
“Write Every Day” Is Bad Advice: Hacking the Psychology of Big Projects - msdos
http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/01/13/write-every-day-is-bad-advice-hacking-the-psychology-of-big-projects/
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ivraatiems
The author doesn't seem to understand the difference between motivation and
discipline. He has been successful into tricking himself into a frequent state
of writing motivation. He's very lucky to have done so.

For the rest of us, who aren't so lucky, discipline will have to do. Writing
every day (or every two days, or every week, etc) isn't a about finishing a
project or being the best you can be. It's about making writing a permanent
fixture in your life. The same goes for any other skill.

People imagine the quality gap between things created in bursts of highly
motivated inspiration and things created through slow, at times plodding, hard
work is high. It isn't. If it were, there would be markedly fewer books,
games, movies, etc. out there. By and large, if you're good at something,
you'll still be good at it even if you don't want to be doing it. You might
not be as amazing at it, but you will still have the skill. That's what
practice is for.

~~~
hoodwink
"I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning
at nine o'clock sharp."

-Somerset Maugham

~~~
onion2k
I don't think I understand that quote. Is that Maugham saying you don't
actually need inspiration so you _can_ just sit down and work without it? Or
is he sarcastically saying jobs are badly configured because you _can 't_ just
sit down at nine o'clock and produce something good? It could mean either.

~~~
greyman
I think it is the first - that he doesn't rely on the motivation, and instead
uses discipline.

~~~
stinkytaco
Also that discipline begets motivation. Exercise every day. Pretty soon you
feel bad if you don't exercise.

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munificent
I did the "write every day" thing to finish a book [1] and it worked like a
charm for me.

Sure, it was hard to find time every day. Sometimes I got up early. Sometimes
I stayed up late. Sometimes I squeezed it in on a flight. But I pulled it off.
I had enough flexibility _within_ a day to find a little slice of time.

As far I can, the author advocates the exact same strategy, they just use a
week as their unit instead of a day. I don't see how it's that different
otherwise.

Personally, for me, I think a week is almost too long of a cadence. I've been
exercising lately and I stick to a weekly schedule with that and I find myself
tending to slack until the very end of the week and then cramming it in. A
week is long enough that I don't get really get in the groove and feel like
it's a continuous habit.

But, of course, everyone runs at a different rhythm. Find the one that works
for you.

[1]:
[http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/](http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/)

~~~
coldtea
> _As far I can, the author advocates the exact same strategy, they just use a
> week as their unit instead of a day. I don 't see how it's that different
> otherwise._

By being far easier to pull off, and thus less prone to slipping and
demotivation?

Quantitative changes often lead to qualitative differences

~~~
munificent
> By being far easier to pull off

If that were true, I suppose that would be a good argument in favor of a
different cadence. But I don't see that the author presents a compelling case
for that.

> less prone to slipping and demotivation?

As others here noted, having a rigid work schedule isn't about motivation,
it's about discipline. Motivation is easy. Every aspiring writer has piles of
it. J. K. Rowling is beloved by almost the entire world and is a billionaire.
Few roles are held in esteem as much as being a successful published writer,
and many dream of an idealized full-time writing life of quietly sitting next
to the window with their typewriter/laptop/pen and paper sipping tea while
they craft their next opus.

What's hard is _discipline_ —the willpower to translate that motivation into
the grinding work of carving out sentences for hours on end. A schedule helps
with _that_.

I'm personally not convinced that a longer schedule cadence makes discipline
easy. My experience is that it tends towards the opposite. A longer period of
reckoning gives you more time to procrastinate and get out of the habit of
doing the work.

A day might be too short for many—it _is_ hard to keep up—but I think a week
might be too long for even more.

> Quantitative changes often lead to qualitative differences

Yes, I totally agree. However, the author doesn't seem to realize that's what
he was arguing.

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Broken_Hippo
I think either the me or the author misunderstand the advice. Writing everyday
(or for me, painting/drawing) isn't really about finishing the novel, blog,
painting, etc. that you have as an actual goal.

The daily writing or painting or [insert thingy here] is more about practice
and getting momentum and letting ideas grow. If you want to write, being
creative while writing about your day or your dreams gets the mind going and
gives lots of practice on how to describe things and paying attention to
details so that when you are working on your novel or blog, your brain slips
into the mode much easier. It all helps. I do this with painting and drawing,
and my "effortful" works are better for them.

~~~
spaceman10
I agree. I keep a journal, which used to be a daily practice for the past 2
years up until April. The reason for the change was that my morning routine
was swapped around.

When I was writing daily, it was to capture moments and ideas that were sure
to be forgotten. When Writing I don't pretend that it will be a great work at
some point. I write because it is satisfying to me and at times my mind will
wander when writing; it is at these times that I find really interesting ideas
to capture my imagination... and I write them down.

Now, with a different schedule, I write every 2 or 3 days and it is still
meaningful and expressive.

My perspective on the article is that the author was really excited about what
worked for them... but failed to consider that everyone has a different
approach. I think they are right that you need to be fluid; and use that to
try different approaches to writing consistently and finding your muse. Most
importantly... find a way to enjoy the work.

~~~
criddell
Just out of curiosity, do you write with paper and pen or do you have a
journal.txt file somewhere?

I suspect there's something about the mechanics of writing that is more
beneficial, but I can type at about twice the speed that I can write...

~~~
spaceman10
I couldn't agree more with your sentiment on the mechanics. By using a
physical object to manipulate the medium, I am slowed down; where with typing
I am a blur of output.

With the manipulation of pen and paper, I have to think slower and hold onto
an idea in a different manner; my thoughts have to be thought about.

------
jdbernard
This is another one of those articles where some person explains why their
interpretation of some aphorism failed to work for them. The problem, of
course, is that they are interpreting the advice differently than intended and
they are generalizing their personal experience and understanding of their own
motivations. People are not all the same. Some of this advice I agree with,
but some of the strategies that the author claims have given him success have
failed for me.

For example:

 _the problem is not your productivity, it’s instead that your mind is not yet
sold that you know how to succeed with your general goal of becoming a
writer._

Convincing my mind that I know how to succeed is not a problem I have. I'm
very arrogant and I believe there is nothing I cannot do if I set my mind to
it and have adequate time. My problem is that my mind prefers short term
satisfaction via diversion rather than the long term reward of hard work. So
for me his advice if absolutely backwards. If allow myself to be flexible with
when I write/work then I'll never get anything done, because, hey, I can
always cram later and get it done. For me, setting up a habit, "Write/do X
every day," is good advice. I just need to force myself through the first 10
minutes and then from there I'll get lots done.

Btw, the kernel of truth he is missing from the "write everyday" advice is
like others have mentioned: regular practice makes you better. The goal isn't
to make forward progress on your one big project everyday, it is to get some
form of practice in every day. Write _something_ every day.

------
Bartweiss
What stands out to me is that the author has correctly identified a problem,
but provides an unsupported solution that has failed for a lot of people.

I'm going to push Duhigg's _Power of Habit_ here as a somewhat more rigorous
treatment of these ideas. Duhigg, I think, would agree that "write every day"
is an awful plan. His solution, though, would not be "write when you feel like
it". Rather, it would be to establish a clear, reliable _trigger_ for when to
sit down and write.

"Every day" is the sort of standard that leaves you staring at a blank page at
midnight, debating whether to just go to bed. "In the quiet stretch after
dinner and dishes", by contrast, gives you a clear cue to do your task. It
also averts the problem of falling of the bandwagon - if you go out to dinner,
or work late and skip the meal, you never got your cue and don't have to
record a 'failure' of your system.

It's certainly the case that never-fail systems are fragile and unproductive;
until the habit is ingrained they tend to collapse altogether at the first
interruption. But the solution isn't to abandon scheduling, it's to learn what
good, proactive scheduling looks like.

------
DanielBMarkham
I skimmed, so maybe I missed it, but I feel like this author doesn't
understand the "write every day" advice.

You write everyday to _become a better writer_ , not necessarily to finish a
project. So spend an hour or so writing and editing every day for a few
months. You'll learn your style, which mistakes you make, when you're in the
best mood to write, and so on.

Being a person who spends far too much time online, I easily write an hour
everyday. And I usually go back and edit myself. Once a week or so, I'll go
into a long explanation. I think this is the kind of writing King is talking
about. (I should probably do this daily instead of weekly.)

While I'm used to short and medium format writing -- up to 5-10K words or so
-- I find that true long format writing is an entirely different animal.
Shorter work feels more creative. Longer work feels more like a project. Not
only am I not going to be done even if I pound out 10,000 words tomorrow, I
might not even be very much closer to done than before I started.

This article seems to address these feelings. For that it looks like a good
read. But write every day. Read every day. Just don't participate in a project
death march with your writing. Instead write and read on topics you are
passionate about. _Then_ pick up the project work.

------
projectramo
Well, the advice to "write every day" is usually accompanied by other advice
as well.

Something like: even if it is just a little bit before bed, or a little bit
here or there.

The author seems to think it needs to be a lot, but I think part of the idea
is:

1\. You can write just a little bit, and that is okay.

2\. Once you get started, you tend to keep going.

3\. Finding the space, setting up the computer, getting your fingers on the
keyboard and starting to type is a large barrier so once you overcome that you
keep going.

4\. There is built in gamification in terms of how many days you can go
without breaking the chain. In that context, even typing in one line on your
mobile can count.

5\. Your unconscious will work on the idea if you are aware of it, even if you
aren't actively working.

I'm not saying all of these are true (though I believe in the first 4 at
least), I'm saying that the advice is usually part of a whole workflow and
view of the writing process.

------
lqdc13
"To leverage the psychology of your brain, you need to instead choose clear
goals that you clearly know how to accomplish, and then approach scheduling
with flexibility."

What if the goals are unclear or you don't know how to accomplish them? If the
clear plan is to make goals clear, then you might as well put that on the
schedule and work on it for the allotted amount of time. Hence "write every
day".

Chekhov tied himself to the chair as an act of self-discipline and wrote at
least one page a day. This seems to have worked well for him.

~~~
xyzzy4
If you have a job, your main goal should be to do things that make your boss
satisfied, and prevent yourself from getting the axe.

If you don't have a job, your goals will be more ambiguous.

~~~
greyman
> your main goal should be to do things that make your boss satisfied

Yes, but only during those working hours. Outside of the work, you can have
another goal which could be even more "main".

------
cmdr2
Disclaimer: I'm a work-in-progress like everyone else. What's written below
may seem obvious to most folks here, but it still is a daily battle for me,
and will likely be for the rest of my life.

\--

Quote: "Here’s what happens when you resolve to write every day: you soon slip
up."

Quote: "the brain does not necessarily distinguish between your .. abstract
goal, to write a novel, and the accompanying specific plan, to write every
day"

Quote: "When the specific plan fails, the resulting lack of motivation infects
the general goal as well"

\--

I'd rather address this behavior of the brain, instead of throwing out the
baby with the bathwater. Strategically, it makes more sense to simply shrug
off every failed day, and trying to write again the next day, as if nothing
happened. Don't even bother to reflect on it (in order to learn) - you've
already absorbed some lessons subconsciously. Keep the for..loop light.

Even if you've failed for the past 1000 days, why not attempt to write today?

Even if you fail to write today, why not try to write again tomorrow? Taking
these failures as a personal judgment ("Oh I'm a procrastinator", "Oh I'm
always going to keep procrastinating and failing, what's the point?") is the
real problem. Life is chaotic, stuff happens. Managing that emotional
response, and simply coming back in every day and trying seems optimal. A bit
like a mostly-dumb but relentless bull.

What do you have to lose? The worst case is you'll fail at the goal, but the
default state of any goal is failure - only by working at it do you reduce the
odds of it failing. So just going back in each day and trying, and not taking
failed days as personal judgments seems optimal. We tend to forgive others,
but not ourselves. If a close friend of yours was failing each day but really
wanted to accomplish the goal, what would you advise them?

------
ggggtez
I have to disagree. It's like this person doesn't know about nanorimo. I'm
certain many successful writing projects would never have been finished
without the advice to write everyday.

------
egypturnash
I spent four years writing and drawing a graphic novel. My method was not so
much "work every day" as "work most days"; my official schedule was "aim for
two pages a week, don't fret if life gets in the way".

Most days, I got in an hour or two on it. Some days I spent more. Some days I
spent less. Sometimes I'd stop for a week or two due to things like "needing
to recharge after selling at a comic convention". But it was a constant part
of my life. When I took a break, I'd start missing it after a few days, and be
glad to get back to it.

I'd trained myself to feel rewarded whenever I finished a page. This broke
down at the end of the book, when I had to draw a few pages that had an order
of magnitude more panels on them. A death in the family around this time also
knocked me out of this comfortably productive rut. I'm finally getting around
to finishing off that project by doing a kickstarter to print the last part of
it, and really looking forwards to getting to work on my next books. Because I
miss those habits of just _getting pages drawn_.

I think that a crucial part of getting big projects done is finding some way
to keep feeling like you've Done Something on a regular basis - you may not
have finished the whole thing, but you've finished a definable segment of it.
It's also really important to _forgive yourself_ for unproductive days.
Because shit happens, and sometimes dealing with it takes up all your energy;
beating yourself up for not working yesterday instead of shrugging, accepting
that you're one day's work behind now, and getting back to it, just wastes
more energy.

------
exolymph
I'm always amazed by how many people universalize instead of saying "this
particular motivational phrase / piece of advice didn't work for me"

~~~
stinkytaco
This puts into words what I was trying to put together into a thought.

I'm glad he found a system that works and I'd even like to hear about that
system (productivity porn), but to say it's bad advice? This isn't science,
there's not objective "good" or "bad" advice like "exercise every day" or
"don't eat too much sugar" where you've got some real data to back up that
advice. It's work. If it works for you, great.

------
weeksie
Write every day is great advice. It works because you have to be sitting in
the chair if you want to have any output. You don't build an app by waiting
for the inspiration to strike, you instead show up the office five days per
week, six to eight hours per day, and build stuff.

As for slip-ups, uh, well, it happens. If you're so rigid that missing a day
of writing screws up your entire plan and you give up on your book project
then maybe you're not really that into the idea of writing. See: skipping a
day at the gym, having a sick day at work.

I'm all for reducing cognitive overhead and using clever productivity hacks
but at some point it's just necessary to _do the fucking work._

------
EGreg
Actually it can be great:

[http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-
sec...](http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-secret-fixed-
my-procrastination-problem)

------
fazkan
its funny, but in his book "Deep work", the author points that many successful
writers schedule deep work to make it easy to execute. Plus in daily rituals
by mason curry, I see almost all of successful writers use some sort of
schedule to write or create everyday. I myself have tried his weekly approach
and as many of the comments mentioned above, I kept pushing it of till the
weekends. I think the point is valid and each person is on a different level,
but "write every day" ISNT NECESSARILY A BAD ADVICE....

~~~
fazkan
I think the point coinsides with the fact from GTD that our brains need to see
the next actionable steps, not just spend two hours. So I find it helpful to
write "find out about undefined behaviour", instead of writing "spend two
hours: research for article"....

