Gabor Hosszu:
Raymond Chandler’s secret productivity hack
The late fiction writer Raymond
Chandler was convinced,
that a good writer writes at least 4
hours a day.
To fulfil this he scheduled uninterrupted
time every day, where he was
supposed to do his writing.
He often struggled with this, like
many of us struggle in a similar
situation.
Have you ever tried to
spend 4 hours of focused work time in
one sitting?
It is nearly impossible.
He often found himself reading books or
writing letters instead
of working on his novels.
(Let’s face it, most of the time it is
easier to do something else than to do
the task we scheduled.)
This infuriated him, as he made less
progress or the desired
progress took more time.
He decided to come up with one
simple rule to solve this problem.
This rule became the
best productivity hack I’ve ever heard.
The rule was simple. He knew that you
should not force writing.
If you are not in the mood, you don’t
have to write.
But you are
not allowed to do any other activity
either.
So, he gave himself
two options:
1. I may write, but it is not
mandatory,
2. Not do anything else.
What does “Not do anything else” means?
It means you
are not allowed to do anything
productive (another task,
housework, paperwork…) or anything
that helps time fly
(surfing the web, checking your phone,
reading the news,
writing emails…).
You may look out
the window, walk up
and down in your room etc.
The rule basically says Writing or Nothing.
Of course, it
works with everything else as well like
Homework or Nothing
and Promote or Nothing, not just
writing.
Some literature even
calls this rule the Nothing Alternative.
It sounds super simple
I know, but here me out.
Why does this rule work and how to
apply it?
This seemingly easy rule works on many
levels. Here are just a few:
• First of all, you have a choice. This
gives you the feeling of
freedom, which is rare when working.
• Your mind won’t feel forced to work.
Forced work is never efficient work.
• You’ll realise that doing nothing is
boring. The only thing
that is less boring than nothing is
working.
Applying this rule will help you deal
with procrastination
and spend your scheduled time productively.
It does require
some discipline and willpower, so the
best is to get rid of the
temptations around you.
Here are some examples:
• Make sure you won’t get interrupted
by others,
• Turn off your phone (aeroplane mode
or notifications off),
• Close the unnecessary tabs in your
browser (or the whole browser),
• Get rid of newspapers, magazines and
books from your workspace.
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They are free to download at:
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