It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

We only have so many hours in a day and we only have a certain amount of energy we can use in a day. Duh! The point is, we fill up our hours with so many things that we can look and feel busy that we forget to be productive.

To put it another way: we have limited bandwidth.

I’ve been going through my inbox the last couple of weeks (months?) and unsubscribing from newsletters that don’t bring me any value and only suck up time (opening and reading them). Sometimes I feel bad about this — this person had taught me a lot in the past, but now they’re just repeating themselves. I have to think about me, first, now. I have to think about my bandwidth and what I’m doing with it.

According to Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist, this is a good thing.

Remember “garbage in, garbage out”? You’re only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with. In the digital space, that means following the best people online—the people who are way smarter and better than you, the people who are doing the really interesting work. Pay attention to what they’re talking about, what they’re doing, what they’re linking to.
Harold Ramis, the actor and director most famous to people of my generation for his role as Egon in the movie Ghostbusters, once laid out his rule for success: “Find the most talented person in the room, and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful.” Ramis was lucky: The most talented person in the room was his friend Bill Murray.
If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon

About branding and marketing, I learned something new by listening to The New Generation Entrepreneur Podcast (instead of just listening to those focused on writers). These two episodes (among others) have really helped me to focus my energy on things that work: Effective Content Part 1: Playing In The Middle Makes Your Content A Commodity and Effective Content Part 2: Playing In The Middle Makes Your Content A Commodity.

I’ve been reading a boat load of books. Some non-fiction, some in genres that I don’t write in — and some by the big names in my genre even if I don’t like their books (because I’m supposed to do that to learn why readers love their books). I’ll be sharing a lot of these reviews in a series of blog posts at a later date #BecauseICan.

Just as you have a familial genealogy, you also have a genealogy of ideas. You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see.
You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences.

Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon

I’ve been learning a lot about myself while writing using the Skeleton Draft method by Steff Green. And this is echoed in Austin’s book.

You might be scared to start. That’s natural. There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s called
“impostor syndrome.” The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.
Guess what: None of us do. Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.

Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon

I’ve also learned, mainly because of the various powerouts we’ve been having, that I’m a lot more productive writing by hand — and a lot more creative. And I’m not alone.

There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key. The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us—we start editing ideas before we have them. That’s how the book was made—hands first, then computer, then hands, then computer. A kind of analog-to-digital loop.
That’s how I try to do all my work now. I have two desks in my office—one is “analog” and one is “digital.” The analog desk has nothing but markers, pens, pencils, paper, index cards, and newspaper. Nothing electronic is allowed on that desk. This is where most of my work is born, and all over the desk are physical traces, scraps, and residue from my process. (Unlike a hard drive, paper doesn’t crash.) The digital desk has my laptop, my monitor, my scanner, and my drawing tablet. This is where I edit and publish my work.

Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon

I’ve done a bit of rearranging in my study and now I have a dedicated space to write by hand. It’s been an interesting experience.

I know that I’ve been setting big goals for myself to reach (just look at these) but because I’ve organised my life in a certain way, I’m checking off the list with ease (or rather, as much as one can while writing new books) and I still have time and energy to get to the other things I have to do in a day.

I hope that my experiences have helped you a bit. What have you done to make your time and energy work for you? Any tips you’d like to share?