How writers and editors should guard their productivity windows

You have an intense book writing or editing job due on a deadline in the next few days. Which of the following will allow you to do the best possible job? Vote below:

Every writer is different. But no one can be productive in short bursts.

Writing and editing are most effective when you’re in a flow state. That takes concentration without interruptions. I’ve never seen a writer or editor who is highly effective in 30- or 45-minute segments.

When writing, context is essential. As you work on a large piece of work like a book chapter, you learn about the challenges of this particular piece of work — for example, contradictory author requirements for ghostwriting, or flaws and tics the writer has for editing work. You also need to keep in mind what you’ve learned from work on the same piece in earlier sessions, or earlier in the same session. None of that tends to be effective if you must interrupt yourself as soon as you get into a productive rhythm.

Speaking only for myself, I cannot easily concentrate for four hours at a stretch. I’m most productive in 1 1/2- to 3-hour stretches. If I’ve got five hours to work on a piece, I’d rather do it in a couple of stints, with some other kind of work in the middle.

I also find that client meetings (usually by Zoom) swallow a lot of my energy — they create extra effort for the introvert side of my personality. They also tend to generate to-dos and followups that require extra time to manage. For that reason, I tend to gang them up in ways that leave meeting-free blocks in mornings or afternoons. Because my clients have varying needs and are in various time zones, I can’t enforce a specific time of day when I meet with them. But I try to avoid slotting them in at times of day when I could be concentrating on editorial work.

I prefer to avoid working in late evenings and early mornings, since such work disrupts my already troubled sleep cycle.

So for me, option 2, with blocks open in the morning and the evening, will make me most productive. But that’s me. I wonder if it’s the same for you.

Writers must plan and guard their time

If you don’t want your editorial work spilling into your personal time, the key is to plan properly.

First, make sure you have all the elements necessary to your writing and editing prepared and lined up before you get to the editorial work. If you’ve opened up a 2-hour block for editing, you don’t want to spend half of that time scrounging around for information you’re going to need to edit effectively.

Second, guard your time closely – manage meetings so they don’t interrupt your editorial concentration time. This is one reason why I don’t use a tool like Calendly to enable people to pick times to meet with me. I don’t know which times I need to block off until my calendar starts to develop — it might be Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon one week, and Friday morning the next week.

How are you doing in the battle to guard your concentration time? What time of day are you most productive as a writer or editor? And what strategies have you found most effective for managing your time?