On the surface, it would seem that the more you write, the more productive you are. And the more time you waste on seemingly frivolous activities like watching football or reading fiction, the less you’re actually getting done. Sometimes though, the opposite holds true. There are no rules, but it’s quite possible that even after writing three hours daily for a week, you’ve only got two pages that don’t deserve to be trashed, yet after a week of no-writing-no-guilt, you come back inspired and fill in ten pages almost without effort.

It does help to have some sort of system in place though, even if you choose to deviate from it occasionally (and you will). Here then, are some of my current methods for keeping my writing and my writing life in shape.

1. Daily Journal. This is not an original idea, and several thousands of writers swear by it. I’m one of them. Every morning, I write at least 500 words in my journal. But I don’t give in to the temptation of saying, “This sucks” three hundred times. Instead, I write about the previous day, my work, my personal life, my expectations, my anxieties, what I’m hoping will happen today. Anything goes. Except “this sucks.” After I’m done writing these 500 words, the pressure to “write every day” is gone. I’ve already written today, so it doesn’t matter if I write or not. And without that pressure, I find I’m actually more eager to write.

2. 5 Things To Do Today: On my desktop is an electronic post-it note, the contents of which are visible to me every time I sit in front of my computer. It’s my “5 Things To Do Today” list, and I make it each night before going to bed as goals for the next day. They’re more than goals though– they’re job responsibilities. Usually, I try to do them by importance, but sometimes, I might just feel like reducing the numbers. Or I might choose convenience over importance. As long as I’m completing five tasks by the end of the day, it’s good. They don’t all have to be writing-related. Just five things that I need to get done. For instance, here’s my list for tomorrow:

- Write/publish blog entry
- Buy new keyboard
- Find a contact at UN/CRPF. Call the existing contact
- Respond to all urgent e-mails
- Finish research + transcribing interviews

3. One Folder Per Story: If you’re like me, you’ve got your research, interviews and drafts on a single project scattered all over the computer. On the Desktop, in My Documents, in folders that you specifically created, in e-mails. If you’re like me, you’re wasting way too much time looking for things. So here’s an idea: create folders for each story, and then make sub-folders for other random stuff such as research, interviews, e-mails and drafts. I know, I know, I’m one to talk. But seriously, I’m doing this now. Okay, I’m trying. And whenever I manage to succeed, it really saves a lot of my time.

4. Learn By Example: It’s great to be subscribed to three dozen writing newsletters, but wherever you can, learn by example. Next time you’re looking to write a brilliant lead, don’t head over to your favorite writing site to find an article on how to do it. Instead, open up magazines, hunt down a few Pulitzer winners, or look through articles and essays that you’ve enjoyed in the past and see how they did it. Learning by instruction is important too, of course, and you don’t need to invest in expensive classes, whether online or offline, to do so. In fact, I’ve never taken a single class in my life. What I have done though, is gobbled up the Poynter.org website and read and re-read the articles on there. All the information and books in the world on one side and Poynter on the other, and I’d pick Poynter without a thought.

5. Store Ideas by Importance: There are ideas that you think you want to do someday. There are others that you can’t wait to send to your favorite editors. And then there are those that are practically begging to be written right this instant. Those are the ideas you want to store a little separately from the rest. I have a neat travel diary that a friend gave to me, and it’s red with a map drawn on top, and it’s so pretty that for the first two months of its existence, I didn’t dare to write a word in it. Now I store all my best ideas in it. The ones that I was so excited about that I wrote bits and pieces of them without any kind of assignment or guarantee.