Writing productively is as much a skill as it is an art. And, you probably find yourself writing more today than you might think. When it comes to being productive, your ability to write well is of paramount importance. In this episode, Ray and Augusto discuss how they approach and the tools they use for writing productively, and hopefully it gives you some perspective on your writing and productivity.

Enjoy! Ask us your questions, and give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below.

In this Cast - On Writing Productively

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Show Notes - On Writing Productively

Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

Annie Proulx

Was Charles Dickens paid by the word?

Google Docs (Google Docs Speech to text functionality) - Google Drive

If you’re wanting to sign-up for G Suite to securely use Google apps for your business, sign up for a free trial here.

Evernote

Scrivener

Grammarly / iCab mobile browser

Apple Pages

yWriter 5

Boomerang Gmail - Respondable

Zotero

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Imposter Syndrome

Brene Brown TED Talks

Slack

Pareto Principle

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Robert Hass

Raw Text Transcript - On Writing Productively

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are you ready to manage your work and

personal world better to live a more

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fulfilling productive life then you've

come to the right place

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welcome to productivity cast the weekly

show about all things productivity here

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are your hosts Ray Sidney-Smith and

Augusto Pinaud

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welcome productivity cast listeners to

our second episode to find the links to

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all the resources we discussed a raw

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signature of where we discussed

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slash 0:02 everything you need about

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zero two and with that in this episode

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we're going to be discussing writing and

productivity enjoy I just want to get

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right into it because this is a really

important topic I think to everyone who

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is a Productivity enthusiast and really

wants to understand how to be more

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productive in their daily lives

I mean from everything we do in our work

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days there there is some you know form

of writing and we can do it more

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effectively you know more efficiently

and I think that there are many things

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we should think about when it comes to

writing whether it be addressing an

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email appropriately using email

appropriately being able to write that

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next report being able to write you know

even just filling out forms and even

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writing longer materials whether that be

blog posts which a lot of us have to do

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for work now

and because of social media and then you

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know if you're if you're an author or

some other kind of creative professional

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and you're looking to you know write

longer materials it's really important

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for you to be able to do this in the

most productive manner and so I just

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wanted to kick it in with some sort of

general principles for being able to to

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write productively and so so let's just

start off with basically the the what I

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believe is the initial and augusto you

can push back if you if you think I'm

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off off point here but I really believe

that reading is fundamental right it's

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really important for us to remember that

in order to be good writers we have to

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be good readers because if you don't

know what what and how to read well then

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you're not going to have the experience

with the written word that's necessary

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for you to be able to put words down on

paper or on screen that are really going

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to be effective if you don't read you

can't write okay and in a way if you

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think on a weight training K what what a

way trainer do is a series of exercises

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so he can't own his muscles okay and he

did that daily and he do that constantly

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I mean writing is exactly the same thing

you need to read constantly and all the

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time and different things because people

think oh well I'm going to be I want to

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write or I'm going to be writing about

business so I don't need I'm not in the

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business of reading fiction and I

completely disagree I think you need to

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set a schedule of read everything from

fiction to business to self-improvement

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to productivity to even religion in the

sense that it will show you how

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different people use different ways to

express the same things and I'm not

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advocating copy any of those styles but

it will allow you to understand and to

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identify your own style no and if you

can spend the time to read and to do

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that training at the end of the day

how'd you expect you're going to be

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ready for the moment that you are going

to be trying to compete that is at the

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moment you're going to be trying not to

write that text over the years have

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people coming to me and say well how how

can you write this much and say well

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it's simple just what every day okay

just sit and write every day could you

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read every day and if you can only have

a 10 minute to read every day then you

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only have 5 minutes to write every day

because a relationship I think need to

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be two to one twice the time of reading

for the time you want to write yeah I

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have to say I am guilty I have to have

to make the productivity confession that

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I have always leaned into nonfiction

reading and it's it's so powerful to be

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able to utilize fiction based writing

techniques when you are writing non

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you know and I primarily write

nonfiction and you know I I have to say

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you know you're absolutely right Augusto

it's so important it's almost imperative

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that you read both sides and different

genres you know from everything from

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Rumi to Shakespeare to to books that

have been translated from other

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languages it really does give you a

sense of how to communicate in the most

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broad way with specificity you know and

I mean Broadway to the broadest audience

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and with specificity meaning writing

efficiently basically writing so that

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every word counts and and I think you

know some people sort of hear you know

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sort of the e Annie Proulx sort of

writing with with such specificity that

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you know you write very very precisely

and therefore not as many words I don't

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necessarily mean that but I do mean that

you should you should make most words

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count right I mean you know you're not

Charles Dickens you're not being paid by

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the word I presume you're not being paid

by the word if you are then I'll

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continue continue Dickens is you know a

perspective there but if you're not

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getting paid by the word

you know you should still you should

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still make sure that your that your

words count and and so many times I

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receive an email from somebody and you

know it's just it's just so wordy and

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and I I not again I'll probably second

confession of the of the podcast this

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week is that I I happen to be a wordy

writer you know I tend to write multiple

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paragraph emails and we'll talk about

this when we get to sort of tools we can

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use you know I've used the tool recently

to help me sort of cut down on that

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because I did find myself writing you

know four or five six seven paragraphs

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of email and then recognizing that while

those emails were well-written they were

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unnecessary and they're probably going

to compete with my ability to go ahead

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and get a response so always good to

know that that you should be reading and

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you should also be reading your own

writing and I think that's really

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important that's a that's a mechanism

for you to be able to see a final

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product from a year ago to see where you

were to where you are now

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and I think it's really helpful to see

how how you grow and progress as a

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writer two things in what you said I

don't one now it's good to know that my

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emails are short pasted on your standard