The Art of Writing: How to Write Bestselling Novels

Writing Efficiently

[NOTE: All of the techniques in this chapter are backed by solid scientific research studies. Many of these techniques, and more, can be found in a book called Make Your Brain Smarter: Increase Your Brain's Creativity, Energy, and Focus by Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, Founder and Chief Director of the Center for BrainHealth in Dallas.] 

I'm sure many of you think to yourself, "Why can't I get more writing done?!" Well, this chapter's going to give you all the tips you need for writing efficiently, which is mostly about stress relief. So let's accomplish both since they go hand in hand. And what's great is that these strategies will also help your brain be healthier.

SCHEDULING YOUR DAY WISELY

The 5 by 5 Rule

The first strategy is called 5 by 5. Instead of just going through your day doing everything in whatever order you see fit, and taking breaks randomly or even at set times throughout the day, there's a proven method of how to make your day work much better for you so you feel much more refreshed and get a lot more done. This is especially useful for full-time writers.

The rule is, take five five-minute breaks throughout the day, equally spaced apart. So if you have an eight-hour workday, you'll take a break every one and a half hours. Some people elect for a five minute break once every fifty-five minutes. However you want to do it is fine, but it's the way you do it that matters so much.

Make sure you turn off all social media, your email, and your phone during the writing time. No one disturbs you if you can help it. You place your complete attention on a single task during that time until it's completed. At the end of the writing time, you take five minutes to do absolutely nothing. You just relax your mind and don't think about anything. Put your focus on your breath while you just sit and breathe for five minutes.

Some people do it a little bit differently. They check their social media and email and phone once every hour or two and take seven to fifteen minutes to respond or take care of those things. Then, they get back to their writing.

That's also a good method, but it isn't nearly as good for relieving stress and staying refreshed so you can work more efficiently. So, if you can hybridize these two methods together, that'd probably be the best of both worlds. Though the 5 by 5 method seems to be the best for relieving stress and getting more work done according to research studies. The way you use this strategy is up to you.

ELEPHANTS AND RABBITS

When working or writing or doing anything else that requires your complete attention, it's important to understand how to utilize your attention for the best results.

Countless studies have shown that multitasking is horrible for the brain. There are people out there who swear up and down that they're great multitaskers and that they get so much done because they multitask. However, they're bold-faced liars! Okay, well, not so much liars as ignorant fools! Yes, that's right. If you're someone who believes that, I just called you an ignorant fool. Suck on that!

Just kidding.

The truth is, you simply haven't tried multiple strategies for extended periods of time and recorded the results in order to find which strategy works best.

The fact is, when multitaskers go into research studies and try to show how much work they get done with multitasking as opposed to sticking to one task at a time, they always get a lot more done sticking to one task at a time.

Never will you find a research study where multitasking gets more done than the one task at a time strategy. The human brain is made to work on one thing at a time. Anytime you split your attention, you split your brainpower, and each task you're doing suffers quite a bit more than you'd expect.