The Friendly Anarchist | Your Life, Your Pace, Your Rules

The Nothing Alternative

by Fabian on January 24, 2012

Raymond Chandler had an interesting approach to getting things done. In his case: Getting things written. Here’s what he said, according to Roy Baumeister and John Tierney in their book, Willpower:¹

Chandler had his own system for turning out The Big Sleep and other classic detective stories. “Me, I wait for inspiration,” he said, but he did it methodically very morning. He believed that a professional writer needed to set aside at least four hours a day for his job: “He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor, but he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks.

[…]

Write or nothing. […] I find it works. Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write. b. you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.“

Interestingly enough, it seems like Flannery O’Connor used the same strategy. Here is what she recommended to a young writer in 1959:

“You ought to set aside three hours² every morning in which you write or do nothing else; no reading, no talking, no cooking, no nothing, but you sit there. If you write all right and if you don’t all right, but you do not read; whether you start something different every day and finish nothing makes no difference; you sit there. It’s the only way, I’m telling you. If inspiration comes you are there to receive it, you are not reading. […] If you don’t write, don’t do anything else.”

I have experimented with this for a while now: At some point of any given day³ I open a time slot dedicated to nothing but writing. Normally, this time slot will span over one hour to start with. During this time, I don’t do anything but write – or sit in front of my computer, looking at a black screen with a green cursor on it.⁴

Theoretically, it would be okay to just sit there and wait. But that’s the only alternative: Write or do nothing. More often than not, some good stuff gets written during this time. More often than not, procrastination isn’t an issue. Actually, the results have been so positive that I’m thinking about expanding this “Write or Nothing” slot to three or four hours myself. My next book might be just around the corner!

Here’s Why it Works

1. Clear Rules

When I start a session, my phone is switched off. I went to the bathroom, I got some coffee and water. There are many temptations inviting me to procrastinate a little, but the rules are so simple and crystal clear that I won’t break them: I may sit and look at my screen. I may look out of the window. Or I may write. Other than that? Nothing. No email. No Twitter. No reading. No sleeping. No talking. Write or nothing.

2. Limited Time

Many writers prefer to have a word minimum for the day. Or a word limit, like Cory Doctorow. While I get his point, I prefer a time minimum to get started. It lowers the barriers and it’s easier to schedule. It never means that I may have to spend seven hours just to reach my 1000 words for the day. If I sit down to write at 10am, I’ll be finished at 11 if I wish to.

The fun thing, of course, is that once I start writing, I’ll often get into flow. I’ll enjoy the process so much that I keep doing it for longer than initially planned. But when I don’t, I’ll just spend the hour doing some editing or outlining (or window-watching) and call it a day.

3. Idleness Included

I sit down to write, but I don’t really expect anything great to come out of it. Often, I’ll actually spend a minute or two looking out of my window, feeling quite fine because I’m sticking to the rules. But then, after those couple of minutes, I generally find it to be more interesting to write than to keep looking at my neighbor’s realty. Turns out their house isn’t all that exciting after all. So I look back at my screen and just start to work.

This may sound silly to many, but don’t discard it before giving it a try: The great thing about the Nothing Alternative is that you actually are allowed to “do” something else than your work: You may be idle.

Having the permission to drop work for a minute seems to be just what my inner idler needs. It’s also something that can help any writer to clear their head a little, think about their phrasing, or get inspired by some random memory that pops up in the moment.

P.S. The Flow Bonus

Apart from helping me to get something written each day, this approach has another advantage: If I manage to find this hour of writing time at any point in the morning, the generated flow will fuel my whole day: Doing things leads to doing more things.

After getting some writing done, I’ll often be eager to work on other things I care about: Clearing my inbox, editing some photos, outlining an upcoming project. Or, as mentioned, I’ll just keep writing.

While I’m not an early riser, getting something done soon after rising will create a productive mindset for the rest of the day.

More on Willpower very soon. That book really is a blast if you know what to take from it. [↩]
Do you notice how she says “three hours”? Another case of a writer admitting to be working less than most people would expect. Three to five hours writing time seems to be the sweet spot for most great writers, as I already noticed here on TFA! But then, three to five hours of quality writing each day is still more than most of us would manage, I guess. [↩]
From Monday to Saturday, preferably in the morning hours. See the last part of this post to learn why! [↩]
Yes, I still love Writeroom. [↩]

--{ Be the first to comment and gain all the fame and honor! }--

Would You Sell Your Freedom for a Quarter Million Euros?

by Fabian on January 17, 2012

My New Year’s oracle had told me so: In 2012, my finances would finally get sorted out. Big cash was on the way!

A couple of days later, the prophecy became palpable: I got a call from a dear friend who also happens to be a former boss. In plain language, she offered me 250.000 euros (almost $320.000 USD, at current exchange rates) for a five-year job. I would be managing an e-learning project, intended to improve self-study habits at German universities.

I was stunned.

Depending on your own income situation, 50.000 euros a year probably don’t look like much. Or they look like a fortune. For me, the latter was the case. And while I don’t need that much money to live well, the financial side of this offer was certainly intriguing. Considering that I could make the money not by selling crack in the red-light district but by managing an interesting project made it even better: I would work with several universities and learn a ton of stuff along the way that could also be useful for personal projects later on.

Of course, there were also some downsides: In order to become part of the team, I would have to move to a small town in the South of Germany – a nerd capital with a renowned university of applied science, but not much else going on; 600 kilometres away from the next ocean; thousands of miles from my beloved Caribbean beaches.¹

Then, of course, I would have to dedicate about 40 hours a week to the project. While the position wouldn’t require regular overwork, this still would mean a huge increase compared to my working hours over the last three years; especially if I wanted to keep The Friendly Anarchist going. As you know, regularly showing up at 9am in a sterile office isn’t precisely my idea of productivity, either.

But the most serious downside by far was that I would have to commit for five years straight. Sure, I could probably terminate the contract early and leave. But I knew that if I promised my friend to take the job, leaving after just a year or two wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Especially not if I planned doing so right from the start.

Leaving Doors Closed

To be clear, I’m not overall opposed to committing myself to long-term projects nor to working 40 or 50 hours a week. The question simply was if I wanted to take on this particular project!

The thing is this: Over the last three years, I haven’t been staying at one place for longer than two or three months at a time. I worked only when I felt like it – and when I didn’t feel like it, I went to the beach, or for a walk, or started reading an interesting book that I cared about. At the same time, I built The Friendly Anarchist, because I care about it. I made meaningful connections, both online and offline, because I care about it.

Over the last year of travel, I met again with many dear friends all over Germany and Austria, at such a relaxed pace that you simply couldn’t attain if you worked on a normal 9-to-5 schedule. And still, I somehow managed to pay for my living (and the occasional camera lens).

Frankly, the job offer was a great opportunity. It may well be the last time such a gig comes along, only waiting for me to say yes. But it also was a tough call: Would I be willing to put this lifestyle on hold for five years in order to execute an e-learning project and work full-time from an office somewhere in Germany?

…

After two nights of sleeping on it, listening to my intuition and also getting the numbers clear, I decided to decline my friend’s offer. Here’s why:

Accepting the position would have “opened a whole lot of doors that I don’t want to go through”.² If things went smoothly (and I suppose they would have), five years from now I’d have gained a lot of insight into running a multi-million euro project and probably be somewhat of an e-learning expert. I also would have saved about 100.000 euros.

But while I believe that e-learning has a lot of unused potential and will become a central part of regular education over the next decade, it’s not a central passion in my life. Maybe it would have become one, but at which cost?

Right now, I am passionate about the stuff that’s happening here on TFA. I’m passionate about the potential of blogs for creative souls. I’m passionate about empowerment and personal sovereignty attained through productivity. I’m passionate about travel and interestingness. I’m passionate about living beyond rules and working beyond the usual office contexts. I’m passionate about photography, as shown here in most of the posts (especially in the visuals) and on Blue Lies.

I didn’t want to sacrifice all this just to have a stable income.

…

Let me be open with you: Financially, things have been tough at times. But, surprisingly, I always managed to find a place to sleep and a dish of delicate food. I always knock on wood when I say this (and now, as I write this!), but: The money somehow seems to follow.³

Here’s the other thing: I’m 30 years old now. By the time the project ends, I would be 35. And while the transition from 20- to 30something was a smooth one for me, I also know that I won’t be getting younger. And as I get older, I will probably want more comfort, more tranquility and more financial security.

While I feel fine about living on the edge⁴ right now, who knows how things would be after five years of having a regular income? I now happily sleep at beaches and even on the floor, if it’s necessary. I eat whatever I can find or afford, and I love to cook tasty meals on a small budget. I only carry a small suitcase and am happy to own little. I move places constantly and prefer cheap hostels over five-star hotels.

But I also know that we all get used to certain luxuries easily. Excessive luxuries aren’t really necessary for living a happy life, as I have learnt over the years. And still… once we have them it’s hard to let them go. If I got used to them over the next five years, would I then be courageous enough to trade them back for my freedom?

The Benefits of Knowing What You Don’t Want

I called my friend and thanked her for the offer. It really was an honor to be invited into her project. But I told her that, for now, I wanted to continue on the path I have chosen.

When she heard my decision, she laughed. She told me how she herself hadn’t had any job contract period that was longer than 12 months, ever since she started to work. And how she had already suspected that I wouldn’t accept her offer, living the life I was living.

But she also told me why she had offered me the position anyway: At times, it is helpful to get clear about the things that you don’t want. Not the regular “bad” things like war, illness, and FOX News. But the things that might be cool, great and helpful for many people (a stable job; lots of money; a comfortable home), but that just don’t fit with your way of living.

Having the opportunity to consider these things and then say, “Thank you – but no, thank you” was a great way to realign with the hows and whys of the life I am living.

Honestly, I am extremely grateful to be experiencing the fourth year of this journey now! Thanks to all of you for being a part of it! (And talking about big cash: You could always help me by buying a copy of Productive Anywhere (if you dare to become even smarter, even more beautiful and even more productive!). I’m just sayin’…)

Yes, I’m a sucker for life at the seashores… [↩]
The quote is from a Harvard dropout I once linked to in my Summer Good Reads: Getting a diploma would have meant a similar thing to him as getting the job to me. Read about it here. [↩]
As do the job offers. QED. [↩]
The term “on the edge” sounds quite a bit silly. I’m still living with more comfort and luxuries than 90% of the people on this planet. But I hope you understand what I mean. [↩]

--{ 7 great comments }--

Print is Dad

by Fabian on January 10, 2012

To kick off the new year, Chris Guillebeau just launched his Unconventional Guide to Publishing.¹ His offer made me think about my own stance towards traditional publishing and the current state of selling books.

…

For me, self-publishing one ebook and one huge e-guide in 2011 was a great experience. The creative freedom digital self-publishing entails is both a marvelous opportunity and an interesting challenge. Fortunately, by learning some basic tricks and whistles, getting help from friends and mentors, and paying a couple of services to solve some technological issues, all major roadblocks could be cleared.

On the other hand, taking the do-it-yourself route was quite demanding at times: Writing, editing, layouting, proof-reading, illustrating, uploading, marketing the books and then somehow finding a way to deliver them electronically, get paid and handle any upcoming issues was more exhausting than I would have expected.

This of course made me reconsider the pros and cons of traditional publishing houses, who solve at least some of these issues for their authors.

“Print is dead” has been claimed for years now. But still, book shops – at least here in Germany – are generally well attended. Amazon is selling more and more ebooks, but still there are thousands of yellow DHL trucks on the streets, delivering the paper books people around the country order.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of print are greatly exaggerated. Maybe the rumors were only due to a transcription error?

Print is Dad [sic!]

If I look at the beautiful releases of smaller imprints, the growing hand-setting scene or the rise of independent photo magazines, print doesn’t seem to be dead at all.

We could say, though, that print is Dad: It’s the father of the publishing revolution we are witnessing right now. Print changed the way information is recorded, transmitted and consumed forever. Even after more than 100 years of radio and more than 80 years of television, it’s enjoying quite a healthy life.

While ebooks are without doubt on the rise, there will certainly remain a place for print in the world: It’s a question of complementation rather than displacement. In the end, who says you cannot enjoy the touch and print quality of a nice book, even when you also like to read the New York Times on your iPad rather than on paper?

The Funeral I’d Love to Attend

So if print isn’t dead, who should we be mourning? Here’s hoping for a funeral that won’t be all that tearful: Publishing houses that don’t care about their readers nor about their authors hopefully will pass away soon. From all I can see, they are at least in terminal stage already.

The market for cheaply produced paperbacks that are more akin to raspy toilet paper than to books worth to be read or put in a shelf may come to an end. But the time you could make a fortune by selling heartless literal products probably won’t be missed at all.

Where will this lead us? As a cautious optimist, I would say that the opportunity of digital self-publishing will allow more writers to make a living from their books even when they only have a small audience. Companies like Amazon, Apple and a bunch of digital payment services will see huge benefits here, as will any writer who is able to handle the process.

But then, traditional publishing houses will also stay relevant. I am not the first one to say it, but I believe that they can stay in the game by embracing the following strategy:

Produce high-quality books with a lot of dedication.

That means: Mine your book proposals, the blogs and all the smaller magazines for gold. Treat your authors well and give them enough financial security to produce new work. Most of them don’t want to get rich, they just want to pay their rent and have the peace of mind to write. Help them with the editing process, give them great lectors, teach them some basic marketing skills. Encourage them to maintain an agile online presence.

Then, procure for the best type-set and layout you can afford, use decent paper, purchase high-quality printers and make the resulting book a worthwhile collector’s item. Customers will be enjoying these kinds of books for a long time, even if they are more expensive.

Ultimately, don’t try to compete with ebooks: Sooner rather than later will they be the standard format for the kind of cheap paperbacks nobody ever loved in the first place. If you want to sell cheaply, electronic publishing will certainly be the way to go. Just make sure you find a way to keep Amazon in check.

If you want to learn how to get your own book published, check out Chris’ guide on the topic. You’ll get a 25% discount until Friday and a free Q&A with veteran literary agent, David Fugate!

Note: I am an affiliate for Chris’ products because he always delivers great quality to his readers. If you buy the guide through one of my links, I will get a commission that helps me to keep The Friendly Anarchist going. The price for you remains the same, so I’d really appreciate it! [↩]

--{ 3 great comments }--

A Diary of Wonderful Things: Appreciate.txt

by Fabian on January 5, 2012

One idea for 2012: Don’t just make plans and resolutions, don’t just work on them and review them, don’t just evaluate numbers and goals in life and business. While all that can be fine and helpful, there’s one small thing you can over the course of the year in order to learn to appreciate the wonderful things that happen to you, big and small ones alike: It’s keeping track of them!

An easy way to do this is to keep a simple text file on your computer or smartphone and update it everytime you feel like it. At the end of the year, you will have a diary of wonderful things to remember the best experiences of the year. Appreciate.txt (as the file is called on my computer) also can be a great motivator for the moments your life isn’t going as smooth as you’d wish for.

To give you an idea, here are some excerpts from my own Appreciate.txt from 2011:¹

Living in my favorite hotel in Cartagena during January and February, taking baths in the Caribbean every single day.
Regular breakfast at “Muffins & Panes” in Northern Bogotá. Great coffee, tasty omelettes, and a gorgeous and friendly waitress.
Meeting two ex-colleagues in Bogotá for a totally spontaneous lunch. Talking about the writer’s profession and making fun of their new boss. (So glad I’m out!)
Meeting online friends and acquaintances in the real world: Lisa, Ryan, Ben, Mars, Earl and many more… Thanks to you all!
Getting picked up at the airport by Christine and Max. Staying in Eastern Standard Time for weeks before finally adapting to European hours.
Finally seeing the cresent rise above the North Sea in Denmark again. Breathing cold, fresh air.
Being slightly overwhelmed by the work on “the book” (This was the code name for Beyond Rules at the time) and carry on nonetheless.
Releasing “the book”. (Yay!)
Doing Epic (and Stupid) Things in Berlin: Riding a bike without brakes through the heavy city traffic; dancing with Molotov and hundreds of Latin Americans; living in Friedrichshain among hipsters, stylers and welfare recipients; hiking with Daniel and Kathi to the Greater Wannsee without ever reaching it (Note to self: City≠Nature!); attending a crazy techno party at the Sisyphos club with Philipp from Sunday evening to Monday afternoon…
Reaching Cologne at 1am in the morning and still getting picked up by Christine in Dennis’ Fiat 500.
Riding 199,43 kilometres on a bike from Trier to Koblenz with three totally crazy guys.
Getting dragged through the sea by a 16sqm kite. Pure adrenaline.
Seeing the shooting stars on an undisclosed location in the North Sea in the early morning of August 23rd. This is the first time you really feel that autumn is approaching.
Releasing Productive Anywhere and spending a whole day to paint one single room shortly afterwards.
The 8-hour trip to Cologne with Philipp on Christmas day.

As I just read in Oliver Burkeman’s book Help!, keeping an appreciation list apparently doesn’t just do it for me. The benefits of what he calls a “gratitude journal” have been proven scientifically: “Gratitude journals are at the extreme end of the cheesiness continuum, but the studies are hard to refute. In stepping back and objectifying your circumstances in writing, you also step, however briefly, off the hedonic treadmill.”

The bottom line: If you’re struggling with keeping a regular diary (too much work – too easy to fall behind – not sure what to write about…), give Appreciate.txt a try! And have a wonderful year 2012!

The list isn’t complete, of course, but many entries are probably meaningless for people not directly involved. [↩]

--{ 4 great comments }--

Working on Trains

by Fabian on December 28, 2011

Last week I rambled about workplaces beyond rules. But when it came to naming my favorite workplace of all, I noticed how dependent it is on the work I want to do or the mood I’m in. But, as I said, if I’d have to choose one single place, it would probably be on board of a train somewhere in Germany.

The Marvels of Working on Trains

Why a train, of all things? As with the other places, vibe is a major factor. The atmosphere on a train is leisurely yet overall somehow concentrated: People are reading, watching a movie on their laptops or engaged in a relaxed conversation. Depending on the train, they might be talking some pretty weird (and often inspiring!) stuff – but if it gets too much, I simply put up some music and gone they are. (Ear plugs might work if you need silence to focus.)

There’s no dreadful radio music (as in many coffeeshops!) and, most of all, no wi-fi! I know that many people hate that and prefer taking one of the newer trains or routes that provide internet access for their passengers, but I personally hope that most trains continue to be offline territory. It’s precisely what seems to help to create the atmosphere that I enjoy so much.

On trains, dead time can easily be transformed into creative time. Watching out of the window and seeing the landscape pass by helps me more than anything to find the right words when crafting a new article or book chapter. You can get a coffee or some simple food in the dining car, but apart from that, distractions are low. You can walk around a bit whenever you feel like it, but it isn’t really incentivized. Preferably, you just remain seated and do some work. (And keep watching the landscape, of course!)

Talking of seats: Even the second class in the German train system is nowhere near as cramped as economy class on airplanes. Seats are bigger, there is sufficient space to use a laptop, and more often than not you’ll be lucky to have another free seat right next to you, allowing you to use two tables to have more space for your documents and paperwork.

Best of all, working time on a train comes with a hard deadline. As a regular reader, you might know already how important I deem these to be for higher productivity. A train ride might last 30 minutes, four hours, or maybe even a whole day. But when embarking, you know already that by 8.26pm you will reach your destination. That’s the time you’ve got, so there is no excuse not to use it.

The Cons

How about the downsides? Screaming children account for some of the negative experiences I have had. They simply aren’t helpful if you want to focus on your work. Overcrowded cars are worse. (Expect them during rushhour on commuter trains and before important holidays, like Christmas.) Overcrowded cars with lots of crying children… well, you get the idea!

The worst thing to encounter on a train, to be honest? Drunken football fans (that’s soccer in the US). They mostly ride regional trains (because they are incredibly cheap, especially for larger groups) and if they are in a bad mood, they will not only make work impossible, but life on trains in general. Fortunately, these guys are easy to avoid by simply not traveling during their peak hours. (Saturday afternoons, mostly. Sundays aren’t that bad, probably because most of them have to work the next day or face their spouses at night.)

One other major downside of working on trains might be the price! While competetive in comparison with airline prices, travel on German trains isn’t cheap – especially if you are a spontaneous traveler that doesn’t book his trips weeks ahead. A regular ticket from Hamburg to Munich, for example, will set you back 135 euros.

There are several discount cards available, though, that normally pay off over the year: Buy them once and get 25 to 50% discount on any ticket you buy later. The biggest temptation for me is the “BahnCard 100″: For about 4000 euros ($5200 USD, give or take) you get to travel as much as you want during a whole year. Just think of the possibilities!

Given my addiction to working on trains, I’m pretty sure that if I ever have that much spare, I might as well just get one of those cards and become a full-time train writer exploring every single city in the country. Until then, I’ll probably continue to work on the cheap regional trains, as long as there aren’t any football fans around!

Appendix

On December 25th, I embarked on an 8-hour train trip to Cologne, in order to join a big Christmas dinner on December 26th. That train trip wasn’t work-related, to be sure: One of my best friends and a good bottle of red wine accompanied me on that unconventional Holiday celebration on the road, and made 8 hours seem like 20 minutes. Conclusion: As a nice office, trains lend themselves for much more than just work!

--{ 2 great comments }--

← Previous Entries

Your Life, Your Pace, Your Rules

The Nothing Alternative