Last spring, I went on a field trip with my daughter’s fourth grade class to Naulakha, the house that Rudyard Kipling designed and lived in while writing the Just So Stories and maybe parts of the Jungle Book. Kipling was one of the most prolific authors of his day and, it turns out, had a strict writing routine. He sat at his desk at 9:00 am and wrote for four hours each day.
I’d been thinking a lot about how to organize creative work that spring. I’d taken a leave of absence from my classroom to write a novel. My clock was ticking. I had a very short window before the rush of classroom life enveloped me again. In preparation, I’d read a bit about productivity and was inspired by HyperFocus by Chris Bailey. One of its central themes was that our most precious resources isn’t our time … it’s our attention.
Bailey persuasively argued that our attention is limited. Of the vast array of sensory input our brain receives, only a tiny fraction enters our conscious awareness. Considering how small our window of attention really is, Bailey advised that if we want to be more productive, we should reduce the distractions in our environment. That we can devote what little attention we have to the tasks we most care about.
Keeping this advice in mind, I set about creating habits that made that spring the most productive writing period of my life, during which I wrote between 2,000 and 3,500 words each day.
So why did this routine work so well? I think it’s for three reasons: 1.) the right environment, 2.) hyperfocused work sprints, and 3.) daily reflection.
The Right Environment
Our minds are primed to get distracted. Even if you try to ignore distractions, they still “take up space” in your awareness and compete with the task you’re trying to focus on.
The point?
Where you work will have an enormous impact on how much attention you can give to something.
I’m very lucky that my tiny town has a college campus with an amazing library. I could talk at length about my love for this library, but suffice it to say that a great deal of my productivity during the spring of 2019 was due to that place.
Four Thing to Look for in a Work Environment
- First of all, the library is great because it’s not my house. My house is full of psychic draws, even when no one else is there –dishes to wash, floors to vacuum, beds to make, gutters to clean, or bills to pay. (My wife will tell you that I’m in no danger of being tempted by these things, but the mind does wacky things when it’s trying to procrastinate writing.) Even if I never leave my desk, all those things still subtly pull on my limited attention.
- Second, this particular library is great because I don’t know many people there. In five months I was only interrupted by another person once. And surprisingly to me, the public nature of the place seemed to help keep me focused. Anonymous strangers somehow had the effect of keeping me working. I’m not quite sure why that worked but … thanks, anonymous strangers!
- Third, the internet is mostly unavailable. And the internet, some would argue humanity’s greatest achievement, is a machine designed to distract us. As a guest on the college campus, accessing the internet requires a sign-in. It only takes about 30 seconds, but that’s just enough time to ask myself whether I really needed to be on the internet. The answer is almost always no.
- Fourth, the library is just the right amount of comfortable. Warm and dry, water and bathrooms nearby, there is no shortage of tables, cozy chairs, or study carrels. (My goodness I love me a good study carrel!) I could always find a seating arrangement to fit my needs.
A Word About Cell Phones
Unlike the rest of the world, I seem to be more or less indifferent to my cell phone. I’ve heard lots of people talk about strategies to curtail their cell phone distractions. Ironically, those strategies involve downloading an app to lock themselves temporarily out of their other apps. But my phone doesn’t distract me. I don’t get notifications. I’m not on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or anything like them. No one calls me. I have no apps, and the last text I got was months ago. Needless to say, though, your phone is a distraction machine. I can’t imagine writing with one. If you want to focus, turning it off is not enough. If I was into my phone the way everyone else is into theirs, I would leave it at home if I needed to get something done.
Hyperfocused Work Sprints
I would arrive at the library at 8:30 am, just as it opened. I’d settle myself into a seat, take out my laptop, notebooks, and pens and immediately start a timer.
I broke my work day into seven work periods. During each one, I deliberately focused on a single task. All I would do during that time was that task. Mostly, I would do writing sprints like Natalie Goldberg recommends in her book, Writing Down the Bones. (The basic ideas is that you don’t stop moving your pen, even if all you’re writing is, “I don’t know what to write.” Eventually something comes.)
When my timer went off, I stopped. That was important.
In order to focus, I needed a designated time to stop–get up, stretch, pee, look at book titles, run. Otherwise, those needs will become distractions during the work.
So, for every hour, I hyperfocused for fifty minutes, and did other stuff for ten. Then I’d do another round. I’d take off a whole hour for lunch. (I eat slowly.) Some of my sprints were shorter–twenty-five minutes with a five minute break. I liked the variety. Those shorter sprints were especially good for ticking little chores off my to-do list, checking email, and brainstorming ideas.
My Writing Routine
- 6:00 am Wake up. Do all the morning stuff–shower, shave, get the kids moving, yada, yada, yada …
- 8:00 am Take the kids to school. Remind them to “Be kind. Be curious. Be thankful.”
- 8:30 am Arrive at Landmark College just as the library doors open. Settle my stuff down into a seat that matches my mood and intentions for that day. I take out my laptop, notebooks, and pens. Set a timer for the first of seven writing sprints.
- 9:00 am Writing sprint #2.
- 10:00 am Writing spring #3.
- 11:00 am Writing sprint #4.
- 11:30 am Lunch
- 12:30 pm Writing sprint #5
- 1:00 pm Writing spring #6
- 2:00 pm Writing spring #7
In all, that’s about four hours and twenty minutes of writing time which is about what Mr. Kipling spent at his desk. But I’m no Rudyard Kipling. I needed the frequent breaks to increase my creativity and productivity which would certainly have declined over four continuous hours of Kipling-style work. At 2:30, my watch alarm would go off so I didn’t forget to pick up my kids at school. (That would be bad. )
Daily Reflection
There was one final piece to my productivity plan. Every night, I did two things to get ready for the next day.
- I planned out three big intentions for the next work day. Only three. No long list of ambitions. I would block these out roughly into writing sprints and make a little schedule for myself. It usually took about five minutes. There was something magical about doing this the night before rather than the day of. My brain got cooking on those tasks for the next day while I slept. (Thank you, sleep, for the miracle of memory consolidation!)
- The other thing I did was a five-minute journal entry on what I learned about writing and life. I learned more from that five minutes each evening than I sometimes did from a whole day of writing.
A Good Life
So there you have it. That was the recipe I followed for the most productive season of my life.
I make no claims to being a paragon of productivity, but I’m grateful for what I was able to do with this system. If I’d had a system like this for homework when I was in high school and college, I might have lived a more productive, saner, and more balanced life. I’ve always enjoyed learning other people tips for living more intentionally. Maybe this will be helpful to some of you.
If you have thoughts on living a good and productive life, I’d love to hear them. Share them in the comments below.
