Who: David Burkus

Claim To Fame: David Burkus is the bestselling author of The Myths Of Creativity, Under New Management, and Friend Of A Friend. He is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and his work has been featured in Fast Company, the Financial Times, Inc magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and CBS This Morning. He is associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University where he was recently named one of the nation’s “Top 40 Under 40 Professors Who Inspire.” And his TED talk has been viewed over 1.8 million times.

Where To Find David: His Website, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram

Praise For David: “David Burkus is one of the world’s most highly-regarded young business thinkers — and this book shows why. FRIEND OF A FRIEND is packed unexpected insights about networking, all build atop a solid foundation of social science.” — Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of DRIVE and WHEN

When do you like to write? Are you regimented about your writing routine?

I tend to write in the mornings, not because I like it, but because it’s what works best in my schedule. I wake up, get the family ready for the day, and then settle into my office downstairs. If I’m writing a book, I’m very regimented about hitting my 500-1000 word goal for the day before anything else. If I’m not in the midst of a book project, then the word count is less important than just using that time to do “proactive work,” meaning work that involves making something or planning the making of something.

At about 10 or 10:30 (assuming I hit the word count), I leave for the gym to workout, then have lunch, then back to my office but this time for “reactive work” like emails, interviews, phone calls, or anything else. Afternoons are also when I film episodes of my DailyBurk video series, which is technically proactive work but the lighting is way better in the afternoons.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits? Anything you do when the writing isn’t coming easy?

If I’m writing a book, then I guess my biggest pre-writing routine is research. I’m always collecting a lot of different material and, before writing about it, I sort it by where I think it will go in the mental map of the book. Which means there are sometimes 10-15 piles of papers on my office floor. So before any writing for the day, I go back and look through whatever pile is the focus for the day and re-read everything.

Your background is in organizational psychology. Do you apply that to your writing routine? 

I do…in a couple ways. Forgive how nerdy this is about to get.

There’s some interesting research on the right level of ambient noise for working; I’ve written about it in the past. Basically, you want something the rises to the level of light chatter, the type you’d find in a coffee shop or hotel lobby. You also don’t want it to be too loud or too likely to draw you in. So I have a playlist of music literally called “Ambient” that is a good rhythm, not too distracting, and either doesn’t have words or has words I wouldn’t really understand anyway. I started with Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports” (the gold standard for ambient music) but I’m always looking for artists to add. Recently, I owe a debt of thanks to Casey Neistat for tipping me off to some cool unknown artists by using their songs in his movies.

There’s also a wealth of findings around progress as a potent human motivator. We want to know we’re making progress on something. This is the only reason I’ve stuck with Scrivener as the writing software for my first draft. I’m not the biggest fan of the software itself, but I couldn’t do without the way it has you set a target word count and then tracks your daily progress. I live for the satisfying little “ding” that tells me I’ve hit my word count for the day.

What would you say is the ideal work environment for a writer? Have you found any commonalities or anything specific about your office that contributes to your productivity?

I wrote a piece a while back about work/life balance being overrated and work/life integration being a better option over the long-term. The key is that if you flip back and forth between work and family/life issues, even if it’s as little as stepping out to make a “life” related phone call, then you’re better able to handle the stress of when one sphere interferes with the other (like a family emergency). I found my office kind of plays to that well. Basically, my office is tucked away in a part of the house that you’d only be in if you’re working. So even though the commute is a few steps, it gets me into “work” mode. But its only a few steps to walk back into the living areas and do something “life.” So I flip back a couple times a day and, at first, it really frustrated me because I was coming from a 9-5 environment. Now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Your first book The Myths of Creativity demystifies some of the forces behind innovation. Do you think there are any great myths about the writing process?

Writer’s block is the biggest myth out there. The idea that you’re just lost for any possible words isn’t some vague illness that strikes people when they’re trying to be creative. You’re not missing the words; you’re missing the research. All ideas are combination of preexisting ideas. So if you’re “out” of new ideas it’s probably because you don’t have enough old ideas to combine.

Go back and read more. Or spend more time mapping out the book. Don’t show up to the keyboard without a plan and then tell the world you have writer’s block. You’re lying to us, and to yourself.

You have written three books. Given what you now know, what would you tell the David setting out to write his first book?

“Give yourself a longer runway.” It’s not advice about writing but more about getting an idea to spread (which for me was the point of writing in the first place). It takes time. I had a lot of misconceptions about just how much noise was out there to push a signal through and how long it would take. Overnight successes tend to take 10-20 years.

Writers have to be master prioritizers – juggling all sorts of projects and deadlines at the same time. That’s certainly the case for you. Do you have any methods for managing tasks and time so to stay productive and not let overwhelm sneak in?

I sort of got at this in my daily routine. The reason I divide my day the way I do isn’t that my gym is open at odd hours. It’s because I want to get the “one big thing” done first before anything else. Then celebrate by not working for an hour or so. I focus on that all morning and trust that I have all afternoon to deal with whatever wants to compete for my attention.

In terms of managing what to work on, I treat my computer desktop as a queue for my work. I sort files in columns from left to right, from “to do” to “done.” Here’s a screenshot from this morning:

What writers and/or books do you consider the gold standard?

I’ve always seen Daniel Pink’s work as the model to which I aspire. I’ve been shameless about sharing my aspiration to be known as the “next” Pink. I’d even settle for “next NEXT” if someone else beats me to it. To me, his work is the right blend of storytelling, science, and (importantly) a prescription for working smarter.

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