comments,” directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)

Reading time: About 3 minutes

I used to be a night person who wrote best at 1 a.m. Even though I mysteriously turned into a morning lark 10 years ago, I’m still sympathetic to those who prefer nights. Here’s how to write if you’re a night owl…

Here’s what I’d do if I were the Queen of the World or had supernatural powers. I’d give every would-be writer the determination to produce at least 250 words, first thing in the morning, starting within 15 minutes of waking up.

Note: I’ve never promoted getting up at 6 a.m. or earlier to write unless you really want to. That’s why I say, “starting within 15 minutes of waking up” — at whatever time that might be.

But I also know that some writers are parents of young children or are night owls who — for a variety of perfectly sensible reasons — can’t possibly write in the morning. Today’s column is for you.

If you must write in the evening, here are five suggestions:

1-Declare your writing time and let everyone know about it

If your writing time is 10 p.m., tell your partner and your kids (if you have them). Let them know they cannot interrupt you for X number of minutes. I suggest you devote at least 15 minutes to writing and absolutely no more than 60. But wait… If you really want to write for 60 minutes, start with something smaller and build up to it. Just as marathoners don’t run 25 miles on the first day of training, you shouldn’t leave the blocks expecting to hit 60 minutes on your first day of writing.

2-Make your writing time late enough

Think about it: if your writing time is 7 p.m., you’re essentially committing to never going out to dinner with friends. Never seeing a nighttime movie. Never going to a concert. Make sure your time is really going to work for you at least five days per week. (I always advocate taking a two-day holiday from writing each week.) Make sure writing time will not compete with social or family obligations. If you read nighttime stories to your kids, take measures to ensure you don’t fall asleep in their beds while doing so. Or have someone assigned to wake you up.

3-Have a dedicated writing space

Ideally, this space should be in a room with a door you can shut. If possible, make this a space you don’t use for anything else. If that won’t work, then figure out some way of “symbolizing” that this is your writing time/space. Put a special tablecloth or mat on your desk or table. Or you might simply place a dictionary at your right elbow. Or perhaps you have a photo, bulletin board or tchotchke. Make it your writing space.

4-Know that your willpower will be lower at night

This fact is true even if you’re a night owl. Imagine your willpower as a tank with a small hole. During the day, every decision you make causes your willpower to leak out. And I don’t mean big, life-changing decisions, such as whether to take a new job or hire a new employee. I mean small, unimportant ones like what to wear that day or what to pack for lunch. When evening rolls around, your willpower is going to be lower. (Read more about willpower.) So recognize this inevitability and make some plans to shore yourself up. For one thing, make sure you’re not hungry. (People who diet use much of their willpower to control their intake of food.) Second, make your nighttime “job” more pleasant. If you can write while listening to music (I can’t), do that. Or begin with five minutes of meditation so that you are calm and de-stressed before writing. Finally, be sure to reward yourself for every session’s worth of writing. Plan what small treat you’re going to buy yourself the next day, or schedule a no-cost indulgence.

5-Bring yourself “down” before your own bedtime

Depending on how late you write, you may need to take some special measures to prepare yourself for sleep. Writing often keys me up — my brain races, and after finishing writing, the last thing I feel like doing is sleeping. Try to plan for at least an hour’s decompression time after writing. Go for a walk, read a book or flip through a magazine. Don’t watch TV or surf the Internet, though. The blue light of computer screens, iPads and most cellphones interferes with our melatonin production, making it harder for us to fall asleep. Experts say we should steer clear of such devices for at least an hour before bed. If you want to be on your computer or TV late at night, invest in a pair of blue-light blocking glasses. They are available in the US and in Canada as well. I have a pair for watching TV at night, and I find them amazingly helpful.

Regardless of when you write, you want to develop automaticity — the ability to do it without occupying your mind with the low-level details required. You shouldn’t need to decide to write. You should just write. You can best achieve this by writing at the same time every day.

Writing in the evening may be harder for many people than writing in the morning. But writing in the evening is clearly better than not writing at all.

An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on July 7/15.

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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.

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My video podcast last week addressed how to get better at public speaking. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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Are you a night owl or a morning lark? How does it affect your writing? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below. If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by Oct. 31/24  I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Viewing time: 4 mins. 40 secs.

The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #78, with advice on how to make time for writing. The post first ran on Dec. 21/18.

Transcript: 

Welcome to The Write Question, I’m Daphne Gray-Grant and my topic today is how to make time for writing.

I have a question from Tiffany Jones from Boston, Massachusetts. Here’s what’s she’s asked.

“I have a totally unpredictable schedule. Some mornings I can spare 30 minutes for myself but other days I have to leave home at 6:30 a.m. to be at my campus in time for teaching. How can I fit in writing on days like that?”

Thanks for your question, Tiffany. While it’s important to make time for writing, it’s also important to make time for, well, living. That’s why I never encourage people to wake up at 4 am, to give up their hobbies or to cut short their social lives in order to write.

Instead, I think it’s valuable to take a super realistic look at the amount of time you DO have. Then, you can figure out how to get the maximal amount of writing value out of it. Many of us have more time than we think, especially if we’re able to establish habits that allow us to do the things that are really important to us.

I know, I know. It’s hard to establish habits when your schedule is unpredictable. So, here’s what I suggest:

Given that you have a variable schedule, you’re unlikely to be able to write at the same time every day. Just accept that as a fact, instead of a problem. Instead of looking at your life as a whole, look at it one day at a time.

Here are some principles to use:

On any given day, what’s the EARLIEST time you could devote to writing? I suggest you consider this question seriously because we all find it easier to commit to tasks earlier in the day.

There’s evidence that people who exercise first thing in the morning have an easier time maintaining their habit and I think the same rule applies to writers. This is likely because we haven’t become distracted by other problems yet and many of us have more energy in the morning.

Also, if we develop the HABIT of writing first thing, then we don’t have to negotiate with ourselves. You know what I mean by that, right? ‘I’ll start writing as soon as I’ve washed the lunch dishes or as soon as I’ve checked that email’ — and, before we know it, it’s dinner time.

Anyway, look at each day of the week and earmark the writing time that will work for you ON THAT DAY. Put it on your calendar and commit to it.

Two more suggestions here:

First, make the time commitment really small. If you’re like most academics, you probably think writing is not worthwhile unless you spend at least an hour doing it. That’s not true! Even 10 minutes can generate a helpful number of words. But the point is not so much how many words you can accumulate but whether you can build a habit that you can sustain, day after day.

I suggest you begin with somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. Do that for at least two weeks before you increase the time. I know it will feel laughably short to you but you’re building a habit.

My second suggestion might feel even kookier, especially if you think that 10 to 20 minutes isn’t enough work. I suggest you REWARD yourself for your efforts.

The reward doesn’t have to be expensive — either in terms of money or calories — but it should acknowledge your effort. Consider getting yourself a specialty tea or coffee or a magazine or allowing yourself to watch something fun on YouTube, like Carpool Karaoke, link below.

At the beginning, I suggest you reward yourself daily. Once the writing habit becomes more entrenched then you can drop back to rewarding yourself once a week. But don’t ever let go of the rewards entirely.

What you are doing is building the writing habit. As you work to be published in peer reviewed journals, your writing habit will be a secret weapon in your academic career. Keep it sustained and use it wisely.

Finally, let me wrap up with a quote from Henry Ford. What did he know about writing? Here’s what he said: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

Thanks for the question, Tiffany. If you make some mistakes as you struggle with your unpredictable schedule, that’s fine. But with enough determination, it’s still possible to build a writing habit, no matter what your schedule tells you.

Links: 

Carpool Karaoke (with Paul McCartney) 

Viewing time: 3 min. 58 sec.

The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #59, with advice about how to be a better editor. The post first ran on June 22/18.

Transcript:

Welcome to The Write Question, I’m Daphne Gray-Grant. Today I’m giving advice on how to better edit other people’s writing.

I have a question from Frank Light who is based in Paris, France. Here’s what he asked:

“What is the best way to review material with a writer one-on-one? The last time I sat with an editor was when I worked at a weekly years ago. She had my printed feature draft in hand, with edits in red ink. I’m assuming the tools used today would be MS Word track changes. However, I wanted to understand the mechanics from a professional.”

Thanks for the question, Frank. I’ve been an editor for more than 40 years now but I can remember what it was like to be edited myself. As a result, I always approach the job with a great deal of care and concern.

I don’t think many of the key principles with respect to editing others have changed in the last 40 years, except perhaps that the work has become digital. But here’s how I approach the task:

I don’t think it’s my job to impose my style on the writer. Instead, I think I have a responsibility to help the writer express their own style in the best possible way. Also, I understand that people learn more when they fix things themselves. As a result of these two philosophical choices, I try not to dive into stories — even problematic ones — and start rewriting them holus-bolus.

Instead, I have the habit of pointing out problems and I challenge the writer to fix them. If the beginning of an article is too boring, I might suggest, “Can you start with a story or anecdote instead?” Or if the article is lacking transitions, I might suggest one transition and ask the writer to use even more. (Below, I’m including a link to a blog post I’ve written on transitions.)

I take this approach even with grammatical problems. If someone has inflicted an unclear antecedent on the reader, then I simply mark it “unclear antecedent” and leave it up to the writer to fix the problem. (If you don’t know what an ‘unclean antecedent’ is, check the link in the description below.)

This can be more time consuming, but the benefit is it helps protect my ongoing relationship with the writer. They don’t see me as desperate to put my voice in their stories. They know I want to help them become better. Most writers would prefer to fix their own problems rather than have someone else sweep in and take charge.

To answer your other question, yes, the best way of editing today is to use “track changes” in MS Word or in Google docs. But here’s one other specific tip to keep in mind. Never use red ink. Many people have been terrorized by high school teachers and have a negative visceral reaction to red. For that reason, I always use purple or blue.

As an editor, your most important job is to help your writers improve over time. This is far more crucial than the excellence of any given story. You want your writers to become more skillful and more confident. You don’t achieve this end by ignoring problems, of course. But if you simply rewrite every story to your own taste, the writer won’t learn to improve.

Finally, let me wrap up with a quote from English writer H.G. Wells. “No passion in the world is equal for the passion to alter someone else’s draft.”

Frank, if you can teach yourself to become a coach and a mentor to your writers, you’ll be doing them a huge favour and you’ll get much better work from them in the end.

Links:

Why writers need to build bridges (transitions)

How to avoid the horror of unclear antecedents

Reading time: Just over 3 minutes

Some people just never seem to find the time to be able to write. Here is my best advice on how to prioritize writing….

I learned some hard lessons when I wrote my first book. It took me more than a year of angst-ridden, slogging work, and while I had very brief patches of playfulness, and was proud of the finished product, I didn’t enjoy the whole process nearly enough.

Writing my second volume, a food-related memoir, was easier although it’s now sitting in a drawer while I ponder what to do with it next. I’d never really intended it as something to sell. It’s more of a project (complete with recipes) that I wanted to finish for my kids.

My third book — Your Happy First Draft — was the easiest of all and so much more fun. Why? Because, I’d seen this movie before and I know how to make it have a happy ending…

​​The biggest lesson was this:
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I wrote first thing every morning, five days each week. I wrote even before I touch my “first morning tasks,” which usually give my day shape and structure, and help ensure I don’t forget to do anything important.

If you want to prioritize writing, or if you have any project that you dread writing, you might want to consider working on it first thing in the morning, too. Even if you’re a night person. Even if you don’t start work until later in the day. Here are seven reasons why:

1. Your willpower will be higher. The suggestion comes from psychologist Roy Baumeister, who was inspired by Raymond Chandler’s routine called ‘the Nothing Alternative’. Chandler’s advice was simplicity itself, based on two small rules: (1) you can write, or, (2) you can sit there doing nothing. While Baumeister suggests spending 90 full minutes devoted to your most important task (no e-mail, phone calls, web-surfing or meetings) I think 15 to 30 minutes is a more reasonable goal. Baumeister suggests this strategy because we all have more willpower first thing in the morning and it gradually erodes as the day wears on. If you need willpower for writing — and many of us do — it makes sense to write when you have the greatest volume of that precious resource.
2. You can make writing a habit. If you turn your first 30 minutes into a daily writing ritual, you’ll be caught in a delightful self-sustaining loop. Habits or rituals are easier to maintain than willpower because they take no effort. Think about brushing your teeth: do you really have to have an argument with yourself about that every day? Probably not. You just do it because that’s what you do. Isn’t it great not to have to have an argument with yourself?
3. You get your writing out of the way. Writing first thing in the morning (or making progress towards some other important goal) allows you to get it out of the way. The task doesn’t hang over your head like a sword of Damocles. Instead, you just do it, without procrastinating. People who exercise reliably also understand this reasoning.
4. You’ll have more creative ideas. I get up very early — I’m usually at my desk by 6 am — because I’m now a morning person. Note, I’m not suggesting you need to do the same thing. But whatever time you arise, it’s a smart idea to write when you’re still a little bit sleepy and closer to the dreaming state. This means you will have better, more creative ideas and you’ll accomplish your writing more easily.
5. You’ll be following your own agenda, rather than the agenda of others. If you’re able to write before checking your email and before phone calls and meetings start, you’re going to be in a self-directed frame of mind. Rather than responding to the requests of others, you’ll be driving your own train. This makes it far more likely that you’ll be able to get where you want to go.
6. You won’t be interrupted by yourself. We all seem to love self-sabotage, whether it comes in the form of 20 minutes here on Facebook or 20 minutes there on email. If you can insulate yourself from these interruptions you’re going to be a whole bunch more productive. Our brains crave dopamine and answering emails gives us delicious little hit of that chemical every time we receive or answer an email — no matter how unimportant it is. Do enough busy work and you’ll never get the important work done.
7. It will make you feel fantastic for the rest of the day. If you’re able to do something really important (especially if it’s something that you dread) first thing in the morning, you’re going to feel terrific, which will set you up for even greater success. Organizational guru Brian Tracy calls this “eating your frogs” and I’ve long found that nibbling on a few frog’s legs before breakfast is a great strategy for setting myself up for a productive day.

I know not all of us are morning people. I spent the first 40 years of my life as a dedicated night owl and I’m not going to get all braggy and tell you that you should transform yourself, too. In my case, it just happened — likely hormones, according to my doctor. But, even when I was a night owl, I found writing at night a lot harder. My “prime time” was 10 pm to 1 am. But, frequently, I spent much of the day dreading it. Sometimes, I just plain couldn’t do it (who wants to leave a dinner party or a movie to go write?) And, when the writing went well, I was keyed up and had a really hard time getting to sleep afterwards. This made the next day even more difficult.

My advice? If you already have a dedicated writing time that works for you, then stick with it. But if you don’t, then try devoting your first 30 minutes to the task, no matter what time you start. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on Mar. 1/16.

How do you spend the first 30 minutes of your day? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below.  Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by Aug. 31/21 will be put in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Reading time: About 4 minutes

Making enough time for writing challenges many people, even those who are deeply committed to their craft. Here are some practical ways to create more time for yourself….

Many of the writers I work with begin by telling me that they just “don’t have the time” to write.

I ask them how much time they think writing will take and most answer with a pretty big number — somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes per day. When I tell them that 15 minutes is enough to start, they are shocked.

Even more shocking is the news that the time poverty from which we all apparently suffer is as much a psychological principle as it is a real-life one. In fact, the problem relates to how we think about and value our hours.

In a survey by salary.com, 89 percent of respondents admitted to wasting time every day at work:

• 31 percent waste roughly 30 minutes daily
• 31 percent waste roughly one hour daily
• 16 percent waste roughly two hours daily
• 6 percent waste roughly three hours daily
• 2 percent waste roughly four hours daily
• 2 percent waste five or more hours daily

So how can we stop wasting time and start using it to accomplish what we want to do? Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and a leading figure in time and happiness research, has some thoughtful suggestions that can help all of us become smarter with our time.

The big challenge, she suggests in a 12-minute TED talk, is that most people fall into a series of six time traps. 

Here’s how she summarizes them:

1. Technology interruptions break our hours into confetti: The concept of “time confetti” is a powerful one. Sure, it’s going to take you only 30 seconds to respond to that simple email or look up that citation, but the sheer volume of such tasks tends to fragment both our working time and our leisure time. If your time has been shredded into confetti, you will never believe you have enough time to write a book or dissertation (or even that long report).
2. We focus too much on money: And money does not buy happiness. If anything, once people make a lot of money — $105,000/year in the US — they start thinking they are doing worse in life. When we become rich, we begin to compare our lives to people even richer than we are.
3. We undervalue our time: It’s relatively easy to measure money (check your bank balance) but much harder to measure time. As a result, many of us make unhelpful decisions — like planning to take a holiday with a lot of connecting flights, adding a day’s worth of travel time to our trip. We tend not to think about the stress and fatigue such a decision will bring on because we focus only on the money.
4. We regard busyness as a status symbol: With our self-identity so wrapped up in work and productivity, the social appearance of being busy makes us feel good about ourselves.
5. We have an aversion to idleness: The most obvious sign of this reality? Our obsession with our phones.  Being constantly connected to our devices prevents the brain from recovering, keeps our stress levels elevated and takes us out of the present.
6. We think we’ll have more time tomorrow than we actually will: Also known as “magical thinking,” this belief holds that, somehow, we’ll have more time/intelligence/energy/focus tomorrow, even though we don’t have it today. 

As Whillans puts it: “No matter what time affluence looks like for you, the happiest and most time affluent among us are deliberate with their free time.” 

If you want to create enough time for writing — whether your project is a weekly blog post, a full-length book or a dissertation —  learn how to be smarter with your time. 

Here’s what I suggest, starting first with what we shouldn’t do:

• Don’t put yourself last by letting others take control of your time: Learn how to say no. Don’t be on call 24/7. Stick to your own time-limits especially for chronic time-wasters like meetings.
• Don’t get sucked in by email or social media: We all crave the dopamine hit we get by reading an interesting email or spotting a particularly funny tweet. Break the habit of letting your cellphone control your life.
• Don’t worry about things you can’t control: It’s impossible for you to predict how readers are going to respond to your writing. No matter how much you want a positive response, accept that the outcome is completely out of your hands and write anyway.
• Don’t dwell on past mistakes: We all screw up from time to time. Accept that fact as a given and move on. Did you know that the chemist who made a fortune by inventing WD-40 had 39 failed attempts, first?
• Don’t focus on what other people are doing: You are the only person who can control your time and your actions. Don’t compare yourself to others. You are unique.
• Don’t confuse the urgent with the important: Always focus on what’s important, first. That urgent report you need to finish researching by the end of the day? Do your writing (on something else) before you do that research. As human beings, we are naturally inclined to give the urgent greater priority but that is always a mistake.  Don’t let the planning fallacy be your undoing. 

Now let’s pay attention to the positive side of the coin:

• • Focus on the big picture and commit to your values: When our plans and activities align with our values we become almost unstoppable. Make sure that the way you spend your time reflects exactly what’s most important to you.
  • Plan how you want to spend your days: I spend five to 10 minutes each morning time-blocking my day. This fast and easy-to-accomplish action has helped me more than double my productivity. 
  • Understand your strengths: We’re all good at some things and terrible at others (my inability with numbers and geography is legendary in my family; I’ve learned to leave those sorts of issues to my husband or kids.) But I’m really good at editing and great at understanding human motivation. I get more from focusing on what I’m good at than trying to become better at what eludes me.
  • Set time limits for the tasks you undertake: This rule is particularly useful for mind-numbing, tedious tasks like handling email. Play “beat the clock” with yourself and your tiresome tasks will become much more interesting.
  • Keep a time diary to see where you can do better: Spend a week keeping a diary of exactly how you spend your time. This record will not only allow you to see patterns and trends, it will also help you determine whether the way you spend your time matches your priorities and values.
  • Do less but do it extraordinarily well: Don’t confuse busyness with productivity. Highly productive people are often less busy than those who are overworked and overwhelmed. Figure out your top priorities and say ‘yes’ to them while you say ‘no’ to anything else.

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Need some help developing a sustainable writing routine? Learn more about my Get It Done program. The group is now full but there is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours. 

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My video podcast last week gave tips on  how to stop recording your interviews (which is way too time-consuming). Or, see the transcript, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you have a question about writing you’d like me to address, be sure to send it to me by email, Twitter or Skype and I’ll try to answer it in the podcast.

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How do you make enough time for writing? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below.  Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by July 31/21 will be put in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Reading time: Just over 3 minutes

Are you someone who believes you just don’t have enough time to do what you want? Here’s how to find more time for writing….

The hardest part of doing just about anything is getting started. For you, this principle might apply to reading, cleaning your garage, working on your income taxes or doing the vacuuming. For most people, however, this principle surely applies to writing. 

Why? We tell ourselves stories about how difficult, challenging and boring the task is going to be. We visualize all the previous times during which we struggled to get sentences onto the page and wrestled with finding the right words. We remember the time that writing XYZ document was going to take two hours and, actually, it took 16. 

But here is a universal truth relating to every task we want to postpone: once we get started, it is never as bad as we thought it was going to be. Athletes understand this quirk of human nature and take steps to deal with it. For example, many of them put on their running shoes and head out the door for a 10-minute run no matter how crappy they feel. And guess what happens? That 10-minute commitment usually turns into a 30- to 45-minute run.

Here are seven ways you can find more time for writing:

1. Take SMALL steps. Really small steps. If you don’t already have a writing habit, start with no more than 15 minutes a day. And if that sounds too daunting, start with just five. There is no amount of time that’s too small — only time commitments that are too large. I’ve found the people who procrastinate the most are almost always the ones who’ve set the biggest, most difficult-to-achieve goals for themselves.
2. Pay yourself first! The concept long promoted by financial planners — of earmarking a percentage of your paycheque for your savings even before you pay your bills — also works for writers, at least as far as time is concerned. I suggest squeezing in a small amount of writing time in the morning, before you do anything else. Why? Nothing will have gone wrong in your day yet. You’ll have more energy and fewer interruptions. Most of all, you won’t have wrestled with guilt (“I should have started writing at 11 am. Why didn’t I do that?”) so you’re going to be happier — and happy writers write better.  
3. Declare a time and space for your writing. Advance planning helps all people achieve their goals. Instead of vaguely imagining you want to write, visualize yourself writing in a specific place (at the desk in your spare room? At the kitchen table? In your office?) and at a specific time. Scientists know this type of visualization will help you to achieve your goal.  
4. Do your research the day before you write. It’s important to draw a clear line between all steps of the writing process, making sure you don’t mix them up. Never edit while you write. And never research while you write, either. I’m not saying that research isn’t important. Of course, it’s essential. But do your research at least a day before you write — or sooner than that, if you like. If you fall into a rabbit hole with research (a surprisingly common predicament) don’t let it affect your writing time. As well, having the opportunity to “sleep on” your research will help make the writing a lot easier.
5. Never be afraid to write a BAD first draft. Instead, understand it’s a necessity. Many clients tell me that their first draft is always terrible. “Welcome to the club!” I say. In fact, if you look at the first drafts of writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Virginia Woolf — written before the days of the easy delete key — you will see multiple crossings out, angry-looking XXXs and gigantic arrows indicating a desire to move huge swathes of text to an entirely different section of the document. Truth is, no one writes a first draft that’s much good. The difference between professional writers and everyone else is that the pros understand the necessity of editing, which they do later, not with the writing. 
6. Manage your expectations. As I suggested at the top of this post, many people tell themselves stories about how horrible and uncomfortable the process of writing is going to be. You can short-circuit those stories in two ways: First, make your time commitment small enough so that it seems easy (so easy that you’d be embarrassed not to do it). Second, remind yourself that your ONLY job when writing is to produce quantity. You want to accumulate as many words as you can. Quality is irrelevant until you get to the editing stage.
7. STOP writing while you still have ideas. Many of my clients begin with the idea that they need to write themselves out each day. In other words, they want to wring as many words out of themselves as possible — as if they were trying to squeeze excess water from a facecloth — so they will have accomplished as much as possible. Some of them think they are more likely to achieve flow this way. Instead, I suggest they follow the wise example of Ernest Hemingway who typically ended his day’s worth of writing in the middle of a sentence. Why? He wanted to make the job of getting started the next day easier on himself. 

As I researched this post, I discovered some coaches making comments like, “a daily writing practice isn’t …always possible.” They’re wrong, I say. If you make the practice small and sustainable, you will be able to find more time for writing, no matter what else is going on in your life. 

As E. B. White put it, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”

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Need some help developing a sustainable writing routine? Learn more about my Get It Done program. The group is now full but there is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours. 

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My video podcast last week addressed the problems with outlining. Or, see the transcript, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you have a question about writing you’d like me to address, be sure to send it to me by email, Twitter or Skype and I’ll try to answer it in the podcast.

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Do you have difficulty finding enough time to write? What do you do about it? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section, below. And congratulations to Rosie Aslam, the winner of this month’s book prize, for a Jan. 12/21  comment. (Please send me your email address, Rosie!) Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by Feb 28/21 will be put in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To leave your own comment, please, scroll down to the section, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join the commenting software to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Reading time: Just over 5 minutes

If you spend too much time daydreaming — whether happily or unhappily — you’ll lose time to write. Here’s how to calm your wandering mind.

When we sit down to write, our minds often pick precisely that moment to go for a little wander. In fact, we human beings spend about half of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re doing right now. A Harvard study not only illustrated this principal, it also found that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. 

Anxiety is a typical reason why people allow their minds to wander.  Some of this anxiety — understandably — comes from events, perhaps an important sales presentation or a nerve-racking performance review with our boss. Other anxiety is non-specific but in any given year, roughly 18 percent of people in the  U.S. deal with clinical or near-clinical levels of anxiety.

Rumination is a typical symptom of anxiety. If you’re ruminating, it means you’re thinking continuously about the same thoughts, which tend to be sad or dark. And, as you might imagine, rumination is not good for you either as a human being or a writer.

Here are 11 ways to stop ruminating and to calm your wandering mind:

1-Schedule your writing for your most productive time: We all have different “high energy” times, depending on the time we naturally go to sleep and wake up. (This is known as your chronotype.) Make sure you understand how your body works and figure out the best time to write — for you. The “for you” part is important because the ideal time will be slightly different for every person. But if you can identify this time and use it for writing, you’re going to be better able to shut down ruminative thoughts. Just be aware that for most (although not all!) people, some time in the morning will work best. 

2-Make sure you’re getting enough sleep: The vast majority of people don’t get nearly enough sleep, which is considered to be seven to nine hours per night. If you aren’t sleeping enough, you are not doing yourself any favours. Sleep deprivation makes us moody, irritable and less creative. It also makes us more prone to negative, ruminative thinking. With more people working from home right now, I’m hoping the coronavirus has had the tiny benefit of reducing commute time and thereby allowing more people to sleep a bit more. Sleep is important. More important than just about anything else you can do. This is such an easy fix! Set a go-to-bed alarm for yourself each night and make sure you heed it.

3-Don’t allow yourself to multi-task: The stress of multi-tasking may feel exciting but it will also amp up your anxiety, making your heart beat faster and your mind start to race. Writers tend to multi-task in one of two slightly non-traditional ways — they either edit while they write or they research while they write. (Some even do both.) Break yourself of these bad habits as soon as you can. (In particular, see my advice on how to stop editing while you write.) This action will not only make you a much faster writer, it will also help calm your overactive mind. 

4-Meditate or do breathing exercises: Just a few minutes spent focusing your mind will help calm it. Scientists have found that meditation will quiet the areas of your brain responsible for rumination. See here for simple instructions on how to begin meditating. One area of the brain will especially benefit from your help. It’s the medial prefrontal cortex, which is related to thoughts that lead to mind-wandering. Calm this part of your brain and you’re going to be more successful at getting rid of distracting thoughts. But if the idea of meditation gives you the heebie-jeebies, then just do some straightforward breathing exercises. Simply breathing s-l-o-w-l-y will help calm your mind.

5-Get some exercise: I don’t believe exercise is a panacea for everything, but it is a panacea for many things — particularly anxiety and depression. Going for a walk or run (or swim or bike ride or a game of tennis) will not only help your body, it will also help your mind. In the book Exercise for Mood and Anxiety, researchers Michael Otto and Jasper Smits explain their strategy for managing the low mood and stress that is an everyday part of life. They put a particular emphasis on understanding the relationship between mood and motivation.

6-Take yourself into nature: And when you’re getting your exercise, try to do it outside, in nature. This will elevate your mood, increase your sense of well-being, and reduce your stress. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to have a park or forest nearby, understand that a relatively small interaction with nature can have a big impact on mental health, according to a recent study.

7-Deal with distractions in your environment: Many of us need to write in places that are less than perfect: too noisy, poorly lit, the wrong temperature, not enough room etc. etc. Do whatever you can to address these barriers as quickly as possible. To deal with noise, be sure to get yourself a pair of noise-blocking headphones (gun-muffs are the most effective, least-expensive option.) To deal with other concerns, identify them and look for a common-sense solution. For example, a fan and a spray bottle of ice water will help you in a room that’s too hot; a sweater and a blanket will work in a room that’s too cold. And, above all, make sure your space is ergonomically smart.

8-Schedule your mind wandering: Telling yourself not to do something is often a sure-fire way to cause yourself to do it. Research known as the “white bear problem” (from a scientific experiment that told subjects not to think of white bears) suggests that meditation is a useful tool for preventing rumination. But if you don’t want to meditate, at least consider restricting your mind-wandering time to certain specific times of the day. For example, you might allow yourself 15 minutes of rumination right after lunch. Just be sure to set a timer so you’ll know when your time is up.

9-Separate yourself from your thoughts: Take the same attitude toward your own thoughts as you would to a speech delivered by a salesperson: You can hear what he has to say, and sometimes something relevant will grab your attention, but mostly it’s just a sales pitch that you can tune out. In other words, adjust how you relate to your own thoughts. You might even say something like,  “Silly mind. There it goes again.” If you approach your thinking in this way, you’ll be much better equipped to shutting down rumination.

10-Take more breaks: You are a human being, not a machine. Therefore, you need to take breaks. Maya Angelou once said, “Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” Without enough breaks, your cortisol (a stress hormone) will rise and make you feel lousy. People who take short, frequent breaks, have higher levels of job satisfaction and reduced exhaustion. If you are ruminating, it’s a sign you need time to recharge. So, set aside daily time for doing nothing. And don’t feel guilty about it.

11-Accept your frustration: We all have certain crosses to bear; no one escapes this life without challenges. Rather than be angry at the ‘unfairness’ of your situation, describe what you have to deal with (in writing!), acknowledge its painfulness and accept the weight of what you have to handle. I know this might sound crazy but accepting your unpleasant situation and describing it will help defuse it and will make you feel better.

Having a wandering mind can be both frustrating and painful. Rather than see it as an oppressive inevitability, take these simple steps to stop it from wandering too far in an unhealthy and unproductive direction.

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Need some help developing a sustainable writing routine? Learn more about my Get It Done program. If you already know you want to apply, go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours. 

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My video podcast last week addressed how to find more time to write. Or, see the transcript, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you have a question about writing you’d like me to address, be sure to send it to me by email, Twitter or Skype and I’ll try to answer it in the podcast.

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How do you calm your wandering mind? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below.  Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by July 31/20 will be put in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Reading time: Less than 4 minutes

Do you want to write a book? It may help you to realize that a book is the natural result of a writing habit…. 

I read an article in the New York Times recently, exploring the relationship between swimming and happiness.

I don’t swim much myself (except when it’s too hot in Vancouver, which is rare enough) but I’m interested in happiness and the author was a writer I admire — psychiatrist Richard Friedman.

Here is how the article began:

One day, a few years ago, I was rushing from the pool dripping wet when a man with a Russian accent stopped me and said, “You must come to svim with the team.”

I was in my early 50s — too old for swim team, I thought. But the coach — Igor was his name — persisted: “I see you are good svimmer.”

Intrigued, and being a sucker for flattery, I relented and joined his ragtag group of swimmers. Workouts started at 5:30 in the morning, when most sane people were tucked in bed. It didn’t matter because no matter how sleepy we were, we were guaranteed to be wide-awake, if not euphoric, when we finished. 

One day, a bunch of us were grousing about how little progress we were making in our swim times, how slow we were. 

Ever the philosopher of the pool, Igor smiled and said, “You are all confused! Speed is not the goal; it is the result of perfect beautiful technique.” 

(Go here if you want to read the whole piece.)

What grabbed my attention, however, was Friedman’s main point: Speed is not the goal of having a swimming coach. It’s simply the welcome side effect of swimming well. And, Friedman argues, this point extends to happiness as well.

Researchers behind a study known as “Vanishing Time in the Pursuit of Happiness,” randomly assigned subjects to one of two tasks: One group was asked to write down 10 things that could make them become happier. The other was asked to write down 10 things that demonstrated that they were already happy. As well, subjects were asked to what extent they felt time was slipping away and how happy they felt at that moment.

Here is the sobering finding of that study: Unlike other goals, pursuing happiness rarely leads to attaining it. Instead, seeking happiness more often, decreases it. Here’s what happens in this pursuit: it causes people to feel they need to devote more and more time to the elusive cause of “happiness” — which leaves them with less time in the present.

This principle, popularly known as the “law of reversed effort,” (i.e.: the harder we try, the less we succeed) also applies to writing. So many clients tell me they want to write books — or, indeed write anything without feeling tortured about it — but the harder they try, the more the goal seems to elude them.

As a result, I tell clients that my main job is to help them develop a writing habit.  Habits are always more important and more valuable than goals. Why?

Here are the downsides of goals: they are intimidating, they require willpower and self-discipline, and, finally, they have an ending (for example, you might have a goal to lose 20 lbs. and as soon as you do, you return to your old way of eating and put the weight right back on).

Habits, on the other hand, are easy — especially if you set them up that way. Hint: never try to establish the habit of writing for two hours a day. That’s way too much! Start with 15 minutes. Who can’t fit 15 minutes into their day?

Habits are lasting. Have you ever broken the habit of brushing your teeth before bedtime? Do you even think about it? Studies show that about 40 percent of people’s daily activities are performed each day in almost always the same situations. Once your habit is nailed down, you’ll do those tasks every day without willpower or self-discipline. In fact, it will pain you more not to do them.

Habits allow you to outshoot your goals. Let’s imagine you have the habit of running six blocks each day. But on a particular Friday you’re feeling especially energetic, so you decide to run 24 blocks. If you’d started with the goal of running 24 blocks, your outsized ambitions might have intimidated you. But with the habit of running only six, you’re free to exceed it any time you wish.

Forget about focusing on goals, like improving your happiness, increasing your swimming speed or even writing a book. Instead, develop a habit that will allow you to spend more time at whatever it is you want to do.

In other words: Writing a book is just a side effect of having a well-established writing habit.

Or, as American Major General and engineer Charles C. Nobel put it, “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

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If you want some help developing a writing habit for your own book or dissertation, consider applying to my Get It Done program. Application deadline is this Thursday, Aug. 22/19. To learn more about the program, go here  and if you want to apply, scroll to the very end of the page and select the bright green “click here to apply now” button.

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My video podcast last week addressed the issue of dealing with competing creative interests. Or, see the transcript, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you have a question about writing you’d like me to address, be sure to send it to me by email, Twitter or Skype and I’ll try to answer it in the podcast.

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Do you have a writing habit? How did you develop it? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below. Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by Aug. 31/19 will be put in a draw for a copy of my book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!

Reading time: Just over 2 minutes

The pomodoro technique is a time-management tool used by millions of people around the world. It’s particularly useful for writers and students….

I’m a big believer in the magic of three. You know — the three little pigs, the three Musketeers, the three Stooges. There’s something ineffable but magical about a list of three. So, about a decade ago, when I had three unrelated people forward me a Wall Street Journal article on the Pomodoro technique in less than a week, I took it as a sign. This was something I needed to investigate!

I quickly learned that the Pomodoro technique was a time management system. That cemented my attention right away. I had started my working life as a journalist where I had to focus all my energy on meeting relentless deadlines. Then, when I was in my mid-30s, I had given birth to triplets and the precious commodity of time became even more important (and ever more elusive).

Anyway, the Pomodoro technique, which was developed by Italian inventor Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, is based on working in intense, 25-minute bursts. During these working intervals you refuse to be interrupted, either by other people or by your own bad habits.

To monitor your time and attention, Cirillo suggests using a kitchen timer. In Italian, pomodoro means “tomato,” and in his home country many kitchen timers are shaped in such a fashion (see photo at the top of this post).

To perform a pomodoro, set your timer for 25 minutes and then give the work your total concentration. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t check email. Don’t surf the internet or check Facebook. Don’t do anything except your work. As soon as the timer “dings,” take a regulated five-minute break and then start on another Pomodoro.

I’ve been working this way for more than 10 years now and I can tell you that my productivity took a huge leap as soon as I became comfortable with the system. (It took me less than a week.) I had long used a kitchen timer to motivate myself to finish tasks I’d resisted — such as vacuuming or working on my taxes — but this technique, which is more carefully developed than any practice of mine, offered even more substantial results. I think it works for some of the same reasons that Dr. Wicked is so effective: it causes you to focus. It makes you put all of your attention on the task at hand.

When I first started travelling down the pomodoro path, I persuaded my friend Eve to go with me. I remember meeting her after we’d both been trying the system for about a week. We sat down in a coffee shop and she immediately pulled a little red plastic hen from her purse to show me her timer. Even though Cirillo had advised all participants to work with a noisy timer, I’d initially assumed he was wrong. “He’s no writer,” I said to myself, as I silently installed my silent digital timer.

But when my friend reported she found the tick-tocking noise a “comforting wall of sound,” I decided to give it a try. I’m on a Mac and couldn’t find a free digital timer (that was also noisy) so I ended up buying one called Action Enforcer, which I can highly recommend. It’s tick-tocking as I write this post. (I’m not an affiliate, so I’ll earn nothing if you decide to buy it.)

In fact, I’ve discovered that the noise is an essential part of the system. Whenever I hear the tick-tocking it now makes me want to write. In essence, I’ve performed Pavlovian conditioning on myself.

Another strong point of the technique is the way it allows you to retain your optimism. As Cirillo says in his book, “the next Pomodoro will go better.”

You can find lots of useful information on Cirillo’s website or, if you like, you can buy his book. But the truly great thing about the technique is that it’s free. It depends only on your own commitment and determination — and your willingness to give it a try.

An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on Dec. 1, 2009.

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Have you ever tried the pomodoro technique? Would you recommend it to others? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section of my blog. Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by March 31/19 will be put in a draw for a copy of the non-fiction book The Artful Edit by Susan Bell.  Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links below. Note that you don’t have to join the commenting software to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest.