Saturday, June 17, 2023

The 3- to 4-hour rule

 Oliver Burkeman, a British journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks, says there might be one hard rule for managing time when doing creative work: The limit seems to be three or four hours a day.

He’s not talking about heroic efforts. He’s talking about what people can do consistently.

Part of me wants to quibble. What if I’m editing a draft of a book, as opposed to writing a first draft? Both writing and editing are creative, but I’d say that first draft required more from the creative reserves. Put another way: I can edit longer than I can compose, especially on a first draft.

I don’t think you ever get a firm boundary between what’s creative and what’s mechanical in writing. And editing seems to me to be a fundamental part of the writing process. So I’m not sure I’m convinced this thinking — and this rule — is solid.

But another part of me wants it to be.

Three to four hours is all I can do. It’s comforting to think I’m not alone. 

• Source: Burkman publishes letter by email, The Imperfectionist, twice a month. His article on the rule for getting creative work done is here: 

https://www.oliverburkeman.com/fourhours

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