3 tools that could make you a more productive writer
Maybe too much of my time is spent making cartoons of myself
There is a whole industry developed around the topic of productivity. Typically a ‘thought-leader’ will advocate a particular system of working that they use (it’s often debatable that they do…) and if followed will boost your output by x% and so unlock the door to your dreams. I’ve tried many of these systems myself. Why wouldn’t I? Its a formula for getting more done, who wouldn’t want that? The problem is that the ‘one size fits all’ approach just doesn’t work. People are different, what motivates them is different, what distracts them is different, and perhaps most crucially the work they’re doing is different. What works for improving output for non-creative tasks is unlikely to be successful for an artistic endeavour like writing, and what works for one writer won’t work for another. In recognition of that, this article is going to concentrate solely on a few free tools and that could help you as a writer.
Of course the irony is that time spent researching productivity is time you aren’t being particularly productive… so I’ll keep it short.
1. Evernote
Evernote is a fantastic tool, particularly for the disorganised amongst us. It’s essentially a digital notebook on which you can record your thoughts, take photographs, store web-links and scan documents across all your devices. It reads text from photos and scans to save you duplicating work, and means you can simply take a picture of a whiteboard session or a business card and have the contents forever stored. Everything on Evernote is fully searchable, so if you don’t enjoy filing documents you can simply keep one continuous note and tag each entry. For example, I might tag all my sketch ideas ‘SI’ and then I can simply search for that term whenever I want to review them. This has been great for me because I’m not an avid organiser but if you are, Evernote does gives you the facility to create separate documents.
Evernote is useful for writers because we never know when inspiration may come. The fact that it works across all platforms means that you can use phone or tablet when you’re on the move to make sure you record an idea as it comes to you. It even has voice recognition that allows you to talk through an idea and have it recorded for you to revisit later. Like the Partridge dictaphone this ensures you have one place for all your best ideas…
Jet from Gladiators to host a millennium barn dance at Yeovil aerodrome.
— Alan’s Dictaphone (@AlansDictaphone) July 14, 2011
Evernote is free up to 60 mb, beyond that there are paid plans, but so far I’ve found the free version to do everything I need.
2. Freedom
Writing is often a sole pursuit and being your own master can lead to numerous, tempting distractions, particularly with the abundance of social media feeds available. Freedom is an application that removes the temptation by blocking sites that you tell it to for a set period of time. It’s highly customisable and effective – the only way you can override it is by rebooting your computer, which few can be bothered to do.
This works for me for short periods of time when I want to concentrate but it is a commitment device, and these don’t work for everyone. A commitment device requires you, during a period of rational thinking, to recognise what you should be doing and set systems in place to make sure you follow through. Essentially its the logical part of your brain trying to outsmart the more instinctive part (if you’re interested in learning more about commitment devices I strongly recommend this Freakonomics podcast).
Freedom has a free version which, similar to Evernote, has all the functionality I need, but if you have serious procrastination issues you may have to look at the paid plan.
3. The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro technique is based upon the idea that by breaking work into 25 minute intervals with short breaks in between we can avoid burnout and be more productive. I like it because it provides structure, and I need that to discipline myself. Where I find this method particularly useful is on those mornings where I know there’s a piece that I’m struggling to write and against my better judgement I look for ways to avoid it. The Pomodoro method breaks it into a small, attainable chunk of time – and this makes it far less intimidating to get started on. Invariably I find that once I’m into it, it isn’t anywhere near as problematic as I first envisioned, and the hardest bit was overcoming that initial inertia and actually getting myself to start. So often writing is just about the process of actually committing thoughts to paper rather than thinking about it.
So what’s the tool here? Well it could just be a stopwatch. If you want to spend an inordinate amount of money of a stopwatch shaped like a tomato then that’s your choice. There are lots of free resources out there that you can turn to to learn more about this method, and an app which does some of the work for you. I’ve listed a couple in the comments section below but I would be lying to say I use anything other than a watch…
To summarise I think the main thing learnt from this blog is that I’m a disorganised, procrastinating, weak minded individual who needs tools to keep me on track. I hope one or two may be useful for you too. If you possess more self control you may find they aren’t required, but in that case what are you reading this article for anyway? Stop time wasting…
Peter Wright