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Comment by jpp | Hacker News Reader

Neil (kyan.com) says that he doesn't find the act of writing to be hard. I found it to be torturous when working on Cooking for Geeks until I learned this simple rule: dedicated time, dedicate space. By dedicated time, I mean a regular schedule where other activities weren't "allowed" to intrude. And as for dedicated space, for me it came down to having a desk at which I wrote and only wrote.

John Cleese puts it so much better (and funnier): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg

I suppose I should get down to it and write that blog post... ;-)

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To clarify this point a little - I tend to find that once I know /what/ I'm writing and /how/ I'm writing it, it flows out with reckless abandon, and I'm able to get the words out very easily. Due to this, editing also comes quite easy as I find I've written the copy in a natural conversational way (as the article is written in).

However, I realise that this isn't normal, and may also be a big problem when not writing in a style that I can choose.

I think that's applicable to any kind of work, really.

I can't find any examples (my Google-fu is failing me), but I think a generally accepted practice that leads to productivity is having a space that you only work in. When you're in that space, all your brain is used to is doing work, and so it becomes much more difficult to be distracted. It's sort of the spatial equivalent of a routine you do every day.

This is often why people have an office or study at their home.

As for a schedule, that's a no-brainer (not discrediting you at all). Obviously if I say "I will work on this project from 7-10 every night, 5 days a week", then I get 15 hours of work in every week. This also factors into the whole space-routine thing, but I think far less-so, because the trickier part, I think, is figuring out that time in your schedule when you are least likely to be distracted.

Stephen King mentions the technique of dedicated places in his book On Writing (which is great by the way).

He suggests the idea place is a room with a door that you can close.

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