I’ve said for a long time … writers are magicians.
We make something out of nothing. We take syllables and turn them into dreams, sights, sounds. Calls to action and detailed plans for shenanigans.
And as every magician knows, if you want to perform magic … you have to know a thing or two about ritual.
Nearly every writer I know is a bit superstitious about writing rituals and habits. So this month, our Editor-in-Chief Stefanie Flaxman suggested we share them with you (plus photos of our desks).
I won’t promise that these rituals will make you more creatively productive … but crafting a ritual of your own just might do the trick.
Each member of the editorial team was invited to share their own habits and preferences on the following points:
- Setting
- Time of day
- Beverage
- Tools
- Music or silence?
Stefanie Flaxman, editor-in-chief
Setting: My desk is my favorite place to concentrate on writing.
Time of Day: I like drafting and jotting down notes all day, every day. But my butt-in-chair writing time typically happens in the afternoon, after I’ve already completed my editing work for the day. That routine works for me no matter what type of writing I’m working on, but morning or evening writing sessions definitely happen when the words have already written themselves in my head and I need to get them out.
Beverage: Green tea. Mint tea. Cold-pressed green juice (pictured below). Water.
Tools: MacBook Air and an outline in a Moleskine notebook. If I start a digital draft before sketching out an article in a notebook, it usually takes me longer to tie all of my ideas together.
Music or Silence?: I write with music. Sometimes a topic I’m writing about will inspire me to listen to a specific album. If that doesn’t happen, The Decemberists Radio or Tom Waits Radio on Pandora are my default writing stations. Editing and proofreading happen without background noise.
Chris Garrett, chief digital officer
I have far more resistance to doing planned video where I show my face than I do writing, though I can do webinars, podcasts, or even live streams on short notice.
Setting: I have to sit at my desk with my desktop computer. Nothing else allows me to get in flow.
All social media, bings, beeps, and visitors must be banished. I have the good fortune, now that my role has changed, that it is okay not to be on Slack all the time. I love my colleagues, but the “got a minute” messages always seem to be when I have almost figured something out …
That said, stepping away from the challenge, getting angry at Facebook, then taking a sip of coffee can often reset the noggin to the point where I can have another go at a stubborn piece, too.
Time of Day: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
No lunch until I have made progress. Lunch is for closers. If I have lunch before I have gotten some good progress, then my productivity drops massively. My afternoons are best talking or brainstorming until my second wind at 6:00 p.m., which I am guessing comes from my programming days. I have a third bout of creativity around midnight.
Beverage: Anything coffee, but usually regular Canadian donut store coffee. We walk the dog down to the coffee shop quite often, which in itself sets me up better to be productive.
I have to be caffeinated, though.
Tools: Google Docs. WordPress in Chrome. iMac 27″
Music or Silence?: Silence to write, music to edit (though it can’t have much in the way of discernible lyrics — soundtracks are good, or very instrumental prog rock such as Pink Floyd or Marillion).
Kelton Reid, VP of multimedia production
Whether I’m working on a writing project or multimedia production, my habits and rituals tend to be pretty similar.
Setting: I’ve had great success working in coffee shops on tight deadlines, and studies show that working in a public space somehow motivates one to be more productive (not necessarily more cogent — interesting note there).
But I find that scheduling chunks of time, uninterrupted writing sprints in the privacy of my office with short breaks for coffee and stretching, is most productive if I have enough time to let a project marinate before editing.
I always come back to:
“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” – Stephen King
Time of Day: I’m best first thing in the morning after breakfast and coffee — kid is at school, no one’s in the house kind of early — until lunch.
I will get a second wind of creative flow from 3 to 6 in the evening, and occasionally after 10:00 p.m..
Beverage: Black coffee. Green Tea. No fillers.
Tools: Thoughts that I can capture typically land in a small, pocket notebook that is always nearby, and if deemed useful, find themselves on a yellow legal pad in scrawled, rabid sentences that need to be vaccinated and put on leashes.
Healthy sentences often migrate to a full-fledged outline on 4X6 cards that pile up and must be clipped together. A Google Doc is another favorite for getting them all in one place.
Finally, a blank text document will be opened and a terrible first draft will emerge. A first draft needs air. I generally try to walk away from it as long as possible, and then get some fresh eyes on it before attempting to forge it into something anyone would ever want to read.
Music or Silence?: Ambient music I can ignore on the headphones. (Spotify is home to a lot of music for concentration.) Film soundtracks are great for productivity, as are simple white noise apps with rain and whatnot.
Jerod Morris, VP of marketing
Setting: I prefer to be at my desk, where I have my laptop stand and favorite keyboard, as well as my external monitor. It’s where I’m most comfortable. The only issue is the occasional distraction of a wife and little baby that rarely yield even to closed doors. 🙂 But that’s quite all right. I don’t mind the distraction.
Time of Day: I write best in the morning or late at night. I’m typically at my worst in the early afternoon.
Beverage: Coffee, or if it’s after noon, then water. I’ve tried doing the write-with-a-beer or write-with-a-bourbon thing, but it rarely works.
Tools: MacBook Air. Goldtouch laptop stand. External Apple keyboard. Apple magic mouse. Simple pair of corded headphones (which I usually wear even if no music is playing).
Music or Silence?: When I’m writing, it has to be silence. I can never quite get into the flow when music is playing.
Loryn Thompson, data analyst
I tend to have the same routines for whatever I’m working on, although doing my best work writing often involves a lot fewer distractions, whereas when I’m doing data work and writing reports, I may be able to keep chat open.
Setting: Depends on the time of day. In the mornings I like to be at a quiet coffee shop (preferably where people don’t know me and therefore don’t try to talk to me), and in the late afternoon I prefer to be at home.
Time of Day: Morning (7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.) or late afternoon (4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
Beverage: Cappuccinos or matcha lattes at the coffee shop, tea or coffee at home (with a mug warmer — I can’t drink lukewarm coffee!).
Tools: Laptop with email and chat closed. Sometimes I’ll even turn WiFi off if I know I won’t need it for research. Headphones are required. For my reports I use Google Docs, but when I’m working on a true writing piece I prefer a plain text editor.
And no phone. Having my phone anywhere near me — even just in the room — is a huge productivity killer. I usually leave mine downstairs most of the day, and only check it on breaks.
Music or Silence?: Music, but it can’t be distracting. Either it has to be music I’ve practically memorized or instrumental (more mood/ambient than classical, though).
Sonia Simone, chief content officer
Hey, that’s me!
Setting: Travel has made me pretty flexible about where I work. While I was living in Rome, I had a cute (tiny) IKEA desk wedged into the living room of my apartment. Now I’m back in the States and back at my giant old oak desk — a gift, long ago, from my landlord, who couldn’t fit it onto his moving truck.
My real workspace, though, is my MacBook Air, and sometimes it makes a good break to just sit in a comfy chair or in a coffee shop somewhere. I worked on the couch a lot when I was in Italy.
Time of Day: Shifting time zones recently means I’m re-finding what works best for me. Mid-morning is always good, but that’s often when I’m scheduled for a podcast, or a recorded call for the Authority community or Digital Commerce Academy.
I usually get some good creative time in the afternoon as well, before-dinner rather than after-lunch. And I’ll often get another surge of energy in the evening after dinner.
I admire people who can work early in the morning, but if I’m awake in the early hours, I’m not sentient.
Beverage: Every day must begin with two whole milk cappuccinos. After that, it’s cup after cup of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea. Club soda works if it’s hot outside.
Tools: Previously mentioned MacBook Air is a must. My mic is a Heil PR-40, or if it’s an interview, I use a gamer’s headset mic. I also find it useful to scribble things compulsively in a physical bullet journal (Leuchtturm1917 dot grid, hard cover, blue).
I always write my drafts, which I code in simple HTML markup as I’m writing, in a text editor.
My Fitbit nags me to get up once an hour and walk around a little bit, which seems to be good for my brain as well as helping me stave off various diseases …
Music or Silence?: Never music. If there’s a lot of auditory distraction around, I’ll fire up the rainymood.com site or app and plonk my headphones on.
How about you?
Got any writing rituals? Any special beverages, tools, or audio environments that make the words come?
Let us know in the comments. 🙂
Reader Comments (25)
Ryan Biddulph says
I love seeing these rituals Sonia.
I once was a real cheat. I wrote 90 bite-sized, 6K word, practical eBooks over a 3 month stretch, creating one daily. I had the sweetest little ritual. Wake up. Jump into a cold pool. Meditate. Exercise the dogs. Oh yeah; head down to a little apartment on a huge villa property in Bali LOL. Cheating. But really I have been as prolific here in many ways, here being nosier USA. I even churn out serious wordage in NYC.
The key for me is following my morning high vibing ritual – meditation, ice shower, stretching – and then, I exercise for 45 to 90 minutes daily. Running 10 miles, 2-3 days weekly with some interval training and walking on other days.
If I adhere to this daily wellness regimen and simply find a quiet spot, I am always in the flow. I am not writing eBooks these days but publish 2-4 or more guest posts daily, so the ritual is working A-OK.
Sonia Simone says
Nice! I find a big surge of writing energy when I spend time in a rural area. But my family are all very much city mice.
Benjamin Ehinger says
Ryan and Sonia,
I am right there with you and going through my own writing rituals right now. I just changed them up a bit and stepped out of our Travel Trailer into the canopy (when it’s not raining, of course) to enjoy the quiet, sunshine of the campgrounds we are visiting in Wisconsin this summer.
I also do the ice shower, but a bit differently. I use it as my way of getting back to it in the afternoon. Mornings, I delve into scripture and something inspirational (lately it has been Ryan’s books) before hitting my own ebook writing for 90 minutes.
Usually, I do two sessions a day for my own writing, one for clients (hoping to eliminate this one in the next 6 to 9 months) and another session for other tasks.
I love seeing the variety from the staff and really think it’s so important to figure out when you have high energy times of day and when you don’t. It’s hard to write outside of those “best” times of day for sure.
Sandeep Rathore says
Hey Sonia,
Thanks for sharing writing and productivity rituals. I listen to Polish film score composer, Zbigniew Preisner. I don’t know how it helps me, though I cannot understand lyrics. Here is the link to my favorite playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd0JJYHfv2c
Thanks!
Sonia Simone says
Fascinating sound!
Adedapo Olatunde says
I can write effectively any time of the day between 5 A.M. to 9 P.M, but I’m no night owl. I love to write, edit and proofreading in a silent environment, but at times, white noise is very helpful.
As for beverages, I do water.
LTB says
I can not imagine working without good tea, which we have a large stock in our company. I have to be fed too, then I’m happy and ready to work.
Daniel Chohfi says
I loved this post! Really liked the Sean’s Wes 30 Days to a Writing Habit, something like this, to help me create a writing habit (it could be a course for Authority or DCI :-). I like to tie writing with my meditation, really early in the morning when nobody is awake, with music without lyrics as well and a lot of coffee. Can’t believe it’s been almost a year from the DCI Summit.
Sonia Simone says
I know, right? Feels like the summit was so recent …
Champagne says
I have a hard time doing rituals and more so living by flying by the seat of my pants, but that doesn’t work very often. It’s good to see these so I can better myself in the process.
Seth Morrisey says
Great Article! I always like reading tips to improve my productivity. Personally , I do like writing to music but without lyrics. I do a lot of writing in coffee shops and I need something to block out the sound. I usually listen to Binaural Beats and other brain power music enhancing music to help me focus.
Tom Bentley says
Sonia, lots of interesting and fun stuff here, indicative of how differently writers approach getting the words out. I’m a morning/afternoon coffee dosage guy, no music, early to rise but futzing until the real writing begins around 9-11:30, and then some more between 2-3:30pm, with the other parts of the day marketing, napping and tending my garden of daydreams.
My key is that my office is a ’66 Airstream Globetrotter—a retreat, a muse and a quiet compositional lounge. I think that viewing the original orange/brown/yellow plaid upholstery is essential to my daily word count.
Michele Perry says
I LOVE reading about how other writers and editors get through their working day. This was a great article to read. As a freelance editor and writer who is currently working while living and travelling around Europe at the moment, as long as I have my Macbook Air, wifi, a decent coffee (which has been the BEST in Italy), a big bottle of water, and my notebook and diary, I am good to go! I also enjoy listening to music while I work. I am also a morning person. Love to hit the office early, then happy to take a ‘siesta’ after lunch! 🙂
Sonia Simone says
The MacbookAir is the most magnificently wonderful tool for being able to go just about anywhere and get writing done.
Spain also has some damned fine coffee. Enjoy your travels! Get yourself to the Barnum Cafe near Campo de’ Fiori if you find yourself in Rome. 🙂
Jane Rucker says
I really enjoyed this post! It made me take a look at my own writing rituals. I definitely do my best writing at night–sometimes the later the better. I’m definitely a night owl! Editing, outlining, etc., during the day (after 10:00 AM). But my most creative and productive writing happens in the quiet of the night.
Thanks for sharing!
Aleksandra says
Dear Sonia,
I’m happy to inform you that this post is featured in the recent part of TimeCamp’s weekly Productivity Articles roundup! Find “Need Some Inspiration? Read These 10 Productivity Articles! 27/8/17.”
Thank you for sharing these excellent productivity and time management tips!
Aleksandra Rybacka, Social Media Manager at TimeCamp
Neil says
The split between music and no music is interesting. Personally, I can’t work at all with music in the background however I know quite a few people who are happy to work/write/study with either background music or with headphones on.
Sonia Simone says
It kind of amazes me that actual writers can put down actual words with music on. It just grinds the whole thing to a halt for me.
Niki says
Last year I worked as a content writer at a company that blared Top 40 pop music throughout the office, 8 hours a day. The only way to survive was to invest in over-the-ear headphones and learn to write to my own instrumental music. Before that stint, I could never write with music! Now I can write to instrumental/very familiar music. (And thankfully, I’ve moved on from that job.)
Martin Lindeskog says
Sonia,
I like that you included a question about beverage regarding the writing and productivity routine. I will tell my co-host, Johan Gustaphzon, about your post. We have a podcast (in Swedish) called Produktivitéet (a made up for being productive and drinking tea at the same time), talking about getting things done and different teas.
I am writing a book series on tea, so I want to find my special writing ritual, as an aspiring author.
Sonia Simone says
I suppose that would be Productivitea in English. 🙂
Jessica says
I really enjoy reading about how other writers find their muse when it comes to drafting, editing and completing their work.
I am an early worker, although that doesn’t make early mornings any easier, once breakfast has been eaten, a latte on the commute drunk and the decks cleared which is usually by about 8:30 I can work straight through to 10:30 producing some of my best work.
However, as soon as early afternoon hits, the post lunch slump makes finding creativity and concentration very tricky. Any tips on how to continue into the early afternoon would be appreciated, I am currently trying to cure it with an espresso immediately after lunch.
Great article! 🙂
Sonia Simone says
I don’t think I know anyone who’s particularly good at creative work after lunch. I try to do stuff that doesn’t need those particular brain cells — repetitive tasks, or even just taking a walk.
Noelle Addison says
Interesting post. We all have our own writing rituals. Some have a really practical and efficient ritual while some have a really weird but effective rituals.
John says
I write copy on a daily basis and for me, you need to tune in to your “productive” hours. As if you work on average 7 hours per day, not all of those 7 hours are equal. I find that I am rubbish in the morning until about 10, when my brain kicks in. It then slumps after lunch from 1.30 through to 3pm, and my body kicks in with a real focus period from 4 through to 6. Becoming aware of my daily “energy” levels have allowed me to become a more effective writer. So for example in my lower energy periods I focus on admin work, or perhaps gaining and bookmarking research etc. My peak periods are for when I need to be most creative and get words to paper. Thanks for the article!
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