I wrote a 93,000-word-long book in 6 weeks, meaning an average of 2,447 words a day; this speed floors people, so I thought it might be useful to share some productivity hacks I discovered while I was writing.
I went to bed and got up at the same time every single day for the whole six weeks. I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and got up at 6:30 a.m.
I had long, lazy mornings. After I woke up at 6:30, I would brew a cup of coffee, make breakfast (fruit-and-vegetable smoothie), and read Business Insider, The New York Times, and Twitter. I would lounge for as long as an hour. Then I would walk to a nearby park and meditate on a bench for 10 minutes. Then I'd walk home and start working.
I worked in hour-long, concentrated bursts and took frequent breaks. When I got back to my desk about 8:30 or so, I would set a timer for an hour. As soon as the timer started I would force myself to either write or stare at the screen until the hour was over. (I would pause the timer if I needed to make coffee or tea or go to the bathroom.) Then, when the hour was over, I would get up from my desk, go outside and walk around a city block — leaving my iPhone behind. Then I'd come back to my desk and do another hour of writing and staring. Then another walk. Then one more hour.
Then I would take an hour-and-a-half lunch, during which I would walk to a restaurant, eat, and then walk to a park. After lunch, I did three more cycles. I'm just guessing, but I think this pattern worked for me because an hour isn't a very long amount of time to work, and it always felt like a real break was just around the corner — and after that, lunch or the end of the day.
I caffeinated — for a while. At the beginning of the six weeks, it would take me three cups of coffee to get through the morning and a Red Bull to get through the afternoon. But after about two or three weeks I didn't need the caffeine anymore. I went back to one cup in the morning with my news reading.
I told myself, "Don't strip the screw." When a screw is screwed in too tight, you can get it stuck forever if you strip it by turning too hard too suddenly. Sometimes, when I was working, I would hit a tricky passage, get very anxious and want to force myself to START WRITING NOW. This never helped. So I imagined my brain was a screw that I didn't want to strip. I gave myself a break and allowed myself to just stare at the screen if that's all I was able to do at that moment. I did not allow myself to look at my phone, check email, or otherwise distract myself.