Ep. 197: I’m Writing a New Book
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Writing Routine
shares insights into his daily writing routine, emphasizing the importance of consistency and structure. He writes every morning, except Saturdays, interleaving chapters of his new book on slow productivity, which focuses on doing fewer things at a natural pace while maintaining high quality 1. Cal's writing ritual begins after dropping his children at the bus stop, followed by a brief pull-up routine to activate his body and mind before diving into writing 2.
Ritual matters, right? Like, that's going to work much better than if just at some point, like if after we podcast, I was like, I'm going to go try to write, you know, good luck.
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This structured approach helps him maintain focus and productivity, even on days when he feels less energetic.
Note Strategies
Cal discusses his efficient book note-taking strategy, known as the corner marking method, which he uses to capture relevant information without excessive commentary 3. This method involves marking pages with slashes, brackets, and stars to quickly identify important sections, trusting his brain to recall why they were marked 4.
It's dead simple, with no commentary, nothing copied into another system, no note cards going into a box.
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This low-friction approach allows him to efficiently retrieve and utilize information for his writing projects.