Methods

The Foundation

First, learn how to read books, rather than just looking at the pages as if they contained pictures of words. As Ryan Holiday would say, devour them. Start here.

At this point, there are two books I highly recommend: How to Read a Book and How to Read and Why. They are different but complementary–Bloom examines in detail a number of works and shows more by example; Adler’s is more of a guidebook, and explores not only how to read literature, but science, math and philosophy. Both are great.

The Review

Review all of the notes you made and passages you highlighted. Not only will you have the themes and major points fresh in your mind, you will have re-immersed yourself in the author’s world, becoming more sensitive to their tone and intent. This is important for the next step.

Forget what you’ve highlighted. Don’t skip over the passages, but rather desensitize yourself to their significance for the time being. I’m not sure about you, but when I see neon yellow, my mind yells “IMPORTANT” and sometimes this causes me to skim through the surrounding text. We already did that. Our job now is to recognize subtlety, to pick up what we missed before.

Some might consider a different color highlighter or pen for subsequent readings, but I think this is going overboard. It’s easy to obsess over methodology and “systems” and forget the reason you’re doing this in the first place. I call that Resistance 2.0. Simplicity is better.

Consilience

There’s nothing wrong with rereading a book for pleasure. This is useful too, especially if you’re a writer. It helps you understand how the author elicits those feelings. But the main reason is consilience.

I realize I may not be using this word in a rigorous, academic sense, but the concept has always appealed to me. Unity itself is an alluring concept within any field (ask a string theorist), but even more appealing stretched among them.

Here is a corny analogy to explain why I read: I believe that every time you gain understanding, it flattens the horizon a little. This never happens completely, and never will for any human, but as your line of sight improves, you start to see things that were once hidden. This is an exponential process.

From that, you can understand why we reread a book. To see the connections that were invisible before.

Show up at work on time six months in a row and we’ll talk about red curry paste and lemongrass. Until then, I have four words for you: “Shut the fuck up.”

–Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

Does your daily schedule look something like this?

10:00 Sit down to write.

10:05 Check e-mail.

10:10 Surf the web.

10:45 Check e-mail.

11:00 Start writing.

11:15 Pay bills online.

11:45 Check e-mail.

12:00 Break for lunch.

1:00 Sit down to write.

1:30 Tidy up office. Decide that it is inefficient.

1:45 Research new organization methods online.

2:00 Implement the new system you found. It’s slightly more optimal than the last.

3:00 Feel ashamed at your lack of meaningful progress.

3:05 Research ways to overcome procrastination. Again. Surf Amazon and compare relevant books, settling on The One Surefire Solution.

I’m guessing that’s not what you had written down “to do.” That list was probably more like this:

1. Write Chapter 4.
2. Check and respond to e-mails.
3. Pay bills online.
4. Clean and organize office.

Here’s a tip: Keep your list. But divide it into two columns, or add another sheet. Your old list gets the same heading: “To Do.” The new list?

“Done.”

And under that heading, you have to write down everything you actually did, no matter how small, as long as it was a change of task.

Forget about other little productivity tricks and “lifehacks” for the time being. The goal of this blog is to build a house; a place to do our work. So don’t fret over the fucking wallpaper until we pour the foundation.

Once you start separating intentions and results, you will understand what productivity is. If anything, you’ll get tired of writing a new entry for every little pointless thing, because that wastes even more time. Most importantly, now you’ll see it. I’m betting that the two lists will gradually coincide, until they match. This is our foundation.

And if you think you’re too talented an artist to worry about this stuff, that lists and measurement belong in the realm of soulless businessmen, read the introductory quote again and stop kidding yourself: Your art is business. Start treating it with the same rigor.