Unexpectedly effective note-taking habit + writing w/ kids

2 recent articles from me

Here are two recent articles I wrote and published on Medium. I thought I’d share them here, too.

The articles appear in full below, or you can read them on Medium (1, 2) if you prefer.

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This Is My Better-Than-Expected Planning & Note-Taking Habit

My to-do lists and notes all appear in one place first: a legal pad.

But there’s one benefit to this that I hadn’t realized until the past few days.

The end of a legal pad provides a natural end point and reflection period.

Once I hit the end of my legal pad, it’s time to turn to a new one and start again.

Transferring from one legal pad to the next

But I don’t just throw the old one away…

I go back through the old one. I read and review it.

In this process, if I see something good, I’ll move that to a digital, searchable location if I haven’t captured it already. I use Notion for personal work and Tettra for my day job.

For instance, I do a lot of work with SEO.

If I find a stray keyword or a point in a meeting that could make a good blog post, I’ll add it to my content ideas list.

It also causes me to revisit and re-investigate old ideas that may not have gotten a fair shake the first time around.

The general process looks like this:

• Write things down on a legal pad

• Review the legal pad once it fills up

• Find the good stuff and add it to the right digital place

A few more benefits of this:

This naturally gives time for ideas to marinate. As I flip through my legal pad, the notes trigger ideas and connections. Things click when I review them again.

How long does each legal pad last?

It’s a good question.

Obviously, how often you use your legal pad matters a lot.

I mostly use mine as an everyday to-do list, and then for occasional meeting notes.

I don’t have a ton of meetings, so my page per day usage is probably lower than most, if you were to adopt a similar system.

I haven’t mapped it out page by page and done the math on how many pages I use per day. That could be useful I guess, but a bit more analytical than what I’m used to.

So far, my legal pad fills up by the end of the quarter. That’s a rhythm of every 3 months, which feels right.

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How To Be A Productive Writer (With Kids)

I have two daughters.

They’re now in elementary school, which let me tell you, is much easier time-wise than when they were toddlers.

But it’s still hard to carve out writing time with a family and a spouse.

This problem isn’t new, but it seems like most writing advice is shilled out by those with limited responsibilities.

I understand that.

Before I had children, I did write a lot. It wasn’t that great, and now, looking back, I wish I had written even more. Where did the time go? The time went to media consumption and hanging out, and grad school.

Oh yeah.

Anyway, here are some quick tips on how to be a productive writer when you have a family too.

1. Focus on the process not the outcomes

A lot of people would start with “setting clear goals” or something like that, but honestly, this is a hobby for me and I don’t have time for clear goals. I have a general direction I want to go in, though. And that’s what I focus on.

Control what you can control. Do what you can do.

It’s probably better to contain this to only a few projects (though I have a hard time with this).

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look for signals at all, but don’t beat yourself up when things aren’t falling in line.

2. Create a smart routine

Carve out dedicated time for your writing and experiment with different schedules to find what works best for you and your family.

My wife is a morning person, so she does a lot of her reading and studying then.

I have a flexible full-time job, so I usually do some personal writing after dropping the kids off at school.

This is slightly different for me because I moved to a different city about 6 months ago and I’m still figuring out the right routines.

3. Maximize short bursts of time

Capitalize on small pockets of time for writing. You have to.

I can’t emphasize how important this is.

It may not fit your perfectly calibrated schedule.

Your coffee may not be perfectly set on your desk.

But if you have a full-time job and are writing on the side with a family, then you’ll have to get used to creating in the chaos.

I like to think of this as micro-writing. Small tasks you can get done in a short period of time.

4. Create a dedicated writing area

I don’t have this in my house, but I have access to a small study area near by. This is what I use for this. Kids don’t come in there, and it’s soundproof.

This is a luxury, so you may want to blockade off a certain area of a room and then you can steal a few minutes in there writing.

It helps too if your notes or laptop or papers are close by at your writing desk so you can grab them quickly.

Create a conducive environment for writing, even if it means finding unconventional spaces within the chaos of family life. Embrace the messiness of creativity and find inspiration in everyday moments.

5. Consistency over goals

You (probably) won’t write a novel in a week.

Or maybe you won’t even have a good draft.

But mark your progress and pick up where you left

You will make mistakes. You won’t get as much done as you want.

Celebrate small victories, even if progress feels slow at times.

6. Take care of yourself so you feel like you have time to write

I’m writing this from a condo by the beach.

Here’s a sunrise I took today.

Cloudy sunrise at the beach

I’ve been myself for a few days. It was my wife’s idea.

I didn’t come here to work extra on my writing, though that would have been nice. I came here to survive, to make it.

To find balance.

You’ll have to say “no” sometimes. You’ll have to say “yes” other times.

As a parent, you need to find ways to take care of yourself, even if it doesn’t feel good in the moment — i.e. pushing yourself to exercise instead of watching Netflix.

This will give you more energy to actually conquer something that is “extra” — that is your writing.

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Keep going-

Josh Spilker