What if two hours of writing a week is all you need?
Letting go of limiting mindsets about your writing progress
Today I’m sharing part of Cathy Mazak’s podcast episode, “Why 2 Hours a Week is Enough Writing Time.” As she notes in the episode, we often imagine that we need large chunks of time to make progress on our writing, and when those blocks don’t materialize in our weeks, we assume we cannot make progress. Cathy refutes this limiting belief, arguing that two hours per week would result in significant progress—especially if the alternative is no progress at all. As she says,
We tell ourselves we need spaciousness to write to accommodate all the things we need to do to warm up. Like I need to empty my email inbox and then I can write. Or I need hours and hours to get into the flow. All that space ends up equaling no writing because the way you are thinking about writing is theoretically possible, but not actually happening.
You can listen to the episode or read excerpts here.
I completely agree that so many of us get caught up in an idealized version of writing that we have created in our minds as the only way to actually get writing done. We can make a lot more progress if we can reframe our thinking to believe that every little bit counts.
Want more on this idea? Check out these posts:
Writing While Short on Time
You have 15 minutes until your next Zoom meeting as you enter your office after finishing the first class of the day. You instinctively set your bag down and take out your laptop to check any emails that may have arrived during that class without giving it much thought. You scan the new correspondence quickly and pick out two em…
Bursting the "Writing Should Be Inspired" Balloon
I was once watching a pilot for a TV show whose protagonist was a professor at Oxford or Cambridge or some other ancient British institution. The show took great pains to establish her at work in her profession (which interestingly, never included teaching). The camera followed her as she poured over old books in a Hogwartsesque library and furiously scribbled away on a legal pad. The library was quiet and filled with other travelers on the road to intellectual breakthrough. She was focused, intent, and immersed in her work and we in the audience could feel her excitement at each new discovery. I felt inspired and I remember thinking, “wow, I want her job.”
I need this kind of information in my life. Thanks.