This post is dedicated to my deepest influence: My mother.
She once asked me how I manage to get some much done on my writing. I honestly didn’t know how to answer that question because I hadn’t sat down and codified what I was doing to get so much work done in the first place.
Step 1: Process
That’s where you start, with knowing what works for you. What do I mean by process? I mean you need to stop doing things automatically and become your very own lab rat. You can’t figure out your process if you never stop to think about it. Rachel Aaron has an excellent book out called 2k to 10k in which she outlines exactly how she moved from being able to do 2k in a day to being able to reliably write 10k. Those are numbers I sometimes aspire to, but the most important part of the entire process is that she sat down and figured out her process. Pick your metrics. In Aaron’s case, she used word count. It’s simple and trackable.
So keep a log of what you do, how you do it, and what your results are from doing that. In this case, good things to know are: When, Where, How Long, and Results. How you keep this log is up to you, but keep the log for a little while such as a couple of weeks. This is especially important if you don’t write every day that you keep your log long enough to make sure of your process. You need data.
In habit formation/productivity, you are the creator and the recipient of everything that goes on. It behooves you to figure out what works for you.
Step 2: Experiment
Once you know your current process, dear lab rat, you can experiment with it to see if doing something else makes you more efficient. If you always write in the same place, MOVE. If you always write with the same devices, change it up. However, one thing you should not change: Don’t move the goalposts. You’re in an experiment and your overall goal shouldn’t change in the middle of the experiment. So don’t go from tracking your word count to making your most important metric time or something silly like that. You’ll ruin your own experiment.
Step 3: Standardize
At this point, you should have multiple points of data telling you what is working and what isn’t. If it isn’t working, axe it. If it is working, figure out how to get more of it. In my case, I write pretty fast, but I need a good half hour to get myself really running on something. Therefore, I schedule my writing sessions to last for at least a half hour. Even if one half hour is all I get in that day. I can write at home or on the go, but I have to have at least a half hour to get my best work in. Maybe your best work is done away from home. Then you’ve got to schedule time to be away from home if you’re going to get your most productive work done. Create and settle into your new process, continue tracking to make sure you’re correct in your data, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
I could end this with step 3 and call my work done, but let’s be honest, you wanna know why 4 steps, right?
Step 4: Optimize
You’re probably thinking, but I already did the hard work and that’s right, you did. You figured out, experimented with, and standardized your process. However, that doesn’t mean you’re finished. In all honesty, you will never be finished, so settle in for the long haul. James Clear states, I’m paraphrasing, “one must standardize before they can optimize”. I can’t be the only person who sees the word optimize and thinks of Optimus Prime, can I? So how, and why, does one bother with step 4?
Firstly, just because it’s working for you now doesn’t mean it will work for you in the future, so you have to be prepared to pivot. It’s a whole lot easier to do when you don’t think things are set in stone in the first place. Speaking of my mother, she’s a schoolteacher. Summer time means travel and continuing education credits, plus a bit more free time than she would normally be afforded. Standardizing her writing life in the summer is one thing, but if she really wants to fly, she’s got to optimize it for the winter/spring/fall when she’s got a lot more to do.
Secondly, incremental changes can make a world of difference. I recently discovered my keyboard still had both legs on it to tilt it at a better angle. This is my newest keyboard, I break them on average about every other year from heavy typing, so I tilted it up and my typing speed increased. Incremental change. You’re looking for the smallest thing that could make a difference. Tilting your keyboard, getting a Bluetooth keyboard, noise canceling headphones, five minutes more on your typing time, all stuff that could potentially change just a little that turns into a lot.
So there you have it: Process, Experiment, Standardize, and Optimize. PESO. You can do it if you’re willing to be a student of yourself and keep records. What gets measured, gets managed is the old business adage.