15 minutes

Layla Nahar said:

To rewrite my novel, I've had to start working at home so I can write on the computer. (I had done the draft by hand during my lunch breaks.) I've been at it for several weeks and last week I began tracking how I work in a spreadsheet. I've discovered some interesting things. One is the difference between the time I set to writing & the time I actually write. Generally, I have a point where I begin to have trouble concentrating, I feel agitated and physically uncomfortable and my productivity drops. By tracking as I do, I've found that this happens after about 15 minutes of writing. In those 15 minutes I can write about 70 - 110 words. I can sit in the chair for a whole hour and end up with only a little more than that. It's frustrating.

Has anybody out there dealt with something like this & overcome it to say, sit & work with steady productivity over a longer period of time? I imagine that the way to deal with this is to keep at it, to train myself & build up my endurance, but I'm just curious if anyone out there understands this.

On the other hand, by tracking my labor with an impartial eye, I've discovered that I'm less slow than I thought. I wrote 1050 words last week, but I was quite surprised to find that only worked on the story for about 3hrs 30mins. (Without tracking as I had I would have imagined I had worked more like 10 hours!)

LN

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If you know fifteen minutes is your sweet spot, why not set a timer for that and once it's up, get up and do something else, for, say five or ten minutes. Then go back to writing for fifteen minutes, repeat until your fingers fall off.

I'm trying to juggle studying with writing at the moment. I told myself I wasn't going to write while I'm focusing on school, but I find myself too distracted and almost depressed if I don't. So I've been breaking my study material up into smaller chunks, and every time I complete one, I'll reward myself by writing for ten minutes. Since I've started doing this, I've been a more prolific writer, and better focused on my studies.

So maybe get up and do some housework every fifteen minutes? Let your brain mull over what you want to write, but don't let yourself write it until sit back down for that next fifteen minutes.

StephanieZie said:

I'm trying to juggle studying with writing at the moment. I told myself I wasn't going to write while I'm focusing on school, but I find myself too distracted and almost depressed if I don't. So I've been breaking my study material up into smaller chunks, and every time I complete one, I'll reward myself by writing for ten minutes. Since I've started doing this, I've been a more prolific writer, and better focused on my studies.

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I'm doing the same thing this term. My degree is very reading-heavy, so I plan which things I'm going to read on which days and alternate between academics and writing. Read an article, write until I hit 100 words, read another article, write another 100 words. I wouldn't have thought it would make that much of a difference, but splitting up tasks like this is absolutely brilliant. I find that by the time I'm nearing the end of a reading, I'm excited to start writing, and when I'm lagging at the end of writing, then I'm excited to start reading again. I find I'm much more productive when I've got a lot to do than when I've only got one or two things left!

I find this also helps because you really get a feeling of productivity, and not only on one thing. I find it difficult to settle and write if I've got outstanding concerns, so if I alternate between university work, working on my WIP, doing housework and answering emails, then everything gets easier because it's not all weighing down on me and I'm not sat at my desk thinking about how time's slipping away and nothing's getting done.

Perhaps it's also worth trying that trick where you leave your work in the middle of an scene, idea, or paragraph (I forget which is usually recommended!) so you know you have somewhere to pick up again at the beginning of your next writing session? I don't intentionally do this, but since I aim for 100 words per sprint, it often works out that way, so perhaps it's part of what helps?

saizine said:

I find that by the time I'm nearing the end of a reading, I'm excited to start writing, and when I'm lagging at the end of writing, then I'm excited to start reading again.

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Pretty much exactly what I'm finding.

It's also helping the words flow out better, because instead of sitting down and thinking "Okay, I'm going to write for X number of hours, I have to get this scene finished and polish up the one before it, and work on my outline..." and getting completely overwhelmed, I just set a timer for ten minutes and go at it. Having such a small chunk of time eliminates the pressure to get any "real work" done and I'm able to write a bit more freely.

There's something called the Pomodoro technique that has been around since the 1980s where you set a timer for (traditionally) 25 minutes then take a break (about 5 minutes) and repeat. So...basically what StephanieZie suggested.

Many people swear by this technique, especially for creative endeavours, so give it a try (with 15 minute "pomodori" and perhaps a longer rest period in between) and see if you can successfully transition into repeating the pattern several times. If you can, then you've found something that is functionally equivalent to being able to work steadily for longer periods of time, and that increased productivity is what you're really after, right?

I average five hundred words per hour, five hours per day. I've never worried about how this breaks down, whether one part of the five hours is more efficient that another, whether I'm idle here, more active there. As long as I have 2,500 words at eh end of five hours, I'm a happy camper.

For me, it's all about self-discipline. When I sit down to write, I write. It's a conscious decision.

But I also eliminate all I can that might be distracting. I turn off my phone, I kill the internet, and my work computer has no games on it.

Anxiety strikes the moment I sit down to write, and that makes it difficult to concentrate. Once I'm through exercising procrastination techniques and actually type in a few words, the anxiety lifts. Well, most of the time. After that, assuming there is nothing disastrous or painful going on in my (other) life, I don't have problems with concentration.

I know I should take breaks, so I walk to the kitchen and warm up my coffee often.

I think writing works best when it's a habit. We train our minds and our bodies to do what they do, and how they do it. Fifteen minutes, or fifteen hours, it's just training, consciously or subconsciously.

Train the right way, make it a habit, which means force yourself to write every second of your writing time every day, every day, for at least twenty-one days, and it's amazing how the mind and the body get the message.

Jamesaritchie said:

I think writing works best when it's a habit. We train our minds and our bodies to do what they do, and how they do it. Fifteen minutes, or fifteen hours, it's just training, consciously or subconsciously.

Train the right way, make it a habit, which means force yourself to write every second of your writing time every day, every day, for at least twenty-one days, and it's amazing how the mind and the body get the message.

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Absolutely.
Haha. Thanks for the reminder.

It could very well be the time of day that you're writing. While evening may be the best time for you in terms of time to sit and work, it may not be the best time for you creatively.

2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron was a real eye opener for me.

When I was younger, my prime writing time was 9-11am. Now that I'm older, I'm finding that time has shifted towards later in the day, around 2pm. I realize that work and family schedules usually interfere with that but maybe there's a sweet spot in there that you haven't hit yet in the time you have available. Like, maybe you're starting too soon after getting home/wrapping up your day and your body is still in family action mode. Or maybe that is the perfect time and you're waiting too long before sitting down and your body is now in post-family action mode.

StephanieZie said:

If you know fifteen minutes is your sweet spot, why not set a timer for that and once it's up, get up and do something else, for, say five or ten minutes. Then go back to writing for fifteen minutes, repeat until your fingers fall off.

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Thank you for this! I read it last night and have been trying it today, but I've used the 25 minute idea. It's been brilliant. I've also turned off my e-mails and phone. And I've achieved so much. So just wanted to say, thanks for sharing this brilliant idea - I think it will be a permanent thing for me now!