Yesterday, I went to this very cool new coffee shop around the corner and read Paul J Silvia's How to Write a Lot in two hours and ten minutes. Loved it. The book basically explains how to pull your thumb out and get your writing done by sticking to a schedule. Other bloggers have reviewed the book more thoroughly, so I won't do that here. I will say that my favorite aspect of Silvia's advice is that if you have a writing schedule and stick to it, there should never be any guilt or anxiety attached to writing and you won't feel like you should be writing in your free time. This is my kind of advice.
I usually get to work between 7:45 and 8:15. Other people in the lab roll in between 9:15 and 10:30. Typically, when I get to work the first thing I do is check my email while eating a portable breakfast (granola bar or english muffin). I also go through journal TOCs and download relevant articles. I could, however, easily schedule my writing time for 8 to 9:30 or 10 am. I could get to work and start writing right away, saving my email stuff for after writing time. I could keep my door closed during this time for extra focus, although few of my coworkers would be there to interrupt me at that time anyway. Plus, I would have the whole rest of the day for lab work. That would relieve the daily dilemma about whether to do labwork or writing.
Silvia also recommends a way to keep track of progress using a spreadsheet (not particularly novel but helpful nonetheless), which is cool since I was wondering about that recently.
I can't wait to get started with the new system. I think it will mesh well with my new work timer.
3 comments:
I love Paul Silva's book - while the writing schedule didn't work so well for me (I have too many meetings and such, and I can't write in the lab due to distractions) the writing tracker has been amazing. I set up an SPSS sheet just like Silva recommends and now I'm at the point where I feel guilty if I don't have something in there nearly all day. I recommend you keep track of any writing - even coursework, or award writing, because it all adds up. Something else that really helped me from that book was not needing "Special Time" to write - now I know writing can actually be done in small chunks of time and faster than I thought it could be done. I'm glad you found the book useful.
I think I'm going to have to buy this book, more for my about-to-get-it-started-honest-I-really-mean-it-this-time freelancing career than for my day job. Thanks for the review!
Thanks for the book recommendation! I,too, want to get serious about my writing...
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