"I've been writing professionally since 2002, and in that time, I've experimented with lots of different strategies to keep myself on track. (I've been a columnist at Fortune and Fast Company, and am now a contributing writer for The New York Times Opinion Section, in addition to cohosting Slate's Money podcast, and I've been an editor, reporter, and opinion writer for a number of other places.)"
"I also have, shall we say, a fragmented attention span, and my therapist likes to routinely bring up how many women my age have undiagnosed ADHD, which I now take as a not-so-subtle hint. So I need systems and routines maybe a bit more than the average person, and it has taken me a while to find the right ones."
"But I stumbled upon my biggest problem with developing a consistent writing practice by accident when I added a couple of components that focused not on the writing itself, but on idea generation and development. Like most professional writers, I take notes and carry a notebook everywhere, and my journalistic background has primed me to capture details and thoughts even when I'm not on the clock."
A professional with extensive journalism and opinion experience since 2002 experimented with many productivity strategies to stay on track. A tendency toward fragmented attention and possible undiagnosed ADHD increased reliance on systems and routines. The core obstacle was insufficient raw creative material, which led to difficulty starting projects. A lightweight system emerged combining physical note-taking, daily morning pages to clear mental clutter, and monthly collation, review, and organization. The Zettelkasten method was explored but found too complex, so a simpler process focused on idea generation and development was adopted to produce steady creative material.
Read at Fast Company
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