Metadata
- Author: Hillary Rettig
- Full Title:: The 7 Secrets of the Prolific
- Category:: đź“šBooks
- Finished date:: 2014-01-01
Highlights
From: “It’s 10:00 a.m. and I don’t feel like working on my novel.” (Skipping: “What’s wrong with you? How can you be so lazy? Etc.”) To problem definition: “Okay, so I don’t feel like writing—what’s going on? (Location 242)
What we can safely say is that the prolific tend to solve their problems in less time—and usually, much less time—than procrastinators, many of whom tend to do more dithering (unproductive worrying, complaining, etc.) than actual solving. (The reason for that will become clear in Section 1.8). (Location 262)
Section 1.7 Write Out Your Snarl (Location 402)
in denial, as is someone who gives up on other important priorities because he thinks writers should live only for their writing. (Location 463)
Procrastination deceives us by mimicking productive work; and, as you will see, there is no shortage of ways for it to do so. The graduate student who researches his thesis to death but never gets around to writing it is a victim of the “deceit” (Location 473)
In all of these cases, the writer will easily justify the procrastination—much more easily than, say, if she were playing video games all day. (Location 483)
The solution, in many cases, is not to stop doing those other activities (Location 485)
People often procrastinate when they’re scared to make a decision, (Location 503)
perfectionism that makes these decisions scary, because the perfectionist believes she MUST GET IT RIGHT. A non-perfectionist, in contrast, would just stick in the first word/car/city that came to mind, (Location 507)
So, practice making quick—even immediate—decisions while writing, and in other areas of your life. Many decisions get delayed because they require just a bit of thought, (Location 510)
know that wrong decisions are inevitable. They therefore don’t dwell on or punish themselves for their mistakes, but simply try to rectify them (Location 515)
it’s far better to make a lot of quick decisions, including some wrong ones, then to agonize over every decision to the point where your productivity grinds to a halt. (Location 516)
The voice of perfectionism is always wrong, and you should never listen to it. In fact, the work of overcoming procrastination is largely the work of learning to ignore it. (Location 622)
G randiosity, or the delusion that you’re special and/or don’t have to follow the normal rules governing productivity and success, underpins nearly every aspect of perfectionism. (Location 625)
What I do know is that, for most writers, a strategy based on pain and deprivation is not a route to productivity. In fact, it is more likely a route to a block. (Location 645)
Even absent a self-sacrificial imperative, the idea that writing is a holy mission is fundamentally antiproductive, since it raises impossible expectations and puts huge pressure on the writer (see the Labels section of Section 2.7). Partly for that reason, partly because they are focused on their quotidian work as opposed to fantasies of success, and partly because they are focused on internal rewards (Section 2.4), the prolific tend to see their writing not as some kind of holy mission but their “work,” “craft,” or even “job”: (Location 656)
The idea that grandiosity fuels perfectionism always shocks perfectionists, who tend to think their problem is low self-esteem. But it’s grandiosity that causes the shame and low self-esteem by constantly setting goals and conditions the writer can’t possibly live up to. (Location 670)
How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. (Location 677)
Far better to do what most prolific writers do and enjoy the external rewards when they come, but derive most of your satisfaction from the act of writing and the creativity-centered lifestyle you build around it. (Location 706)
even if they admit they need to write drafts, they tend to grossly underestimate the number it takes to get to the final. (The correct answer is “as many as it takes.”) (Location 723)
Along with clouding your vision, negativity also prevents you from seeking help, either because you see your situation as hopeless, or don’t think others will respond. And, in fact, negativity often does repel others—and particularly the kinds of successful and grounded people you need as mentors. (Location 797)
Perfectionist psychology inclines strongly toward one “solution”: coercion. So, in the face of a problem, the perfectionist is unlikely to come up with anything better than, “Just cope, dammit.” (Location 812)
“chaining yourself” to a specific location, procedure, or part of the project (Section 5.4) sends a powerful message of disempowerment, which creates fear that can, in turn, lead to yet more disempowerment, and an urgent need to escape via procrastination. (Location 820)
Examples of good labeling would be to call writing “my job,” and the particular piece of writing you’re working on an “experiment” or “early draft,” since those labels tend to ease your fears around your writing. But most of the labels perfectionists use increase their fears, and are thus antiproductive, including those that deem your project to be “hard,” “important,” (Location 824)
True, some projects are more important than others. But that shouldn’t matter while you’re writing. Prolific writers learn to lose themselves nonjudgmentally in their work, trusting that their skills, their community, and the writing process itself will get them where they need to go. (Location 828)
Shortsightedness. Perfectionists tend to elevate their current project to supreme importance, so that finishing it becomes a matter of life or death. (Location 845)
Bosses are often perfectionist, (Location 915)
those who see us as “resources” to be exploited rather than human beings with full lives. (“It’s too bad your kid is sick, but I still need you to come in today.”) (Location 916)
Cultivate a Mindset of Compassionate Objectivity Develop the Habit of Abundant Rewards and No Punishments Arrive at a More Mature Understanding of Failure and Success Use the Three Productivity Behaviors Build Your Capacity for Fearless Writing via Timed Writing Exercises Choose the Right Project Learn to Balance the Creative and Non-Creative Aspects of Your Career (Location 991)
It is possible to acknowledge mistakes without taking on a mantle of shame—and (Location 1044)
If you can’t think of anything to write in your project, then write about it: note-taking, organizing, outlining, and editing are all okay. No research, though: you need to be writing, not reading, during this time. (Location 1212)
Also, no pondering, particularly at the beginning of writing sessions. Pondering isn’t writing. If you’re stuck, either write about the problem, or leave a blank and start writing on another part of the project. This is especially true for the beginnings of writing sessions; some people—and, especially, many graduate students—like to have a “big think” before getting started, but they should just start writing, and let the writing catalyze their thinking. (Location 1214)
Your inner perfectionist is likely to be fiercely critical of a decision to start small, calling up some of her deadliest arsenal, including “trite,” trivial,” “unambitious,” “pathetic,” or even “a waste of time.” You can, in fact, measure the effectiveness of your strategy by the vehemence of her attack: the stronger it is, the more directly you are tackling your perfectionism. So: (a) congratulations! (b) dialogue intensively with the perfectionist to help alleviate her fears, and (c) stay the course. (Location 1258)
In a way, the goal of all writing projects should be to “get the hell out.” You don’t simply want to finish; you want to finish as quickly and easily as possible (without undue stress or pressure, of course) so that you can move on to the next project—or, the rest of your life. Perfectionist people, when I tell them this, think I’m saying they should compromise on quality, but I’m not: I’m talking about working efficiently and not succumbing to either perfectionism or the grandiose idea that for a work to be good, it must be the product of an arduous struggle. (Location 1278)
“I’ve learned that it is best not to think about readers while I’m writing. I just try to sink into the world I’m describing. But at the very end, of course, I have to think about readers. I read my final draft pretending I’m someone else, just to make sure that what I’ve written makes sense from outside.” (Location 1322)
In fact, I’ve never met anyone underproductive who wasn’t also under-mentored. (Location 1749)
Avoid perfectionist, harsh, or capricious mentors no matter how brilliant, important, connected, or otherwise potentially beneficial: the risk of toxic rejection is too great (Location 1762)
Online groups can be fantastic, but they are no substitute for joining an in-person group. Many prolific writers travel fifty or more miles to their local group’s monthly meetings, which gives you an idea of how much they value them. (Location 1787)
Savvy people also know that mentoring is one of the best ways to develop their own skills and strengths, (Location 1797)
The experimenters concluded that “ethics becomes a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases.” In fact, it’s not just our ethical capacity that diminishes when we’re rushed; many important capacities do, including our abilities to think, judge, decide, focus, remember, and relate. Moment by moment, when we’re rushed, we’re simply not the people we’re capable of being. (Location 1923)
The purpose of time management isn’t to stuff as much as possible into your schedule, but to remove as much as possible from your schedule so you have time to get the important stuff done to a high degree of quality, and with as little stress as possible. (Location 1961)
There is no such thing as unmanaged time. If you don’t manage your own time, others will be happy to manage it for you. (Location 1963)
Replenishing recreation is typically active and/or engaging. It typically connects you with others, the environment, and/or even parts of your personality you don’t ordinarily get to connect with. It often supports your other investments (e.g., your health or writing or relationships), and leaves you happy and fulfilled. Examples include sports, socializing, art, crafts, and many outdoor activities like hiking or gardening. (Location 2036)
many people resort to escapist recreation after long and exhausting days or weeks, when they feel they don’t have the energy to be active or creative. In that case, escapist recreation is serving as a “band-aid” covering up serious problems with the person’s lifestyle; also, it’s correlated with depression and physical health problems. (Location 2053)
“Television- and Screen-Based Activity and Mental Well-Being in Adults,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, (Location 2072)
Time-Management Principle #3: The things you invest quality time in are the things you will improve at or succeed at, and the things you don’t are the things you won’t. (Location 2079)
turning off the TV (try radio instead!), (Location 2255)
You’ll probably wind up giving up activities that you enjoy, or that others value, or that make you feel important or special, or that are entrenched habits or vehicles for procrastination. You’ll almost certainly be moving outside your comfort zone, and perhaps letting go of a grandiose attachment to being a super-worker or prodigious helper (see Sections 4.8 and 4.9). Make no mistake: these changes are all positive. But they can be hard to get through. Be extremely kind and patient with yourself throughout the budgeting process, and give yourself abundant Rewards (Section 2.11). (Location 2261)
Build in plenty of self-care, recreation, and planning and management time. Also, allot generous travel and preparation time between activities. The time-budget must always be a realistic reflection of your human needs and constraints. (Location 2269)
In fact, it’s incredibly important that you do specialize—or, more specifically, aim to spend as much of your time as possible doing your high-value activities: (Location 2286)
Can a freewriting-based process work even for complex or intellectually sophisticated work? Absolutely—because you’re not suspending your intellect when you free write, you’re unleashing it. (Location 2573)
Freewriting, in fact, solves a common problem graduate students (and some others) have when they write, which is that they sit and wait for a “good idea” or “good sentence” to come before starting to write (see the “pondering” section of Section 2.14). Leaving aside the fact that their notion of a “good idea” is probably perfectionist, and hence unlikely to be achieved, this process is actually the opposite of what prolific writers do, which is to just start writing, and use the writing process to facilitate thinking. (Location 2576)
Don’t struggle with it! Just move on to another, easier section. Or, go back to the conceptualization, planning, or research stages of the project (Section 5.4). (Location 2581)
You don’t even stop to try to recall a word or fact; (Location 2598)
Writing might sometimes be difficult, but it should never be unpleasant; if it is unpleasant—if you’re feeling frustrated, bored or stuck—that’s not an indication of any deficiency on your part, but simply the signal to move to another part of the project, or another project. While it’s okay to practice “writing past the wall,” i.e., sticking with a difficult section a bit longer than comfortable, don’t perfectionistically dig in your heels and become an antagonist to yourself and your process. (Location 2618)
I recommend moving back to conceptualization, planning, outlining, or drafting, but not research because it is a frequent vehicle for procrastination. (Location 2671)
T here’s a natural tendency to start each writing session by revisiting the beginning of your piece, which means that the beginning tends to get overworked. (Location 2683)
Reading aloud, either to yourself or to others, is another powerful technique. When I do it, I usually find an excruciating number of painfully obvious errors that I somehow missed through twenty silent readings. (Location 2699)
Avoid information-centered activities such as email, reading (Web or paper), or television, which often don’t represent a real break from mind-work, and which are also often vehicles for procrastination. (Location 2727)
Expand on recalcitrant stuff. If you’re having trouble with a piece, try writing about it as expansively as possible. Often when we stall, it’s because we’re trying to force too much meaning into too small a space, or conflateing two or more points that need to be handled separately. (Location 2746)
Delete recalcitrant stuff. The other solution for recalcitrance is, paradoxically, to delete. If a section simply can’t be made right, then try jettisoning what you’ve written and either rewriting it from scratch, or seeing if the piece works without it. (Which it does a lot of the time.) Jettisoning is one of writing’s great pleasures, so enjoy it. Ignore any perfectionist voices telling you, “You worked so hard and now you’re deleting it! So much wasted time!” False starts, detours, and dead ends are ordinary parts of a healthy and uninhibited creative process. (Location 2749)
No one can move in two directions at once; and if, when you’re trying to write, a part of you is thinking that writing is selfish, futile, etc., that part will work in opposition to your productivity (Section 6.5). (Location 2825)
even the tiniest bit of ambivalence can hold you back. (Location 2900)
If a part of you actually believes you’re “taking too long” to finish your book or thesis, or that writing is a waste of time when it doesn’t earn any money, then any hint to that effect from someone else is bound to hurt. (Location 3092)
Joni B. Cole says, “It’s wrong to be brutally honest when you give feedback because any kind of brutality is just an excuse to take out your own failures on somebody else.” (Location 3187)
All this raises yet another key difference between underproductive people and the prolific: underproductive people tend to remain way too long in unproductive situations or relationships, while the prolific, in contrast, are quick to exit them. The prolific also understand that once in a while they’ll leave a situation they should have stayed in; they’re okay with that because they know no one makes perfect decisions. They also know that opportunities are abundant, and so another one will eventually come along—in contrast to perfectionists, who tend to think opportunities are scarce and therefore cling to even unproductive situations. (Location 3329)
My goal, however, was not publication, which was still too scary a thought. My goal was a hundred rejections in a year. (Location 3377)
Avoid the temptation to isolate. As you know from Chapter 6, that only compounds the shame and deprives you of resources. You need your community now more than ever. (Location 3404)
You get sour; you drink too much wine; you stop reading because everything you read makes you even more sour; you go on diatribes against successful young writers in the kitchens at parties. You definitely are not working out. Eventually you wear a hole in one of the elbows of your bathrobe and instead of taking it off, you think, “That makes sense. It’s nice to have a little air circulating around. They should make all the bathrobes this way.” What she’s describing actually sounds less like acceptance and more like learned helplessness, (Location 3583)
Don’t overplan. A two- or three-page document that you consult and update regularly will help enormously in keeping you on track. (Location 3847)
If a part of you is thinking marketing is weird, pushy, or a distraction from your “real” work, please do some journaling around those ambivalences, because they will hold you back. (Location 3904)
Twenty-first-century marketing, however, is all about interactivity, reciprocity, and community-building. It’s about asking for people’s opinions—even (Location 3906)
Start marketing before you finish the book. In fact, before you begin it. Start now! (Location 3972)
Sell services and products other than books. Teach. Coach. Edit. Also, if you can figure out how to sell non-book products based on your writing, like t-shirts,7 that’s even better. (Location 4020)
Join a committee. Forge ties with other faculty members, as well as postdocs, other grad students, and administrators. Don’t isolate yourself, even if (especially if!) you’re behind on deadlines. Building a broad base of support in and beyond your department is not only a good career move but gives you protection in case your advisor becomes problematic. (Location 4269)
mimicking productive work (Section 1.8). The “educational procrastinator” always seems to believe that it’s the next degree or certificate that will greatly improve his odds of employment, so getting that degree always seems like the right idea. (Location 4514)