It’s easy to look at your favorite writer’s body of work and envy their prolificness. From the outside looking in, it can appear like the productivity of the New York Times Bestsellers, the Pulitzer Prize winners, the award-winning journalists have some intrinsic gift of constant flow and word outpour. It might have you saying, frequently, “If only…must be nice.” It might discourage you from starting to write or encourage you to give up writing. But rest assured, your favorite writer’s do not have a productivity superpower. They have tools and tricks to focus in, to find their flow, and to create less friction to help the words come out. You can do it too! Try some of these tried and tested secrets to increase your productivity.

[*] Don’t Break The Chain

Jerry Seinfeld is known to have a calendar where every day he writes, he gets to draw an X with a red magic marker. Instead of worrying about total progress, your job is to fill in a box. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

[*] Force Your Freedom

Writer’s are good at finding distractions. The phone and computer can be a rabbit hole of distractions. That’s why Neil Strauss uses the app and website blocker Freedom. “As soon as I sit down to write, the first thing I do is I put on Freedom because if you’re writing or you want to research something, you research something, and then you get stuck in the click beats. And, what you can do is save all of the things you want to research, and just research them when that time expires, and you’ll find it so much more efficient.”

[*] Talk It Out

The blank page is daunting. Having a conversation isn’t. Tj Stiles told Writing Routines, “If I’m just starting, I never consider the page blank. I’ve been writing in my head long before I sit down at the keyboard. In fact, I sometimes start inadvertently, by describing to someone what I’m doing. Conversation often crystalizes my own thinking far more effectively than solitary reflection.”

As Seth Godin says, “Nobody ever gets talker’s block.”

[*] Listen To One Song On Repeat

Eventually, you forget the music is playing and the deep focus begins. This is Ryan Holiday‘s guilty secret. “I use music not only to shut out outside noise but to shut off parts of my conscious mind. I’ve found that picking one song—usually something I am not proud to say I am listening to—and listening to it on repeat, over and over and over again is the best way to get into a rhythm and flow…Basically I treat the music as sort of disposable, instant flow tool. I use it until it stops working, and then I move on to the next song. I use the same song that I am writing to when I run later, or if I go for a walk. It’s just creating a continuity to the creative process.”

If that sounds crazy or like a form of insanity to you, check out some of the psychology behind listening to the same song over and over and over.

[*] Do Something Else

It’s easy to sit at the computer for hours on end until the word count climbs. Bryan Burrough likes to break up the day. “I tend to write in 45-90 minute bursts, after which I desperately need to step away from the computer for a bit and then return with “fresh’’ eyes. Typically I use that break to play I-pad Scrabble or, occasionally, play a computer game of some sort. Civilization 5 and XCom2 were two recent time-killers. If I feel like it, I might even take a nap.”

Similarly, When Nick van Hofwegen, aka Young & Sick, can’t find his writing flow, he puts on his illustrating hat. “I might have it easier than others because I have the double medium – I do illustrations and art. If there is ever a moment I don’t really feel one is flowing I can go do the other. It comes from the same part of my brain, but it’s a different activation. My illustrations don’t really come from a lot of thought, they just come from doing. And so it opens up ways to get back into writing.” If you’re not a dual threat like Nick, doodling works too.

[*] Don’t Beat Yourself Up About It

Some days, you just might not have it. And that’s okay. Mark Manson cuts his losses and gets back at it tomorrow. “If I feel stuck or nothing comes out, I stop, take the day off, or go back to my outline/research and make sure I know what I’m talking about. Writing is like anything else. Athletes have bad games. Politicians give bad speeches. Writers have days where everything they write sucks. It’s normal.”

[*] Start The Day With A “Little Success”

Steven Pressfield, who wrote the definitive text on the mortal enemy, writer’s block, or as he dubbed it, Resistance, slays the dragon with a tiny victory to start the day.  “My friend Randy has a concept, ‘Little Successes.’ He tries to start his day with a series of successes, so that when he sits down to the blank page, he’s got momentum. The gym is that for me. It’s physical but it’s mental too. It’s a ritual, as Twyla Tharp says in The Creative Habit. I never want to get out of bed. I HATE the idea of getting up and going to work out. But I do it to do something I don’t want to do. And of course it feels great when it’s over. I feel virtuous. It’s a Little Success.”

[*] Race The Clock

A good way to get something done is having a deadline. When you don’t have a boss or an editor waiting on your work and creating that urgency, Benjamin Spall makes the deadline. “I recently bought a small analogue timer that I take with me everywhere and I use to time myself when I’m doing particular tasks. Don’t get me wrong, the alarm is excruciatingly annoying (it has a silent setting for when you’re in a public place), but what it’s great at is visually showing time slipping away.”

[*] Lock Yourself In Your Car

Ben Hardy wakes up and walks out to his car. But not to go for a drive. The car’s engine doesn’t start, but his writing engine does. “I wake up between 5:00-6:00am, get in my car, write in my journal about my goals and life. My car is a sacred space where I know it will be peaceful. Eventually, the journal writing makes its way to the topics I want to write about that day.”

[*] End When It’s Going Good

As soon as you really start to hit your stride, call it a day. That sounds painful, but Jeff Haden swears by it. “I try, whenever possible, to stop working at a really good point. Try it: When things are going really well, when you’re totally engaged and really hitting your productivity stride, whenever possible, don’t finish. Stop at a really good place. That way you leave yourself a fun place next time.”

Todd Henry does something similar. “I always end each day knowing exactly where I’m going to pick up the following day, because getting started is the most difficult part of the writing process for me. Several years ago I determined to “end with the beginning in mind,” meaning that I stop each session at a place where I have clear momentum and can easily pick back up the following day.”

As Hemingway said, “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.”

[*] Take A Pretend Road Trip With Imaginary Friends

Robert Kurson churns out books by pretending he’s telling his friends a story. What I think about is, ‘How would I best tell this to friends if we were driving from my home in Chicago to my favorite Indian restaurant in Milwaukee?’ That’s about an hour-long trip, perfect for storytelling. I try to “hear” myself telling the chapter on the drive—how I’d hook my friends, keep them interested, make them want to hear more. And then, as I’m listening to myself in this imaginary conversation, I let my fingers start typing.

James Patterson has imaginary friends, as well. “I’m always pretending that I’m sitting across from somebody. I’m telling them a story, and I don’t want them to get up until it’s finished.”

[*] Lower The Bar

Tim Ferriss says all you have to do, each day, is write two crappy pages, “I do my best writing between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m…My quota is two crappy pages per day. I keep it really low so I’m not so intimidated that I never get started.”

Ray Bradbury was also a proponent of detaching from perfection, “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row.”