hours a day may scare you more than King’s novels, but you can’t
argue with his results. Stephen King is one of the most successful and
prolific writers of our time.
Whenever I tell this story, there is always one person who says to
me, “Well, sure, it’s easy for Stephen King—he’s Stephen King!” To
that I simply say, “I think the question you must ask yourself is this:
Does he get to do this because he is Stephen King, or is he Stephen
King because he does this?” That invariably stops that discussion
cold.
Like so many other successful writers, early in his career King
had to find his time blocks where he could—mornings, evenings, even
lunch breaks—because his day job didn’t accommodate his ambition
for his life. Once extraordinary results started showing up and he
could earn a living from his ONE Thing, he was able to move his time
blocks to a more sustainable time.
“Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing
the right thing.”
—Peter Drucker
An executive assistant on our team recently transitioned to
blocking large chunks of time for a project. It was stressful at first.
She was continually interrupted. E-mail alerts pinged, colleagues
dropped by, team members provided a steady stream of requests for
her time. These weren’t even distractions—they were her job. In the
end, she had to borrow a laptop and book a conference room to escape
“drive-bys” and random, nonurgent requests. But within just a week,
everyone became accustomed to the fact that for regular periods of
time she would not be accessible. They adjusted. It took a week. Not a
month or a year. A week. Meetings got rescheduled and life went on.
And she experienced a huge leap in productivity.
No matter who you are, large time blocks work.
Paul Graham’s 2009 essay “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s
Schedule” underscores the need for large time blocks. Graham, one of