I had heard of Cal Newport's book but hadn't gotten around to reading it. Your post reminds me of a mentor I once had. I met him for coffee one day, fitting my conversation with him between appointments. I was rushed and not present. He called me out on that then asked, "Do you want to know the secret to my success. The one thing that I do every day I'm home that allows me to have this great life and work?" Of course, I wanted to know. He said, "I have tea on my porch every day at 4pm and sit there for an hour and enjoy the birds and the flowers." Kind of like staring up at trees!
Such a great point. We get so addicted to rushing. I think rushing is always a symptom of us not being willing to decide what is most important (or our bosses not being willing to decide). It's incredible how a time to slow down and step out of that mode can deflate the drama of it quickly. I love this regular reset he shared. What an excellent mentor!
I loved Cal Newport's Deep Work and this looks like another great read. When so many writers appear to be able to publish a lot, it takes courage and maturity to work in a way that suits you. I'm currently wrangling a professional draft for my current novel. I have some interesting health and relationship challenges at the moment and I would love to write about these on Medium. However, every time I journal about this the answer comes back, "don't do Medium. Just keep plodding on with your draft." Getting that draft done and maintaining my own Substack newsletter is plenty for now. And you've just made me feel better about that :)
Yay for journaling and the clarity it brings! It sounds like you are well on your way here. Medium will be there when you finish the draft. It might even be a lovely palate cleanser during a break from the book so you can return to revise with fresh eyes. 👀
I’d love to hear what you think of the book when you read it. If you liked Deep Work, you’ll love this one.
Ooo, a palate cleanser. I like that idea. I sometimes feel guilty because I see other writers writing about "life" stuff on Medium and I think I ought to be doing that too. And maybe, in the future, I will and as a palate cleanser, I could spend a few weeks writing a few articles and give them fantastic devoted energy rather than being squeezed out now! Thank you for this idea x
I find having a cycle to move between keeps my brain happy. I also like the idea of different types of writing as cross training, which is and idea Jacqueline Winspear shared with me. (She writes series, standalone novels, memoir, and essays)
I too just read Slow Productivity [and wrote about it on my Substack as well - lol]. It really impacted me and I am still chewing over some of the concepts. The phrase he used that I can't get out of my mind was "jittery busyness." It just landed... when we engage in pseudo-productive tasks, it does leave us with this jittery busy feeling.
Anyway, great post. Glad to have found another Slow Productivity fan. :)
Thank you so much, Karen! I'll be sure and read your post, as well. Ugh - "jittery business" is truly an awful feeling. Like claustrophobic panic. I spent so many years in this state when working for other people, trying to justify my value. I can feel this state in my body, which makes it easier to navigate away from. Since there are many of us excited about this concept, I hope we see a big shift in the aftermath of the book.
I connected with an inspirational woman recently, who said, "People overestimate what they can achieve in one year, and underestimate what they can achieve in five years." That reframe has changed the way I approach everything, which now means I have more time to focus on what is important to me right now.
I love that your takeaway from these principles is that you can get more done when you focus on one project at a time. I can relate so much to wanting to writing ALL the things and have them written yesterday. It's hard to know where to start when you want to write it all.
I'm going to try what you've suggested here, writing for an hour a day on my book. A great tip - thanks for sharing!
I also loved how achievable one hour per day of book writing feels! It is my heart and soul work but I rarely find time for it. I have committed to doing one hour each day this week: here's hoping both of us have fun with it!
It’s so wonderful to do that work and feel that I’ve given writing some solid quality time. I find it makes the rest of the day so much more satisfying as I don’t resent the other things that previously felt like they were stealing my writing time.
Let me know how it goes- I have a good feeling about this for you. 🩷
I definitely get what you mean about resenting other things that feel like they're stealing your writing time. It's not creativity-related (except that it gives me the brain space to deal with the day's events...!) but I've started doing my run first thing in the morning before the baby wakes up because I found that I was resenting him for not allowing me to run during the day, or resenting the fact that I was running when I could have been writing during nap times. It's all such a juggle isn't it! I've dropped down the number of posts I'm doing on here each week to give myself back some time to do other creative projects, like book writing. Here's hoping the hour a day works for me...! Do you just use it for actual writing (i.e., drafting), or do you use it for brainstorming, planning, etc.?
I actually think running IS writing-related. Anything that clears your head so you can think is writing self-care. My hat is absolutely off to you writing with a baby. Well done tinkering with the plan until it works.
Yes- I have heard that same clarification about time- I think I read it from Gretchen Rubin, perhaps?
It is so counter to our multi-tasking-obsessed culture to slow down and do one thing. But having worked many jobs that wanted “an excellent multi-tasker” in the role, it’s no surprise this method suits me better. All that frantic activity did was land me in a deep hole with burnout.
It’s hard to get your head around, but it works, right?
Do less now, do more over time.
People hear do less and think it’s a limit on what they can accomplish. As we now know, it’s an opening to create so much more.
Thrilled this inspired you. Keep me posted on how an hour a day works out!
I've been seeing this book everywhere and need to grab a copy for myself finally! I love the idea of doing less. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it isn't just about doing less hard/crappy stuff, but also doing less of the things that I find rewarding or that bring me joy. It is possible to burnout on things you love - and that was a hard lesson for me!
Yes! It’s about saying no to things that take you away from your goals and concentrating on the way you really want to spend your time and energy. We don’t have control over all of our time, but making the parts that we do have a choice about more intentional can make a huge difference. And this isn’t about being crammed to the gills with action- I love his suggestion that you pair goal projects with “rest” projects such as hobbies or things that let you replenish after a big effort. This has been huge for me.
Thanks for this article, I loved Deep Work and it helped me a lot in my career. Happy to learn about this new book that will help me with my writing. ☺️
I was listening to Cal Newport on the Huberman Lab pod a little while ago and I liked what he said about how deep work isn't like "flow state" in that it can be uncomfortable, difficult, even frustrating (but ultimately rewarding). I think I need to pick up the Deep Work book too as well as this new book of his!
Deep Work is a classic for a reason. I think that’s a super helpful distinction, I had forgotten that part, but it’s true. If it doesn’t feel easy, you’re still doing good solid work if you show up and wrestle with it. I definitely had a number of days on the current book where it didn’t flow, but writing happened anyway. In the end, that’s what it takes, I find.
Writing at a natural pace feels so revolutionary, and yet so basic and true. The work takes what it takes. May we give it its due. Thank you for this timely reminder!
My pleasure. I'm very curious to see what a natural pace looks like for everyone. I suspect it's entirely different for each person who considers the concept. How exciting this is to realize!
I'm going to be the exception that proves the rule.
As a blogger, I've been writing every day for decades. My success came from simply outworking the competition. In that field, I discovered that quantity was more important than quality.
Don't get me wrong: everything I wrote, everything I write, I write as well as I can. And edit obsessively. I'm proud of it all, literally thousands of posts. Which, dare I say, made me a better writer. Faster, more entertaining and financially flush (sold my sites before old fashioned, ad-supported blogging cratered).
I'm at the point where I can't not write. It's like breathing. My raison d'etre. Who I am. If I don't publish I don't exist. Yes, its deviant, unhealthy psychology. But here I am, at 64. With two unpublished novels (by a "proper" publisher) and cranking out material for substack, day in, day out, week in week out.
Do I recommend this insane pace and perseverance to other writers? Hell no. For one thing, as a journalist, I've never had the problem of staring at a blank page. I know there are writers who never got into that groove.
Writing discipline that doesn't fuck up the rest of your life is not my thing, but it's a good thing. Slow productivity is better than no productivity or bad productivity. Chef don't judge. Whatever works to keep those keys clattering is a solid win. Period.
But I will say this: writing is both a calling and a craft. If you're not feeling the former, the latter will fuck you up. If it takes two weeks on a picnic table to be one with your muse, so be it. But at some point, you've got to ask yourself why am I here?
You're here to write, right? Life damages us all. And? Nike the bastard. Just do it. Do your best and see what happens. How else can anyone go through life?
Great thoughts, Robert! I would argue, however, that your natural pace *is* daily writing now. I have multiple students who trained as journalists and, as a result, their natural pace is much more prolific than other people's.
I think the point here, for me at least, is to find your natural pace and start there. I find it a lot like running. When I haven't been out for a while, my natural pace is slow and wheezing. But give me a few weeks of regular runs and my pace speeds up quickly. Once I'm back in the flow, it feels unnatural to skip running, whereas at the beginning it felt unnatural to do it.
I think many of us think "natural pace" and we immediately think very little will happen. But at this point, I've coached hundreds of writers who were scared to begin and the thing that got them over the line to just doing it, as you point out, was starting at a level that felt doable. And that level was small at first, but after a few weeks or months, the effort it took to do that small amount went down, and so they could write more.
This process continues until we reach the point where we're writing enough that we feel satisfied with both the amount and the quality. If the quality can't stay high, I recommend slowing back down.
I'd argue that it takes far less effort for you to write daily now than it did decades ago when you started. And I find blogging to be a different process than writing books. I can write more freely when I know I'll write another post in a few days, versus writing a book, when the next one may take months or years to complete. I hold the standard differently.
As you say, slow productivity is better than no productivity, but I actually think we feel the same way about most of the key points here. If it feels like a calling, it's worth figuring out the craft of how you want to write, which for me includes the schedule that works to get the writing done.
Thank you so much for being willing to share a different viewpoint. As you well said "Whatever it takes to keep those keys clattering is a solid win." Yes most of all to that.
So great -- thank you for sharing this. It's so easy to think the writers we've heard of had it easier, but any digging into their actual process shows it's a challenge for everyone. I particularly love @Jillian Hess's Noted substack as it gives us such an insight to the working process of anyone who kept a notebook. Pure gold.
I just did a profile of Kafka in the Rogues Gallery section of my substack and it was nothing but challenge for him the whole way through. He wouldn't be K without it (or without his job from the Dantean depths of bureaucratic hell).
Thanks, I'll dig into Noted to see what I've been missing...
Wow. I love this so much. I am a mult-creative that is always working on many projects at once. It fuels me, and also, can be quite overwhelming. I love your one hour a day rule, which I’m going to try to apply myself. Can I ask which writing software you use, google docs, scrivener, etc? 🙏🏼✨
I consider myself a multi-creative as well. This is an interesting balance to strike, as on the same day I work on the book for an hour, I may also write a substack post, record a podcast, or write my regular email newsletter, Footnotes. I may also work on a sewing project, which is my hobby along with knitting.
What I've learned is not that I can only focus on one creative thing at a time, rather it's that I can only write one BOOK at a time, which is what has made the difference. The other creativity is more a maintenance of ongoing work I produce, whereas a book is a project that demands more energy, at least this is how it works for me.
As for software, when writing nonfiction I write the first draft in Scrivener, then kick out a pdf, which I mark up on my iPad in Notability and then incorprate back into a scrivener draft. I then export to Word for editing/proofreading, and finally get the text formatted for publication. Fiction is a different process, and I'll share more about the ins and outs of that this summer, when I get back into my novel.
You might also find my post "How I'm writing my next book without pulling my hair out" helpful, as it walks through the whole process I'm using. There's also a video walkthrough for paid subscribers at the bottom. That post is here:
I had heard of Cal Newport's book but hadn't gotten around to reading it. Your post reminds me of a mentor I once had. I met him for coffee one day, fitting my conversation with him between appointments. I was rushed and not present. He called me out on that then asked, "Do you want to know the secret to my success. The one thing that I do every day I'm home that allows me to have this great life and work?" Of course, I wanted to know. He said, "I have tea on my porch every day at 4pm and sit there for an hour and enjoy the birds and the flowers." Kind of like staring up at trees!
Such a great point. We get so addicted to rushing. I think rushing is always a symptom of us not being willing to decide what is most important (or our bosses not being willing to decide). It's incredible how a time to slow down and step out of that mode can deflate the drama of it quickly. I love this regular reset he shared. What an excellent mentor!
I loved Cal Newport's Deep Work and this looks like another great read. When so many writers appear to be able to publish a lot, it takes courage and maturity to work in a way that suits you. I'm currently wrangling a professional draft for my current novel. I have some interesting health and relationship challenges at the moment and I would love to write about these on Medium. However, every time I journal about this the answer comes back, "don't do Medium. Just keep plodding on with your draft." Getting that draft done and maintaining my own Substack newsletter is plenty for now. And you've just made me feel better about that :)
Yay for journaling and the clarity it brings! It sounds like you are well on your way here. Medium will be there when you finish the draft. It might even be a lovely palate cleanser during a break from the book so you can return to revise with fresh eyes. 👀
I’d love to hear what you think of the book when you read it. If you liked Deep Work, you’ll love this one.
Ooo, a palate cleanser. I like that idea. I sometimes feel guilty because I see other writers writing about "life" stuff on Medium and I think I ought to be doing that too. And maybe, in the future, I will and as a palate cleanser, I could spend a few weeks writing a few articles and give them fantastic devoted energy rather than being squeezed out now! Thank you for this idea x
I find having a cycle to move between keeps my brain happy. I also like the idea of different types of writing as cross training, which is and idea Jacqueline Winspear shared with me. (She writes series, standalone novels, memoir, and essays)
I too just read Slow Productivity [and wrote about it on my Substack as well - lol]. It really impacted me and I am still chewing over some of the concepts. The phrase he used that I can't get out of my mind was "jittery busyness." It just landed... when we engage in pseudo-productive tasks, it does leave us with this jittery busy feeling.
Anyway, great post. Glad to have found another Slow Productivity fan. :)
Thank you so much, Karen! I'll be sure and read your post, as well. Ugh - "jittery business" is truly an awful feeling. Like claustrophobic panic. I spent so many years in this state when working for other people, trying to justify my value. I can feel this state in my body, which makes it easier to navigate away from. Since there are many of us excited about this concept, I hope we see a big shift in the aftermath of the book.
Yes to this. I loved Newport's book too x
Yay! It was so helpful, wasn’t it?
Yes, so clear and simple and radical... I'll remember his three suggestions!
Me, too, big time.
Ah this was golden! My TBR list is growing but I think I need to add this Slow Productivity to it anyhow.
It’s worth the read! It might even help you sort through that TBR pile once you’re clear about your current goals. 🤩
YAY! That sounds even better!
Definitely add the book to your list - so worth it!! :)
I love this post so much.
I connected with an inspirational woman recently, who said, "People overestimate what they can achieve in one year, and underestimate what they can achieve in five years." That reframe has changed the way I approach everything, which now means I have more time to focus on what is important to me right now.
I love that your takeaway from these principles is that you can get more done when you focus on one project at a time. I can relate so much to wanting to writing ALL the things and have them written yesterday. It's hard to know where to start when you want to write it all.
I'm going to try what you've suggested here, writing for an hour a day on my book. A great tip - thanks for sharing!
I also loved how achievable one hour per day of book writing feels! It is my heart and soul work but I rarely find time for it. I have committed to doing one hour each day this week: here's hoping both of us have fun with it!
It’s so wonderful to do that work and feel that I’ve given writing some solid quality time. I find it makes the rest of the day so much more satisfying as I don’t resent the other things that previously felt like they were stealing my writing time.
Let me know how it goes- I have a good feeling about this for you. 🩷
I definitely get what you mean about resenting other things that feel like they're stealing your writing time. It's not creativity-related (except that it gives me the brain space to deal with the day's events...!) but I've started doing my run first thing in the morning before the baby wakes up because I found that I was resenting him for not allowing me to run during the day, or resenting the fact that I was running when I could have been writing during nap times. It's all such a juggle isn't it! I've dropped down the number of posts I'm doing on here each week to give myself back some time to do other creative projects, like book writing. Here's hoping the hour a day works for me...! Do you just use it for actual writing (i.e., drafting), or do you use it for brainstorming, planning, etc.?
I actually think running IS writing-related. Anything that clears your head so you can think is writing self-care. My hat is absolutely off to you writing with a baby. Well done tinkering with the plan until it works.
Ah writing with a baby is my me time: it reminds me that I am more than just spit up on my jumper, messy hair and leggings!
You are a mighty creator! Messy hair and all. 💪
We can do this ❤️
YES ✨✨✨
Yes- I have heard that same clarification about time- I think I read it from Gretchen Rubin, perhaps?
It is so counter to our multi-tasking-obsessed culture to slow down and do one thing. But having worked many jobs that wanted “an excellent multi-tasker” in the role, it’s no surprise this method suits me better. All that frantic activity did was land me in a deep hole with burnout.
It’s hard to get your head around, but it works, right?
Do less now, do more over time.
People hear do less and think it’s a limit on what they can accomplish. As we now know, it’s an opening to create so much more.
Thrilled this inspired you. Keep me posted on how an hour a day works out!
I've been seeing this book everywhere and need to grab a copy for myself finally! I love the idea of doing less. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it isn't just about doing less hard/crappy stuff, but also doing less of the things that I find rewarding or that bring me joy. It is possible to burnout on things you love - and that was a hard lesson for me!
Yes! It’s about saying no to things that take you away from your goals and concentrating on the way you really want to spend your time and energy. We don’t have control over all of our time, but making the parts that we do have a choice about more intentional can make a huge difference. And this isn’t about being crammed to the gills with action- I love his suggestion that you pair goal projects with “rest” projects such as hobbies or things that let you replenish after a big effort. This has been huge for me.
Caroline, on a completely other topic, what font do you use for BOOK ALCHEMY title? I love it!
Thank you! I’d have to confirm in Canva but I think part of the name is twinkle.
Thanks for this article, I loved Deep Work and it helped me a lot in my career. Happy to learn about this new book that will help me with my writing. ☺️
It's such a winner. Enjoy the read and do let us know how it impacts your writing!
Thank you, Caroline. I'm looking forward as right now I feel like I'm scattered in all directions with my writing.
I was listening to Cal Newport on the Huberman Lab pod a little while ago and I liked what he said about how deep work isn't like "flow state" in that it can be uncomfortable, difficult, even frustrating (but ultimately rewarding). I think I need to pick up the Deep Work book too as well as this new book of his!
Deep Work is a classic for a reason. I think that’s a super helpful distinction, I had forgotten that part, but it’s true. If it doesn’t feel easy, you’re still doing good solid work if you show up and wrestle with it. I definitely had a number of days on the current book where it didn’t flow, but writing happened anyway. In the end, that’s what it takes, I find.
Writing at a natural pace feels so revolutionary, and yet so basic and true. The work takes what it takes. May we give it its due. Thank you for this timely reminder!
My pleasure. I'm very curious to see what a natural pace looks like for everyone. I suspect it's entirely different for each person who considers the concept. How exciting this is to realize!
I'm going to be the exception that proves the rule.
As a blogger, I've been writing every day for decades. My success came from simply outworking the competition. In that field, I discovered that quantity was more important than quality.
Don't get me wrong: everything I wrote, everything I write, I write as well as I can. And edit obsessively. I'm proud of it all, literally thousands of posts. Which, dare I say, made me a better writer. Faster, more entertaining and financially flush (sold my sites before old fashioned, ad-supported blogging cratered).
I'm at the point where I can't not write. It's like breathing. My raison d'etre. Who I am. If I don't publish I don't exist. Yes, its deviant, unhealthy psychology. But here I am, at 64. With two unpublished novels (by a "proper" publisher) and cranking out material for substack, day in, day out, week in week out.
Do I recommend this insane pace and perseverance to other writers? Hell no. For one thing, as a journalist, I've never had the problem of staring at a blank page. I know there are writers who never got into that groove.
Writing discipline that doesn't fuck up the rest of your life is not my thing, but it's a good thing. Slow productivity is better than no productivity or bad productivity. Chef don't judge. Whatever works to keep those keys clattering is a solid win. Period.
But I will say this: writing is both a calling and a craft. If you're not feeling the former, the latter will fuck you up. If it takes two weeks on a picnic table to be one with your muse, so be it. But at some point, you've got to ask yourself why am I here?
You're here to write, right? Life damages us all. And? Nike the bastard. Just do it. Do your best and see what happens. How else can anyone go through life?
Great thoughts, Robert! I would argue, however, that your natural pace *is* daily writing now. I have multiple students who trained as journalists and, as a result, their natural pace is much more prolific than other people's.
I think the point here, for me at least, is to find your natural pace and start there. I find it a lot like running. When I haven't been out for a while, my natural pace is slow and wheezing. But give me a few weeks of regular runs and my pace speeds up quickly. Once I'm back in the flow, it feels unnatural to skip running, whereas at the beginning it felt unnatural to do it.
I think many of us think "natural pace" and we immediately think very little will happen. But at this point, I've coached hundreds of writers who were scared to begin and the thing that got them over the line to just doing it, as you point out, was starting at a level that felt doable. And that level was small at first, but after a few weeks or months, the effort it took to do that small amount went down, and so they could write more.
This process continues until we reach the point where we're writing enough that we feel satisfied with both the amount and the quality. If the quality can't stay high, I recommend slowing back down.
I'd argue that it takes far less effort for you to write daily now than it did decades ago when you started. And I find blogging to be a different process than writing books. I can write more freely when I know I'll write another post in a few days, versus writing a book, when the next one may take months or years to complete. I hold the standard differently.
As you say, slow productivity is better than no productivity, but I actually think we feel the same way about most of the key points here. If it feels like a calling, it's worth figuring out the craft of how you want to write, which for me includes the schedule that works to get the writing done.
Thank you so much for being willing to share a different viewpoint. As you well said "Whatever it takes to keep those keys clattering is a solid win." Yes most of all to that.
The bit on writing at a natural pace in this reminds me of the apocryphal story of Beckett walking in on a gloomy Joyce.
"James, what's wrong?"
"I've written seven words."
"But James, that's good for you!"
"Yes, but I don't know what order they go in."
So great -- thank you for sharing this. It's so easy to think the writers we've heard of had it easier, but any digging into their actual process shows it's a challenge for everyone. I particularly love @Jillian Hess's Noted substack as it gives us such an insight to the working process of anyone who kept a notebook. Pure gold.
I just did a profile of Kafka in the Rogues Gallery section of my substack and it was nothing but challenge for him the whole way through. He wouldn't be K without it (or without his job from the Dantean depths of bureaucratic hell).
Thanks, I'll dig into Noted to see what I've been missing...
Wow. I love this so much. I am a mult-creative that is always working on many projects at once. It fuels me, and also, can be quite overwhelming. I love your one hour a day rule, which I’m going to try to apply myself. Can I ask which writing software you use, google docs, scrivener, etc? 🙏🏼✨
I consider myself a multi-creative as well. This is an interesting balance to strike, as on the same day I work on the book for an hour, I may also write a substack post, record a podcast, or write my regular email newsletter, Footnotes. I may also work on a sewing project, which is my hobby along with knitting.
What I've learned is not that I can only focus on one creative thing at a time, rather it's that I can only write one BOOK at a time, which is what has made the difference. The other creativity is more a maintenance of ongoing work I produce, whereas a book is a project that demands more energy, at least this is how it works for me.
As for software, when writing nonfiction I write the first draft in Scrivener, then kick out a pdf, which I mark up on my iPad in Notability and then incorprate back into a scrivener draft. I then export to Word for editing/proofreading, and finally get the text formatted for publication. Fiction is a different process, and I'll share more about the ins and outs of that this summer, when I get back into my novel.
You might also find my post "How I'm writing my next book without pulling my hair out" helpful, as it walks through the whole process I'm using. There's also a video walkthrough for paid subscribers at the bottom. That post is here:
https://www.book-alchemy.com/p/how-im-writing-my-next-book-without?r=m4847&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web