Month: August 2008

Drawing the Line

August 7, 2008 /

In order to carve out time for writing, sometimes you have to draw the line and cut off the email spigot. How?

How? As this 43 Folders article says, this include finding automation and economies of scale. Some examples:

  • add info on your Contact page explaining what people can expect from you
  • use auto-responses and email template sstating when you are away or can't be reached
  • where necessary send short responses to clarify when you’ll be available again

It's all about setting expectations.

2 Hours + 2 Hours is Not Equal to 4 Hours

August 7, 2008 /

A great quote from Stephenson’s “Why I am a Bad Correspondent” -- why writing is hard work requiring long, uninterrupted spans of time:

Writing novels is hard, and requires vast, unbroken slabs of time. Four quiet hours is a resource that I can put to good use. Two slabs of time, each two hours long, might add up to the same four hours, but are not nearly as productive as an unbroken four. If I know that I am going to be interrupted, I can’t concentrate, and if I suspect that I might be interrupted, I can’t do anything at all. Likewise, several consecutive days with four-hour time-slabs in them give me a stretch of time in which I can write a decent book chapter, but the same number of hours spread out across a few weeks, with interruptions in between them, are nearly useless.