How I Write: Deep Work (Premium)

You don't have to dive too far into online destinations like Medium or Pocket to find a bottomless pit of self-help topics. This is true for all kinds of things, including like health and fitness, relationships, finances, and, yes, writing.

I have many thoughts about writing. Too many, perhaps. So instead of just writing a single "how I write" article, I thought I might split it up into a few individual topics. The most important being this first one.

And it goes like this.

If you are serious about writing, you need to block out time, every single day, during which this is all you do. I literally block out this time, which I call deep work, on my calendar. Maybe that's not the best name---this is really about uninterrupted work---but it doesn't matter.

All that matters is that you do it.

The exact schedule is up to you, or may be dependent on your other commitments. You may want to split it up, and do some writing in the morning and some in the afternoon or evening.

I write all day, of course. If something happens, if the mood strikes, I will write at any point. But my deep work blocks are scheduled from 8 am to 11 am on weekdays and from 9 am to 11 am on weekends. This is what works for me; I record podcasts later in the day, for example, or have meetings on certain days.

Like the health and nutrition topics I recently discussed, these blocks are goals, in a way. That is, you will be interrupted sometimes, or otherwise distracted. The doorbell or phone will ring, or you'll get an important Skype call or whatever. We can't be completely isolated. But we can resolve to stay out of email or off of Twitter, or whatever.

One thing I did learn in over 20 years of working from home, too, is that you can't force it. If I don't have anything to write, for example, or it just isn't working for whatever reason, don't stress over it. Just go do something else. You can tell when this is happening to me because I'll get on Twitter on the morning. That's me giving up.

There are other related topics, including word count---you've probably heard that you should write over 1,000 words a day for example; I average over 6200 and often hit 10,000 words before noon---or about the amount of time you need to spend on something to become truly good at it. The keyboard I prefer, and why. The software I use. And more.

We can explore those later. For now, just make a schedule and try to keep it. This is fundamental.