Episode Details

Attention researcher Dr Gloria Mark (Attention Span), bestselling author Oliver Burkeman (Meditations for Mortals) and book strategist Charlie Hoehn (Play It Away) on designing your day around peak focus, embracing imperfection in creative work and bringing play back to the page.

You'll learn

• The four states of attention every writer should know.
• Two daily peak focus windows, and a simple method to find your own.
• The reframe that gives writers permission — most writing isn't flow.
• How the success of one bestselling book can paralyse the next.
• A quantity-over-quality method that satisfies the inner perfectionist.
• Why free writing isn't a warm-up but the engine of the next draft.
• A counterintuitive trick for handling interruptions when you're trying to write.
• What play deprivation quietly does to creative output.
• A small experiment with play that resets your relationship to work.
• Why fighting your own nature as a writer is a losing game.
   

Resources & Links

Dr Gloria Mark

• Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity by Dr Gloria Mark
• Chronotype (Sleep Foundation)
• Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Yohaku no bi: The Beauty of Empty Space
• Gloria's website
• Gloria's newsletter

Oliver Burkeman

• Meditations for Mortals
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
• The Imperfectionist (newsletter)
• Deep Freewriting by Stephen Lloyd Webber
• ILYS software

Charlie Hoehn

• Play It Away
• The Power of Play | Charlie Hoehn | TEDxSantoDomingo
• Charlie's website
• Author Alliance

Original Episode Links

• Dr Gloria Mark's original episode

• Listen Now