Archive for the ‘Tools and techniques’ Category

Sneaking up on the first draft—part 1

This week I experimented with ways of getting ideas down on paper more quickly. The thought is that if I can’t (yet) see a way to get rid of the reflexive unpleasantness that continues well past the “just starting” stage, I can at least reduce its duration…by having something closer to a draft to work [...]

Building a better to-do list

A recommendation! I’ve talked about Mark Forster’s Autofocus system—an ingenious, paper-based way of tracking your to-do’s that works around procrastination by mixing up large and small tasks, considering them in relation to each other, and drawing on intuition (not in a touchy-feely way).  As the smaller things get crossed off, the bigger projects also move [...]