Who: Laura Vanderkam

Claim To Fame: Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including Off the Clock, I Know How She Does It, 168 Hours, the bestseller What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and her newest book, Juliet’s School of Possibilities. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the podcast Best of Both Worlds. And her TED talk, “How to Gain Control of Your Free Time,” has been viewed more than 5 million times.

Where To Find Laura: Her Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Laura: “Thousands of books explain how we should set priorities, stay focused, and make time for what truly matters—but that advice, however sound, is all too easy to ignore. Laura Vanderkam takes a different approach [in Juliet’s School of Possibilities]. By harnessing the irresistible power of storytelling, she makes those aims vivid and compelling in an entirely new way, to show us how and why we can make room for possibilities.” — Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Four Tendencies and Better Than Before

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

I do the bulk of my writing in my home office, sitting at my desk, during normal business hours. In general, I’m better able to generate first drafts and do extensive edits during morning hours. By afternoon my energy is flagging, so ideally I use that time for answering emails and doing calls and meetings. But I’m not too particular about it. I’d love to be able to write in an Instagram-worthy studio overlooking a stunning vista but I’ve written book chapters while sitting on a bench during a kid’s karate class or while jammed in the middle seat on a flight. When it’s a job you get it done.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits that you do before you sit down to write?

Does getting my kids on the school bus count? The house is quiet, which is much more conducive to productivity! I like to sit down with a big mug of coffee, but usually by the time my workday starts I’m on my second cup, so it’s not quite as exciting.

What do you do on days when the writing doesn’t come easy? Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block? Do you think such a thing exists?

If I’m having a hard time writing something, it’s often because I haven’t done enough research — so I need to go interview some more people or find some better supporting data — or it’s because I don’t really care about the topic. That doesn’t get me out of writing something I’ve agreed to write, but I try to be curious about it. If I’m feeling a lot of resistance, that’s a sign that I should try to steer away from this sort of thing in the future.

If I care about the topic but I’m just having trouble getting started, I start in the middle. What’s my thesis? I write that down. Then I work forward and backward from there.

Do you find that you write differently or that your routine varies for short-form blogs versus your longer form books?

My book manuscripts definitely go through more drafts than the blog posts, but the basic routine is the same. I think of the point I wish to make. I think about how to illustrate it and what arguments might be convincing. I aim to get something down quickly. Then I can go back and make it better. It’s much harder to turn nothing into something than to turn something into something better.

In all your researching and writing on time management and productivity, what have been the greatest insights you’ve applied to your writing routine?

Small things done repeatedly truly do add up. You can write a book writing 500 words a day. You’ll actually write a book quite quickly at that pace!

All of your work is very research intensive. What is your method for researching and organizing material you might want to use for your future writing?

I keep big files on my laptop with my notes from everyone I’ve interviewed for a project, plus links to studies or other articles. I keep paper notebooks with chapter titles every few pages, and I put notes in there of what might go in each chapter, based on the research I’ve done. If I’m doing quantitative research (such as analyzing time diaries) that tends to involve Excel files with many columns and rows.

Deciding on an idea to pursue writing about can be the most challenging aspect for a writer. How do you come to the point of ‘this is something I need to write about’ as opposed to ‘this is something I enjoy reading about’?

When I find myself continuously reading about a topic, and forming strong opinions, that’s a good sign it might be interesting to write about. But I have learned over the years that not all interesting topics are worth spending too much time on. That’s the upside of keeping a blog and writing articles for places. I can float an idea and see the reaction. If no one else cares, trying to do a big project related to that topic is going to be a slog.

What are the best pieces of writing advice that you’ve ever received or read?

An editor once told me that even when people are reading silently — that is, in their heads — they’re actually hearing the words. So the key to good writing is creating work that sounds good when read out loud.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

I think, like many writers, I keep coming back to The Elements of Style. If everyone would omit needless words, the world would be a better place.