It’s discouraging, having to hold down a day job when you really want to be hacking on that great idea for a web app you’re kicking around, or writing your book, or starting your own business. You look at your lack of progress on one hand, and the huge block of your day that you […]
Continue readingGTD was great for breaking the cycle of disorganization that I’d allowed myself to fall into. But now that I’ve practiced it for a few years, I’m finding another approach to organizing my time is more effective: habits and routines. Putting together a comprehensive system that allowed me to keep track of all of the […]
Continue readingI owe a lot to GTD. Six or seven years ago, I was an ineffective and disorganized worker. I forgot things all the time, missed deadlines regularly, and struggled to keep up with the demands of my job. Reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done and doing my best to implement it turned my life around. […]
Continue readingMy outlines used to be a mess. I’d sit down to write something, and I’d feel like I had to outline first, because that’s what writers do, you know? So I’d throw a few bullet points down on a piece of paper. No, not even bullet points. They were more like a collection of random […]
Continue readingIt’s been close to a month since I decided to get serious about my writing and set a goal for myself of publishing four ebooks in the next 12 months. So how is it going? Although it’s hard to tell on a day-to-day basis, when I look back at the past month it’s clear I’m […]
Continue readingSo why am I putting in all this effort to write faster, anyway? If I want to be more productive, shouldn’t I just focus on carving out more time to write? After all, I can write just as many words per day just by increasing the amount of time I spend at the keyboard, can’t […]
Continue readingA golfer sighs in frustration as yet another ball slices hard and disappears into the woods. An old timer, who’s spent the last few minutes observing the young hacker’s herky-jerky swing, smiles and offers his sage advice: “Just hit the ball, son.” A programmer glowers at his screen as his app coughs up exception after […]
Continue readingYesterday something inside me clicked, and I just wrote. The last couple of weeks have been a mental struggle. I’m ripping out long-time habits and replacing them with better ones. My old writing process was broken and slow—but it was comfortable. And overcoming lifelong habits is never easy. But I’m determined to make it work, […]
Continue readingI have no idea if anyone will ever buy the book I’m working on right now. This is entirely my own doing. And you know what? I’m fine with that. There’s a right way and a wrong way to find book topics. The right way involves picking an audience, then studying that audience to discover […]
Continue readingWorking on my book isn’t a lot of fun right now. I know writing isn’t ever going to be easy, but right now it’s particularly difficult for me. And a lot of that is self-imposed. You see, I’m trying to rework my entire writing process, top to bottom. I’m ripping out my old, ineffective habits […]
Continue readingWriter’s block isn’t something I usually struggle with, but I ran smack into a wall yesterday. It was pretty unexpected, and working around it taught me a valuable lesson about outlining. I’d cranked through my daily practice writing session in record time, and when I cracked open Scrivener to work on my book, I had […]
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