Earlier this summer, I read about an author who (ACK!) was racing against the clock to quickly finish writing a book. Which would be an unsurprising anecdote, except…the book is about working as slow as possible.
LOL.
I’ve been thinking about that juxtaposition of fast and slow this summer. How do we inject our routines with enough ease, calm, slowness, and margin to invite inspiration and creativity…while also living up to the realities of time-sensitive demands and deadlines?
How do we give ideas the time and space to slowly bloom…and do it on reliable schedule?
Here’s how I’m holding those two ideas at the same time.
Know what motivates you
First, how are you motivated? Gretchen Rubin writes about the four archetypes of motivation. In her Four Tendencies framework, people fall into one of these categores based on how they’re motivated:
- Upholders respond readily to outer and inner expectations—“Discipline is my freedom”
- Questioners question all expectations; they’ll meet an expectation if they think it makes sense; essentially, they make all expectations into inner expectations—“I’ll comply—if you convince me why”
- Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves—“You can count on me; and I’m counting on you to count on me”
- Rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner alike—“You can’t make me, and neither can I”
If none of those archetypes rings immediately true to you, you can take the quiz here to determine which bucket you fall into.
I’m an Obliger:
“You can count on me, and I’m counting on you to count on me.”
Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet inner expectations. Of all the Tendencies, Obligers are the biggest group, and the ones whom people count on the most. They put a high value on meeting commitments to others, but may have trouble setting limits and meeting their commitments to themselves.
If someone else gives me a deadline, I’m on it. But holding myself accountable just because? …Not as easy. And I’m great at procrastinating, especially if I convince myself that my internal deadline or milestone isn’t that important, or can wait til after I finish the book I’m reading, or will still be there next week/month/year.
But I’m my own boss, so I’ve had to come up with systems to make myself do the things I need to do to keep my business moving in the direction I want it to.
FAST: Set personal deadlines…and actually meet them
I’ve waxed poetic many times about the power of personal deadlines. I set deadlines for myself and turn them into a character outside of me — a monster that chases me until I get it done. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to make my deadlines stick.
- Put deadlines on my calendar and on my to-do list. Getting them out of my head is the most important step for me to take them seriously.
- Tell other people. As an Obliger, I need that external accountability. I’ve been writing this newsletter since 2019 on a regular schedule. You think I’d be writing this if no one was reading it on the other end? My lackluster personal journaling history tells me “no.”
- Reward myself. I’m not embarassed to admit that I’m treat-driven. So I keep a bar of Trader Joe’s chocolate in my desk drawer. When I do my monthly accounting on time, I get chocolate.🤗
- Pay someone else to hold me accountable. If I pay for a mastermind group, I’m all in and I’ll show up to every session. If it’s free? Meh. So I’ve learned that paying for groups and classes is a solid strategy when I want to get things done. Last year, I was motivated to make progress on a fiction project, so I took a series of (paid) classes and got so much done because my teachers and writing groups were waiting for pages from me on a certain timeline.
SLOW: Take your time and leave room for inspiration
And while I’m happy taking it slow, leaving room for inspiration, and pacing myself, there’s a certain discipline required to use that slow time in a way that’s fruitful.
I think reflection falls into this bucket. Reflecting on your work can’t happen under duress. You have to have the time and space to breathe, freely think, and let connections form. But if you never spend time and energy looking back on what you’ve done and examining those connections, the ideas you’re percolating might never fully form.
This combination of slow thinking + disciplined reflection is what I love most about working on book projects: We have plenty of time to work. My current book project is my longest: We have one full calendar year to write the manuscript. We’re only a few months in, and we’ve already pivoted, re-examined the core theses, and reimagined how we’ll get the rest of the book written.
