Five Ways to Be a More Productive Writer
By: Wang Yip
Tags: Writing, Writer, Productivity, Writing Process, Writing Tips

Five Ways to Be a More Productive Writer

‘Responding’ vs ‘Reacting ‘ and what that means in your journey to become a better writer

Photo by XPS on Unsplash

What’s the difference between responding and reacting?

Imagine that you are doing a follow-up session with your doctor for a problem that will not seem to go away. He has prescribed some treatment for you and tells you:

You are responding to the treatment; or

You are reacting to the treatment

Which would you rather your doctor tell you? I believe you would rather be told that you are responding to the treatment.

A similar outlook can be used to approach your remote work. That is, do you want to be responding to the work you need to do (a proactive approach), or do you want to be reacting to the work you need to do (a passive approach). Inspired by Cole Shafer’s Freelancing Course, he wrote the analogy as a segue into ways to be a more effective remote worker. I wanted to expand on the proactive approach (responding to work) and share other ways that I think will help you become a better writer.

Set up the work the night before

When you work as a management consultant, you have multiple projects and tasks that you need to manage and prioritize. To add to this further, you have ad hoc requests come in from managers and clients. The worst thing that you could do was to let your day be dictated by ad hoc requests because you would never make a dent on your to-do list.

That’s why, after having several ad hoc days in a row, I took ten minutes at the end of my workday to write all the things I needed to do the next day. It was half brain-dump and half my to-do list, but it was a simple way to remember what my priorities are for the next day and to make sure I am focusing on those priorities.

For me, as a writer, I use the ten minutes at the end of my workday to brainstorm ideas and write headlines or outlines. That way, I am ‘planning ahead’. I’m not sitting down in front of a blank page trying to come up with an idea, headline, outline, and all the writing at once. I set myself up for success by having an outline so I can focus on the writing.

Develop a morning ritual to prime your body and mind

Many articles have been written about morning habits. Heck, I even wrote a book about all the kinds of successful habits that leaders, entrepreneurs, and athletes use in their lives.

No matter what your morning habits are, I believe there is value in establishing one for a few reasons:

There is comfort in developing a routine that you do every day

Like a Pavlovian dog, you link your routine to feeling good and productive

The routine helps to prime your body and mind for the day ahead

My writing routine for example comprises waking up, stretching, making myself some tea, doing some light reading, journaling, and then sitting down at the computer to write Medium articles. I can’t tell you what things you should do, but I can tell you the elements that other successful individuals use through Hal Elrod’s acronym SAVERS:

Silence (meditation, yoga, etc.)

Affirmation (search on YouTube for positive affirmations)

Visualization (think about what a successful day looks like for you)

Exercise (can be stretching, bodyweight exercises, a run)

Reading (learning something new)

Scribe (journaling your thoughts)

No phone and no distractions

One of the first things I do is I put away my phone and charge it before I get into my morning routine. I usually do not charge my phone overnight, letting it get dangerously low by the morning so I am forced to charge (and stow it away) rather than leaving it by my side as I write.

I used to silence my phone and disable all notifications while leaving it by the side of my computer while working, but I found it too easy to reach over and look at what I missed every once in a while. Do I need to see what Trump has said in the Presidential Debate right now? Or whether any of my friends have messaged me with funny cat videos?

Make it a practice to put away your phone so you are not constantly checking it for social media, messages, or other distractions. Putting some distance between you and your phone makes you think twice before you walk over to check notifications.

Take productive breaks

Maybe you use the Pomodoro technique where you work on a task for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break (and every 4 pomodoros, you take a longer 20-minute break). Or you have your own focused time for writing.

But have you considered what your breaks should look like? Productive breaks do not include scrolling through social media on your phone or checking and responding to email. Instead, here are a few things that I do that I consider ‘productive’:

Put on your gym clothes and do yoga

Refill your tea and take a few deep breaths

Meditate

Getting yourself a healthy snack of yogurt and nuts

Talk to a loved one and give them a hug

I consider these more effective breaks because you are disconnected from a screen. Find ways to take a break away from technology.

Batching activities

Wang, what about email and phone calls for work? If I don’t reply to emails, my boss starts following up with me over Instant Message and it is annoying.

Okay, I get it. Emails and phone calls are musts for your line of work. In this case, do what Tim Ferriss suggests: batching.

Tim Ferriss suggests batching emails, phone calls, and other admin work into a single time slot. For example, and this is extreme so please adapt for your situation, Tim has an auto-responder that says that he only answers emails between specific times, for instance, 12–1 PM and 5–6 PM. In this way, he is not constantly in his inbox answering emails as they come (or don’t come) and when he does respond to emails, he is focused only on answering emails, which means he is more productive than switching between tasks (which as research shows, kills productivity).

Final thought

Just because writing is a challenge does not mean there are not ways to set yourself up for more productive writing sessions. Whether it is developing a morning ritual to prime your mind, planning and setting things up for yourself ahead of time, taking productive breaks, putting away your phone, or batching admin work, you can take a proactive approach to writing, thus being able to respond to your work rather than reacting.