It’s been twelve months since I gave up the day job to give full-time writing a go. And boy, what a year. A global pandemic that we still haven’t climbed our way out of yet. One of the most divisive Presidential elections in the United States of my lifetime. And here in Oregon, devastating forest fires that ravaged many of the small cities east of my hometown, starting just a thirty minute drive from my house.
But with the fires put down, encouraging news on the vaccine front, and an imperfect but at least decent and empathetic human being soon to be in the White House (sorry folks — if you still don’t know what a threat Trump was to our country, please go read about what happened to Hungary, as just one recent example of how a democracy dies) hopefully 2021 will be a better year. Still, it was another reminder that life happens, and sometimes life happens in a big way, and when it does often all you can do is hold onto the raft until you get to smoother waters.
Still, I kept at it throughout it all, and I’ve learned a few things along the way:
1. I’m more at peace being an Internet Minimalist.
A couple months ago, I decided to recommit to being what I call an Internet Minimalist. Unless unavoidable, I don’t get on the Internet or check email until 5 p.m. every day. And yes, I really do mean I don’t go online at all unless there is some specific task that can’t wait; and it turns out that the vast majority of time, it truly can wait. I get my news from NPR via Alexa as I’m brushing my teeth in the morning, so at least I’m aware of any major events, but otherwise I’m completely off-line until 5 p.m. This not only made me a lot more productive, it made me happier, too. I’m still free to do whatever I want online after 5 p.m., and I certainly don’t want to be totally disengaged, partly because I need the Internet for my business, but in practice this translates into me being a lot more efficient online. I’ve read more books, produced a lot more practice drawings, and also started doing the Run of the House cartoon again—so that energy is going where I’d rather it go.
Why 5 p.m.? It’s a “habit stacking” technique I picked up from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. The basic idea is you connect or stack a new habit on top of an existing one. I already have a pretty firm rule that I don’t watch TV or drink alcohol before 5 p.m. It’s so entrenched I don’t think about it much, so adding the “no Internet” rule to it was pretty easy. It also ensures that I’m using my freshest, most productive hours of the day for my creative work. I’d tried using 4 pm in the past, but 5 pm does seem to be working better, so I do think there is something about pairing existing habits that reinforces both of them.
2. Having an easy production quota I followed every day, which I could exceed if I wanted, was better than having a more ambitious quota I only followed five days a week.
When I tailed up my word counts for the last twelve months, I did about 20% more than my best year. It’s not bad, but since I don’t have a day job anymore, I was expecting better— certainly not double, I’ve been doing this too long to expect that, but perhaps 50% more. And then I noticed something else odd: my second best twelve month stretch, the one I’d beaten only by 20%, was actually the first year I got very serious about being a writer. In all those years, I’d never topped that year until now.
Here’s what baffles me. I had a very simple rule I followed that year: write at least 500 words, or for 30 minutes, whatever comes last. I’d gotten fed up with my low productivity and I bought a little digital kitchen timer. I told myself that no matter what, I could always write two pages of fiction. I made it my goal to stay completely focused for the thirty minutes, only checking the word count when the timer went off. (Having the timer actually paradoxically freed me up not to think about the time.) I’ve written about this before, recommended the technique to lots of others, and I’ve come back to it lots of times over the years as a way to jump start myself, but it seemed far too low a production quota for a full-time writer. So I decided to write 10 pages a day instead.
And while that resulted in some big word count months, there were other months where I …wasn’t as productive. Here’s the thing about that first year long ago when I got truly serious: While there were many days I squeaked by with 500 words, there were many, many other days I kept on writing because I was in the flow. Since it was only 30 minutes, I could always find the time for it. No excuses.
I recently went back to the 30/500 rule a couple months ago, and while the jury is still out on whether I’ll produce more, so far I am, while also having more fun. I can quit if I want, after all, and that feeling is very freeing. When I ran into a jam with the bigger book I’m working on, I just started a new story while I was figuring out what to do. I’ve already gotten three short stories that I wouldn’t have written otherwise, and I love the variety, too. Which leads me to …
3. When I stopped thinking of writing as a job, I was not only happier, I worked harder too.
That was the third major lesson I learned in the last year. When I tried to make writing into a 8 to 5, Monday through Friday sort of job, it became exactly that … a job. This added a bunch of emotional baggage that’s not helpful. The only way I could go back to writing every day (as well as cartooning and other creative efforts) was to not to see it as a job, because a job is usually something you do so you can do other things in your spare time. I don’t work a job any more. This is just what I do. It’s what I am. Along those lines, I also decided to just trust myself with the time and not worry too much about the schedule. The production quota has always been the key anyway.
Some weekdays I mow the lawn in the afternoon. Run an errand. Read a book. Walk the dog. Help the kids with their homework. Many Saturdays I write all day long. The point is, there was no reason to give up the day job if I was just going to make this into another day job, and the way I broke free of that mentality was to at least write a little something (two pages) every day. It allowed the joy to flow back in a big way. Rosie is now six months old, and already starting to grow out of some of her puppy behavior that took so much of my energy, but breaking free from the 8-5/M-F mentality also made it easier with her as well. Now, like the 30/500 rule, the jury is still out on whether this is sustainable, but I think it is. When I told writer friend of mine about this, he said, “You mean you never give yourself a day off? My God!” But that misses the point. Why would you need a day “off” from something you love?
While I certainly have to push myself to the keyboard some days, this is no different than, say, a professional basketball player who loves their sport but still has to push themselves now and then to get in the gym and shoot five hundred free throws. You push yourself not because you don’t love what you do, but because you love it so much you want to get really good at it.
A Bit of Whimsy: Me at the Pumpkin Patch
This one was from a little over a month ago, when we visited a nearby pumpkin patch with the kids and Heidi took a few photos. And yes, except for when she took this photo, we were all wearing masks and engaging in good social distancing practices.
Scott Recommends
Defending Jacob by William Landay. As usual, I’m late to the party on Landay’s excellent novel about an assistant district attorney whose own son is accused of a horrific crime: stabbing a classmate to death and leaving his body in a nearby park. Is his son innocent or guilty? And how far would you go to protect your own child? Those are the questions Landay tackles in this riveting legal thriller, which was recently made into a miniseries for Apple TV. I haven’t seen the miniseries, so I can’t vouch for it, but I can say that the narrative voice grabbed me from page one and didn’t let me go.
You’re It! by Alan Watts (the audio book). My daughter described me the other day as nonreligious but still somewhat spiritual. That’s close, but I’d clarify that I’m generally repulsed by religious dogma but open to spiritual thinking — as long as you describe “spiritual thinking” as being intellectually curious about the nature of reality and what it truly means to be human. I stumbled upon the recorded lectures of Alan Watts on YouTube a year ago, a man who described himself as a “philosopher-entertainer,” and was adamant he was not a guru even though many of his ardent fans in the sixties who attended his lectures at college campuses and other venues might have thought of him that way. You’re It! gathers many of his best lectures, and while the format means there’s a little bit of repetition, I found that actually helps drive home some of his main points. If you want just one book, I’d recommend this one, but you can certainly listen to many of his lectures for free on YouTube as I did.
The Mandalorian. Just to prove that I’m not completely out of step with what’s popular right now, let me echo everyone who’s said that the Mandalorian, a show set in the Star Wars universe on Disney Plus about a mercenary (in the same vein as Bobba Fett) and a Yoda-like child, lives up to its billing. Now in its second season, it’s one of those rare shows that our whole family watches together, and there hasn’t been one dud yet. Just pure wide-eyed fun … which is something we all sorely need right now.
