Quotes About Productivity

I think when you are older, you should be slowing down, but I wouldn't like not to work as I would get rather miserable.

I've become a day writer: most people start as night writers, and I used to be, but something happened to my endocrine system. I do miss the 3 A.M. writing jags.

Yes, I did lock myself in my room for about two years and write some songs and things like that. But I don't feel like I missed out on a whole lot.

I don't want an opportunity to go missing because of my lack of organization.

I'm really busy, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

If I wanted to do 'The Missing Files of Missy Elliott,' I have probably six albums just sitting there.

Missing even one night of shuteye will impact your ability to concentrate the next day. And it only gets worse if you deprive yourself of sleep night after night.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

Once, my writing-avoidance behavior involved me mixing up a cleaning concoction and getting some ancient stains out of the carpet. My wife liked that one.

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating.

You get used to that work mode, get used to always doing something.

I think it's good to have different locations for different modes you want to be in throughout the day, and to keep them separate.

When you're on a roll, you want to stay busy - you want to keep that momentum going.

When I made the decision to really get serious about my writing, I set myself a goal of 1,000 words a day for seven days. If I got to 7,000 words before Monday I could take a day off, but I had to get there. I had to do that every week.

Now I belong to this fantastic group called The London Writers Salon, which runs Monday to Friday with sessions in London, New York and L.A. and you can log in to them all and basically write in the company of 300 other people, with nobody chatting.

The most efficient labor-saving device is still money.

I love what I do. When a month goes by and I'm not working, I'm miserable.

I love writing, and I am never as happy as when I have a week, a month - three months - with nothing to do but write.

I'm greedy for work, and at times, I wish a month had more days, or the day had more number of hours, so that I could work more. I'm happy to be busy.

I'm really happy when I'm actively creating things. When I'm frustrated and not excited, it's because I haven't written anything in a month or so.

The fastest I've ever done a book is a 112,000-word book in about a month.

Everybody overestimates what you can do in a day and underestimates what you can do in months of work.

The way I work, typically, I do everything at the very last minute. Even if I was given two months, I'd do it in the last three days.

I spent two months on the first draft, working 8 hours a day, five days a week.