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Staying productive as an author isn’t just about writing more - it’s about creating systems that help you focus, avoid burnout, and actually enjoy the process. In this episode of The Written Word Podcast, Ricci Wolman and Ferol Vernon share their favorite productivity hacks, from planning your week with intention to using the Pomodoro technique and batching tasks.
We’ll cover:
We’ll cover:
- How to set up an environment that keeps you focused
- Why planning your day (or someone else will) is a game-changer
- Tricks for avoiding distraction and managing your energy
- The Pomodoro technique and why short breaks boost creativity
- Why celebrating your “done list” is just as important as making a to-do list
Whether you’re balancing writing with a day job, juggling deadlines, or just trying to stay consistent, this episode will give you practical, proven strategies to get more done - and feel good doing it.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it with a fellow author and leave us a review. It helps more writers find the show.
The Written Word Podcast is produced by Walk West.
© 2025 Written Word Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Creators and Guests
What is The Written Word Podcast?
A podcast for authors who want to build successful writing careers. Each episode explores the business and craft of being an author, with practical strategies for selling more books, growing your audience, and navigating the publishing world. Presented by Written Word Media.
Ferol Vernon: [00:00:00] If you don't, you know, plan that family trip, right? If you don't make your doctor's appointments, if you don't do that kind of stuff, you burn out, right? And it's not healthy. And I think we've seen that a lot and I think especially for, you know, writers listening to this show, which a lot of times it's a solitary endeavor, right?
It's you and your keyboard and the thoughts inside your head. And like there's writing groups. Those things are great, but like a lot of times you could have that tendency not to break out of that world. And I think it's important to do so. Welcome to the Written Word podcast. The podcast for authors who want to build a successful writing career.
I am Ferol Vernon, and I'm here with Ricci Wolman. And this is the Written Word, media Pod. Hello everybody and welcome to the Written Word Media podcast. Uh, the podcast where Ricci and I go through everything that's happening in the world of indie author Dom. And today, uh, we have something a little different that we're excited about.
Uh, Ricci and I are gonna play. Productivity, ping pong. So we're gonna each share a [00:01:00] little bit of a hack. Uh, I'm pretty excited about it, Ricci, when we came with the concept for the show. So, um, you know, I think this is, uh, one of the things you and I both feel very strongly about and excited to talk about it.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, great to be here. We're recording on a Friday today, which is a little different, so. A little bit of that end of week energy, so it's nice to do something fun.
Ferol Vernon: I think it's appropriate that we're doing this. We have a, a meeting in 37 minutes and we're, we, we're, we're trying to slip in the pod between now and then, and so it's very appropriate that it's about productivity and I think before we get started, we're each gonna share a few productivity tips that are hopefully super relevant for authors, but also broadly applicable for anybody.
I think Ricci and I are both coming from. Different camps here when we talk about productivity. So Ricci, uh, I'll let you talk about like your philosophy in a minute, but where I'm coming from is, uh, productivity is like a battle, right? Because I have, uh, a lot of attention problems. So for me, a [00:02:00] lot of my strategies around.
You know, managing myself, keeping myself focused, keeping, uh, those kind of things. Whereas for you, I think productivity is a little bit more of a fun subject and less of a guardrail thing.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, totally. Um, productivity is fun for me. I was that. You know, kid who loved shopping for school supplies and lining up my pencils and had everything super organized on my desk and in my backpack.
Um, so it's just in my DNA. And then, um, luckily for me as I've been in my professional life, this, uh, whole school of how to be productive and how to optimize your time. Is having a moment. So there is all kinds of new things for me to learn and, uh, a ton of really interesting and cool tools. Um, and stationary.
I do have a stationary problem. Um, I kind of like pillows. I, I can't really have enough, pretty stationary and productivity planners and dashboards and, and all the things. So, um, for me it's kind of [00:03:00] like a game. It's fun. Um. And I think, uh, I tend to be kind of good at it just because that's where my lean has been personality wise, uh, since I probably was born.
Ferol Vernon: Yeah. I, on the other hand was the kind of kid whose notebook I would get to the very last minute. I ended up taking notes, you know, on that, like the brown cardboard at the end of the notebook where I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't have any pages left 'cause I wasn't planning for it. So, uh, coming from two different camps here, but let's get into it.
Ricci, start us off. What is your number one productivity hack that you wanna share with the audience today?
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, so my very first one is around planning. Um, so I think a lot of time people think about productivity as doing, but what I've actually found is the better you plan, the more productive you can be.
Um, and I'm gonna explain what I do in terms of planning and it might sound a little intense, but it's actually really not. So I would, you know, say, give it a try, put your own spin on it. But what I like to do is I like to plan my week and I like to plan my days. [00:04:00] And so what this looks like for me is usually like on Monday morning, I'll sit down, I'll pull up my Google calendar 'cause that's what I use, and then I'll have a piece of paper in front of me.
Um. Or I do have, like I said, a cute little, little productivity dashboard that has all the days of the week for the five working days on there. And I will write down a list of what I'm hoping to accomplish for the week. So that might be three things. It might be six things, but I kind of, I dump it all out.
I'm like, these are the things I wanna get done. And then I look at Monday through Friday and I kind of pencil in which days I'm gonna work on each thing. So it's kind of high level, broad strokes. Um, but I take into account things like, oh, on Tuesday I'm in meetings all day. So on, on that day, maybe none of my items make it onto the list.
Uh, let's say on Friday, you know, I, I have to like pick up the kids or I'm doing something with kids on Friday afternoon, so I'll be like, okay. Um, I need to put less stuff on Friday or less stuff on Thursday, whatever it might be. So I kind of plan at a high level and look at the week. And a lot of the time [00:05:00] what this helps me do is say, actually, I've got six things on my list and there's no way I can get them done this week.
So what are the top three? It does the realism. Yeah. Right away I, I get a really good reality, reality check and it makes me have to prioritize and say, okay, really what are the most important things I wanna get done? So that's kind of my like high level. This is what the week kind of looks like. And, and I have that, you know, kind of up in front of me.
And then every morning I come in and I actually plan my day. So let's say it's a Monday morning, I've kind of got my high level week, and then I sit down and I say, okay, let's plan my day, hour by hour. And again, I like to write things down. I dunno, for my brain. It just like works better than putting stuff onto digital calendar, which I know Farrell, you're.
Maybe different that way. Um, but I like to write down, okay, Sam's sitting at my desk at 9:00 AM and actually say 9:00 AM prep and plan. And I give myself half an hour to do that. So I don't give myself a task at 9:00 AM so that I'm already behind. And then [00:06:00] I put on all the meetings I have for the day if I have meetings.
And then I look at my high level plan and say, okay, I'm supposed to be working on task A today. And I find. The the buckets of time that I'm gonna put that in. And so then what happens during the day is when I'm switching from task to task, I don't have to sit there and think about what am I gonna work on next?
I just look at my plan and I say, okay, it's 10 o'clock, this is what comes next. You know, I'm done with this. Now I'm ready to move on to that. So I don't have this decision fatigue when I get in the day. And I do find that when I get to the end of the day. I've mostly worked on the things that I was hoping to work on.
Um, the one little, like micro hacking here is that I usually plan nothing for Fridays because even though I look at my whole week and I think I've got it down, um, I always tend to be overly ambitious. Stuff happens that you don't expect. And so Friday's my overflow day. So when I get to the end of Thursday and I'm like, okay, you know, these are things I didn't do.
Um, Friday's the day that I get to take all of that stuff, um, and, and put it over [00:07:00] there instead.
Ferol Vernon: Yeah. That's amazing. I think, yeah. You know, there's two camps. There's the digital camp and the pencil and paper camp. And I know, I know everybody's kind of a little bit of a mix, uh, where you land. I think, you know, the planning your day, and this is a quote that I've heard you say, so I'm attributing it to you, but is.
You know, if you don't plan your day, somebody else will.
Ricci Wolman: That's right.
Ferol Vernon: Right. And so when you plan your day, you know, one of the things that's so powerful about it is you know what you're supposed to be doing and you don't get those train wreck days where everybody else needs your time. You're saying, no, I'm doing X, or I'm doing y.
Um, and so it's really like a little bit, not only is it a good way to sort of allocate work, but it's a little bit of a moat around the distractions that the keeping them at bay.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, a hundred percent. And so when you have incoming coming in and somebody's like, oh, can I grab five minutes of your time?
Um, instead of just saying yes, because you weren't sure what you wanted to work on next, or you were in one of kind of holes. You say, I can meet with you at three o'clock, because that's when you know you're [00:08:00] done working on your tasks. Um, or you can say, Hey, what about doing that tomorrow? Because you have some structure to your day.
So, uh, that's a, that's another really good point. And you're right, that is one of my favorite quotes. Uh, if you don't plan your day, someone else will. If you don't plan your luck, someone else will. So it's important to have some intention and at least a sense of what you wanna accomplish and where you're headed for the week.
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, what are you got,
Ricci Wolman: Ferol? What would be your number one productivity hack?
Ferol Vernon: Yeah. Right. So think about my world as like, you know, ping pongs app, right? There's, there's a million different thoughts going on, a million miles an hour. So I have a lot of energy. So it really, it's around directing it right in into one place, right?
And sort of funneling that creative and energy into one zone. So the number one hack that I have is a clean. Desk, and I know that's gonna sound silly. Mm-hmm. But like, I, I literally have nothing on my desk except for, you know, my computer. I have a three by five note card and a glass of water. Right. And that's it.
And, uh, you know, that was not the way I've always done things. My desk used [00:09:00] to be a disaster and I would be like, eh, it doesn't really matter. Like, I'm focused on my screen. That was on my desk. But I think. The environment, once you're really honest with yourself, matters a lot. So I keep everything off my desk, obviously.
I have papers and paperwork. Everybody does permission slips from school, you know, financial documents, all this stuff that you gotta deal with. I keep those in a different desk, right? So if possible, like keep having a whole separate zone for that, and then a focus zone. And so for me. My primary desk is my focus zone.
And then there are all these things. You know, we talked, we joked a little bit at the beginning about like how being productive is fun for you. For me, it's not fun. I don't like it. It's like, oh God. Rules so annoying. Right? And I think, yes, a lot of creatives out there listening, you know, it may resonate with that.
And so what I do is I try to like trick myself into liking these things, right? So I get like, Hey, I need to have my top three things I need to get done for the week. And I write those down on my little note card that I have at my desk. [00:10:00] And I got really fancy, cool, expensive note cards, and I have a cool little wooden box that I put them in, and that's totally unnecessary, right?
You go to CVS, spend two bucks and get these three by five note cards, but it makes me feel cool and I like it. So like I look forward to writing those things down, right? And I bought myself some fancy black wing pencils, which are way too expensive for a number two pencil again. CBS in two bucks would solve the problem.
But, uh, it sounds like you have a
Ricci Wolman: stationary problem as well,
Ferol Vernon: but buying these sort of cool things makes habits that you don't like a little more fun. And I think that's really important. Right. For me and for and for everybody. And then, you know, the final thing I do on that. Um, front is my phone, which I think everybody has the battle of attention with your phone.
And I'm not gonna sit here and say I've conquered it, but, uh, keeping your phone away from your workspace is really important. And, um, I put it like on a separate dock, you know, and I used to just kinda like plug it in nearby and I always kinda look at it and it would somehow end up on my [00:11:00] desk and like, I didn't like that.
So I bought myself like a little Etsy. You know, handcrafted wooden charging station. And now I like when I put it in there, it like connects and I feel good about like leaving it there. Um, and so these little ways to kinda like give yourself a little hit of dopamine, uh, along with the things that maybe you're not so thrilled about.
It's sort of a, the spoonful of sugar technique.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, totally. I mean, I, um, when I. It, you know, head up to your workspace. Um, I always jokingly call it the Batcave because Farrell, it's so funny, Farrell likes to work in darkness, so his desk is like pristinely clean, all the lights are turned off. You know, he's got his like black pencils and his like cool cards, um, and yet has a super, has like one monitor, so it's super batcave vibe.
Whereas MySpace, like, I open all the windows and I've got plants everywhere. But I think that's what's so cool about it, right? Like my environment is what speaks to me and what makes me [00:12:00] feel like this is an environment where I'm happy and I can work well. And your environment, um, is what, what speaks to you.
So there's no right or wrong answer as to what that environment should be, but taking some time to figure out what environment makes you feel that's exactly feel cool. And what environment triggers the association with like, okay, now I'm sitting down and I'm in, I'm jamming, you know, bat go mode. Or now I'm sitting down and I'm in like super fun productivity mode.
Um, that is a cool hack.
Ferol Vernon: It is. And I think, you know, anybody who's ever done a video call with me is like, oh, well that sounds weird. Like your space is always so brightly lit and like I have to run around and turn on like all the lights because when it's just me, it's like a dark little thing. The kids will come up to my office sometimes, they'll be like, well.
Dad, I didn't know you were here 'cause all the lights are off and I'm totally quiet.
Ricci Wolman: Oh, it's great.
Ferol Vernon: Okay. All right. Uh, hacks one and two from us. Ricci, what's your second productivity hack for? For the audience?
Ricci Wolman: Okay, so my other one, um, and I think we'll see a pattern here. You know, like I have my little rigid things and you have [00:13:00] your, your things. Um, but the second thing that I love as a productivity hack is I use something called the Pomodoro technique.
And what this is, is a technique where you work for a certain amount of time and then you're off for a certain amount of time. And generally what's recommended is 25 minutes on, five minutes off. Um, and of course I have a gadget, right? So I have like. This cool little, um, timer that I just got on Amazon, 10 bucks.
Um, and then what I do is when I sit down and I start my task, I just go and like, I set it to the 25 minutes, you know, and I put it down and I kind of work, work, work. And then when the, um, timer goes off. I take a five minute break. And what's really important with the Pomodoro technique is when you take the break, you, you actually break.
You can't sit check email, you can't look at your screen. Yeah, you gotta go walk away from your station. Um, if you're working in like a space with other people that actually recommend going and like chatting with other people because it really gives you your brain a total rest and puts it in [00:14:00] a different mode.
So I'll go downstairs, I'll make a cup of tea, or I'll go sit outside and like. Look at the birds for five minutes, and then you come back to your desk and you set your next 25 minutes. So it's almost like you're working in these sprints, but it has a really cool rhythm to it. And what it also does is it automatically builds in breaks to your day.
Because otherwise, my tendency was to sit down and I would just go and I could be heads down working for four hours and then I'd look up and I'd be like, whoa. I've been working for four hours, and then in the afternoon, I find difficult to have that kind of focus because I'd basically like burnt up all my, my tension.
Like I, I, I, you know, kind of went too long, too hard, you know, burnt too bright. And so this is like, it builds in these, um, these little breaks for me. Um, so, and it also gives me a chance, you know, just like physically to get up, stretch my body, like my neck and my shoulders don't hurt as much because. When you like get up and walk, walk away from your desk, you just naturally, you're like, oh yeah, you do this.
You know, you're moving around, you've [00:15:00] got a different position. Um, I will say sometimes if I'm like in flow and in the zone, which sometimes I know a lot of writers have this, where you're just writing, writing, writing, and that. Timer goes off sometimes I'm like, no, not right now. And I'll just set the next 25 minutes so I'll get more like an hour cycle in.
Mm-hmm. Um, so I'm not like so rigid about it that I always do that. Um, but typically I do it and then if I'm in flow, I'll kind of skip one of the breaks, um, just so that I can kind of keep going and stay in that like flow state.
Ferol Vernon: So I, I know that you do this because I hear the little timer ding down the hall all the time, but what tasks do you find it's the most helpful for, and which are the ones where it doesn't help as much?
Like how does this 25 minute cycle, you know, impact certain kinds of activities versus others for you?
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, I would say it generally, it works pretty great for most tasks. Um, even the deep work tasks, like I'm a big believer in deep work and like I turn off, you know, my phone and all of my stuff and I'm [00:16:00] like, I'm just gonna work on this problem for.
Two hours. Um, and you would think that this technique might be disruptive for that, but I actually do find that it's helpful. 'cause even when I'm in deep work and I'm thinking about only one thing, taking that five minutes to kind of get up, stretch, um, is helpful. Where it absolutely is the most helpful.
And where it thrives the most is when you actually are trying to do 30 minute tasks or tasks that you don't want to run over too much. Yeah. So in that situation, you know, the timer might go off. And when you walk away from your desk, you have to ask yourself like, is this good enough? Am I done with this?
Can I move on to something else? Or do I need to polish it up? Whereas sometimes if you kind of stay onto something, you just land up. Maybe this is again, just me, like polishing a shiny spoon, right? Like sometimes I'm like, okay, I've got enough here that I can send an email to the team or I can move on to my next, next task.
So it's also just a natural break, um, to kind of, you know, pull me out of the task to be like. Am I done? Am I close to done? You know, where, where am I [00:17:00] in the flow of this particular thing I'm trying to get done?
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, we, we talk about this a lot, the sort of polishing a shiny spoon. Like there are, there are times when work is done, but it's fun and enjoyable and you're proud of what you've sort of made or accomplished or designed or written.
And so it's fun to kind of tweak and play with it and sort of stay in that world. It's not particularly productive. Yeah. Um, and you know, we like to say Everett more media, you know, inertia is powerful. And that means whatever you're doing, it tends to go that way until you stop it. And so I think one of the really nice things about this technique is you've built in checks on inertia so you can ride it when it's valuable to you and you can stop it when it's not.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah. Yeah. 'cause you know, like working in Excel is like super fun for me. So sometimes I'll be doing, you know, a financial model. I'll be looking at like, you know, doing analysis on all the results and I could spend all day doing that and that's my happy place. So it, you know, it's helpful for that. Or if I'm doing something marketing, if I'm like, you know, doing meta ads or reader reach ads, that kind of stuff is super fun for me.
[00:18:00] So it's really good to have to kind of come at it and be like, okay, you're just doing this 'cause it's your favorite activity and you don't wanna move on to the next. Fun or are you doing it because the task is not actually complete yet?
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, exactly.
Ricci Wolman: What about you feral? What would your number two productivity hack be?
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, so I think, um, similar in turn, you know, a lot of themes here about time blocking, which is really important, like how you allocate your time, it's your most val valuable resource. Uh, for me it's about batching, right? So I like to group things that are similar into one. Batch. And you know, it's funny, we kind of talked about the show as like a ping pong where we're going back and forth, but a lot of times what can happen is your attention can ping pong.
So you're getting a text and then you're like back, you know, you're out from writing and you're reading a text and then you're back. And that switching cost is like really, really, um. Costly for your attention and your productivity. And so, uh, what it's really important is to batch. But, but sometimes you need those things, [00:19:00] right?
And so there are times where like, I've gotta call and make a doctor's appointment. I've gotta call and figure out some kind of bill, or I've gotta like, uh, do some paperwork. And so all of these sort of admin tasks. I put them in one block on my calendar and then I knock them out and like, you know, calling the dentist and like paying our annual fee bills have nothing to do with each other, but they're the same kind of sort of lightweight, they're not like deep thought tasks, but they, they're important and they have to get done.
But if I intersperse those things throughout the day, I'd be switching gears in my mind so often that it takes you outta flow of the other things that you're doing. And so you and I both talk about deep work, which, you know, plug for that book. Um. Which is really great and, and somewhat game changing for how I sort of think about work and life.
Um, but that's really an important way to do it is taking these admin things, piling them up and then putting them in the side. And, you know, uh, my dad used to say, uh, when you pick up a piece of paper [00:20:00] action, it. File it or throw it away, but don't put it back down. And, uh, obviously that's a, a relic from another era, but it's the same idea.
What he meant is like if you pick up a, a, an email, right? And then you decide not to do it, or you snooze it and then you put it back, you've like spent the energy of figuring out what to do. But you haven't done it. You've made no progress. And so what I like to do with like the emails and things I have to get back to, if I have a.
A block or a batch where I'm doing email. If I have something that I need to do based on an email, I'll read it and then I'll add a to do that says like, reply to this email. Mm. And, and, and then I'll get rid of it. And so then I get to email zero. But then my to-do list is really long to get back to people on certain things.
But every time I've picked up an email, I've actioned it. Uh, I've actually replied or I've figured out what needs to happen to it, filed it, which is like putting it on a to-do list. And I think that's a really. Important productivity hack. 'cause a lot of people can like check a [00:21:00] text and their market is unread or check a slack message market is unread.
Check an email market is read for those listening on audio, Ricci's raising her hand and that doesn't get you anywhere. But it feels like you're working, you know, because like, I'm checking stuff.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm jealous of you because when I've looked at your inbox like. Ferol does generally have like less than five emails sitting his inbox at any given time.
Um, and I, I do bash my emails, but I have not been as good about the actioning piece of it. So I generally have, you know, 30 or 40 emails sitting in my inbox at any particular time. Um, I also have anxiety that if I like. Read mark and emails, read and added to a list that then I'm gonna forget to, to respond to that person.
Ferol Vernon: So that's like super common. I'm glad you brought that up because I think, you know, part of my like, uh, attention problems is having, you know, I'm forced to trust systems because I can't mm-hmm. Remember things I just can't, right? And so, uh, I trust my system and I do it the exact same way every [00:22:00] time. So like, I look at an email and then if I have to reply to it, I put a to do that says, reply to this person, and I mark it's red and I move on.
And I trust that that's gonna work because. I don't really have another option, people.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, it does, right? It does. It does work for you. And just just for the audience listening, when you say you have attention problems, what do you mean?
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, so I have a DHD, or it was called a DD when I was diagnosed. And so what that means is that you just struggle to stay focused on one task.
And so I have a lot of energy and a lot of creativity, but it's typically, you can think about it like a big. Hard room. And if you threw like a super bouncy ball in there, it's like bouncing around a lot of time, right? Yeah. So it's never staying on one wall. And so all of the systems that I've developed over the years are around how to keep things focused and keep that energy focused.
And so instead of expending energy, uh, remembering things and focusing on things that I know I'm not gonna be able to, or I'm gonna fail. I have all these little fail safes that I do and I write things down. But then when I sit down at my desk, I have all [00:23:00] these little crumple pieces of paper in my pocket, but I take them out, I put them on my ulu and I throw them away.
And so, you know, I park in the same spot when I go to the mall every single time. Right. Because that way always know my car. I test
Ricci Wolman: this,
Ferol Vernon: but it drives
Ricci Wolman: the rest of the family. Great. 'cause we're all like, it does. Why are we parking so far away? And he's like. This is where I park when I go to the mall. So I never fit
Ferol Vernon: in my car.
Yeah, you put your keys in the same place, wallet in the same place. So all these little things are all designed so that I'm spending their systems that are designed to spend zero energy remembering sort of things that are sort of cluttering up, uh, my mind. And so that's a, a lot of the things that I've developed over the years are all around sort of, uh, making the most of the way my brain works.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great takeaway, right? You gotta set up your systems and then you gotta trust your systems. That's right. Um, and you gotta batch your work so that you're not having this cost of switching all the time. So if you're an author, when you're sitting down to write, that's using a very different part of your brain than if you're [00:24:00] setting up your marketing plan for the week.
Or, um, if you're, you know, maybe brainstorming characters and, and not writing. And so actually batching that work and then putting it on your plan for the day. Uh, is really effective.
Ferol Vernon: Yeah, and I think, you know, one of the reasons I'm drawn to sort of automation and systems is because it works so well for me and it helps so much and I think everybody can sort of leverage those things.
But a lot of like energy goes into like figuring out a system once and then automate, I guess I don't have to think about it again. Yeah. And I think a lot of people who don't have that, who are able to pay attention, they don. Sort of require that as often, but then as you get busier and busier as you're trying to accomplish more and more, it sort of breaks, right?
And so that's part of the reason why in Word Media, we love building software for, for authors. Uh, 'cause you know, we work really hard to get something done once and then we. Don't have to figure it out again, and we just do it, you know, hundreds or thousands of times again, for, for our authors and, and that's part of why we do what we do.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, absolutely.
Ferol Vernon: Okay. Alright, Ricci, what's your next one?
Ricci Wolman: Um, okay, what's my next [00:25:00] one? My third productivity hack is another one of these where you're not really doing anything at all, so it is celebrating your done list. So what I like to do on Friday is give myself a whole big pat on the back and look at everything I've done for the week.
So the way my systems work is I do have, you know, kind of my priorities and my checklists that I'm doing. So for me, I just sit down and I like, I literally spend five minutes. Reading all the things that I did, seeing the check marks, like actually taking the win. And if you haven't kept a list all week, sometimes if I don't have a list handy, I will actually write down, Hey, these are all the things that I accomplished this week.
And some of them are work and some of them are just life, right? Like I got to, you know, go. My daughter at her swim meet, or I got to have coffee with a, um, an author who needed some advice or I had a call and mentored a potentially female entrepreneur. And so I put all of those things down and I look at them and I say to [00:26:00] myself, wow.
Like, look how much you got done this week. Because what invariably happens, and the way that our psychology works as as humans, is we always focus on the negative, not on the positives. You get to the end of the week and you're like, oh, I didn't get to number three or number six on my, of course, yeah. I thought I wanted to write three chapters, and I actually only wrote two.
And if you have that mindset, what lands up happening is you get burnt out because week after week you feel like a failure and then you lose your motivation to actually start fresh and put energy in the following week. So I love this because it just makes me feel really good. It's a great way to go into the weekend as well.
It helps me switch my brain off and say, Hey, you had a great work week. You did a ton this week. Now it's time to rest, go into the weekend, do the fun things. Um, and I, it also really helps keep me motivated because I look at the list and I'm like, whoa, I accomplished a ton, even though maybe I didn't feel like I did.
Imagine what I'm gonna accomplish next week when I have a clear week. You know, which never actually happens, but it does help to keep that momentum going by celebrating those wins at the [00:27:00] end of every week.
Ferol Vernon: Got it. So, so talk to me about like what's on the list. Obviously there's to-dos. Uh, like, do you put meetings, do you put personal chores on there?
Like what, what goes on the list that gets celebrated?
Ricci Wolman: Yeah. So it's mostly like, um, the, the things that I wanted to accomplish for work. Um, I put on things that have to do, I'm like very big into taking care of like my body and my mind. So I'll put things like, I, I took a walk every morning this week, I meditated.
Twice this week. Right. That kind of stuff. Um, and then it's the relationship stuff. 'cause that's really meaningful to me as well. And that's where, you know, a decent amount of my time goes. The truth is I could probably be quote unquote more productive if I spent more time just working on work tasks and not giving my time in either places.
But, um. I do really like to like give back by being out in the community, whether it's the entrepreneurial community here in the triangle, or whether it's taking calls with authors and helping them with their stuff. And then there's also just the family stuff, which [00:28:00] yeah, honestly is my top priority, right?
So being a parent, having two kids, like it's really busy. Um, but instead of being like, oh, you know, I ran around picking up my kids. When I look at my wins for the week, part of the win is like. You know, I picked up my kids every week. I sat and had, you know, a snack with them when they got home from school and we had time to sit and chat or, you know, we did something really fun together one night, or, you know, I planned a family trip together.
So those things that do take up a decent amount of my time, those get put down on my wins list because life is not just about what you're doing for work life is about what you are doing with your time, where you're spending your time. And some weeks that work productivity might be lower. But that's 'cause you spent more time on relationships and family or health.
And for me that's okay. But it's a good reminder because we live in a culture that really emphasizes productivity at work and there's not a lot of messaging around, yeah, hey, if you're spending your time on some of these other really important things that you [00:29:00] care about deeply, that that is a positive.
So I really like to take the end of the week to just reflect on all the things that felt really good to me and all the things that I did get, quote unquote done.
Ferol Vernon: Yeah. That's amazing. I think that's like, like a great takeaway for everybody right there. There's more to crossing something off your list than just getting it done, right?
There's how did it make you feel? And I think, you know, the other thing that people don't always take into account is how important that other stuff is actually to that work productivity, right? Like if, if you, if you don't, you know, plan that family trip. Right. If you don't make your doctor's appointments, if you don't do that kind of stuff, you burn out.
Right. And it's not healthy. And I think we've seen that a lot and I think especially for, you know, writers listening to this show, which a lot of times it's a solitary endeavor, right? It's you and your keyboard and the thoughts inside your head and like. There's writing groups, those things are great, but like a lot of times you could have that tendency not to break out of that world.
And I think it's important to do so.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah. And I think that's, uh, one of the reasons a lot of [00:30:00] authors attend conferences. Yeah. Or masterminds because it is solitary and it is lonely. Um, and similarly, you know, running a business. Has a lot of parallels, um, authors. You're running an author business.
Absolutely. You know. Absolutely. And I, here, we, you know, we are running a business that supports authors, but when you go to these conferences, you could potentially look at them and say, oh, I took three days and I didn't work, I didn't work on my, you know, actually writing my book. But you come away from those experiences.
So inspired and with so many new ideas. And so, um, that is, that's a win and that should be chalked up as a win. Um, and so spending time in places that inspire you, that feed you, that refuel you, and, uh, looking at those as productivity wins and not just to things that you're doing that are taking you away from quote unquote what you think your work is.
Yeah. So we have like five minutes left 'cause we, we do have a meeting to get to. Um, so take us over the finish line. Farrell, what is your final productivity hack?
Ferol Vernon: Okay, so we've hinted [00:31:00] at this a little bit, so, so it's a good one to end with, but, uh, the. The thing that most people have on them at all time is the thing that can help them the most.
That's your phone, right? So your phone can be a real time and attention suck, but it can also be really helpful. And I think that most of what we talked about now is kinda like mindset and planning and that kind of stuff. This is sort of like an actual tool, right? It's um, I use Siri, which is built into your iPhone, but Google has the same thing if you use an Android phone.
Um, and I just use the reminders. So as I'm going throughout my day. Anything that happens that I have to remember something. So sometimes I'm on a walk and I have an idea and I just say, Hey Siri, remind me to do X, Y, and Z, uh, at 10:00 AM and I always have it remind me to do those things at 10:00 AM because that's when I know for sure I'll be at my desk.
Hmm. Right. And when I'm at my desk and the reminder fires, I do the same thing. Right. I, I pick up the reminder, I put it on my to-do list and I mark it as complete. So the to-do list is the clearinghouse. Siri is what helps me take [00:32:00] notes throughout the day, right? And I have a conversation. You and I have a conversation in the kitchen, oh, can you do this?
And I go, I know there's a hundred percent chance I'm gonna forget that. So I take five seconds and I ask Siri to remind me, and then I do forget it. And I have, it is zero recollection of that happening. But the little reminder pops up and then I'm able to take care of it. And I think, uh, using your voice, uh, is one of the really cool things that you can do now with modern technology.
And it does, you know, you can use the Notes app on your iPhone or like, there's a million little like voice note apps and I know you actually do a lot of voice stuff with texting. Uh, yeah. To save you time texting and, uh, you know, doing. Chat, GPT queries about, you know, recipes and just random stuff throughout life.
Um, and so I think, you know, the hack is use your voice as much as you can because trying to hold something in your head until you get to a keyboard, you get to a notepad, uh, there's a lot of room for, for slippage there.
Ricci Wolman: Yeah, and I think [00:33:00] you're so right. The technology is finally there where you can use voice for these types of things.
The other reason I use voice a ton is I am just so sick of looking at my screen. So even when I'm texting with friends or family. I'm just like, I've been looking at a screen all day and now I'm looking at my phone screen. So instead of typing out my text responses, I just, you know, hit the little voice button and I dictate what I want to say and then I press send.
And it's not, you know, I'm not looking to screen, instead of looking to screen for a minute, I'm looking at a screen for like two seconds on the send. But I feel I, that has really helped me with my. Screen fatigue. Um, and I know a lot of authors now use, uh, you know, dictation when they're on walks and you have ideas for characters, or you can literally, you know, dictate a, a paragraph and the tech is so good that it really does get the, the language right.
Um, I do that too. I try and walk every morning and I try and not be on my technology, but sometimes I'll get an idea or I'll get a thought or I'll remember something I have to do.
Ferol Vernon: Mm-hmm. And
Ricci Wolman: I'll pull out [00:34:00] my phone and I'll just be like. I'll, I'll say it. And then when I get back to my desk, I'll go to my notes app.
Sometimes I, I do that and I'm like, this is such a great idea, and I, you know, talk it into my phone while I'm walking. And then I get back to my desk and I read it and I'm like, oh, that wasn't as good an idea as I thought.
Ferol Vernon: That's okay. You didn't forget it. It didn't go right, but I didn't forget it. Yeah.
Okay. Alright. So I think, uh, amazing episode. Really cool to have a bunch of different things. I would love to hear from the audience, you know, from all the writers who are listening, what are your productivity hacks? Maybe we'll do a second show with, uh, some of the stuff that we get from our writers. Uh, but it was really fun to go through this, uh, with you and, uh, have, you know, sort of two camps of productivity to get stuff from.
Ricci Wolman: We do a quick lining round and just recap our three. Okay, because I've already forgotten them so
Ferol Vernon: well, fortunately we wrote them down. Um, so Ricci's hacks are, plan your week and your day, or somebody else will. [00:35:00] Let's see. Two use Pomodoro. Those that, that's the 25 minutes and five minute breaks and celebrate your done list.
Does that sound right?
Ricci Wolman: You got it.
Ferol Vernon: There we go. And
Ricci Wolman: your hacks are. Set up your riding environment, be it a bat cave or a florist, whatever it speaks to you. Cold
Ferol Vernon: Batman mode.
Ricci Wolman: Um, batch your tasks. So don't switch from task to task. Figure out, you know, put all your admin in one basket and attack it all at the same time.
And, um, use Siri. Use voice as much as possible to capture your thoughts and remind you of things that you need to do.
Ferol Vernon: There it is. Could I get right? You got it. Nailed it.
Ricci Wolman: Great.
Ferol Vernon: Alright, well thank you everybody for listening. We hope that some of these tips help you be a little bit more productive in your writing career.
Uh, and until next time, I'm Ferol Vernon with Ricci and we will talk to you next [00:36:00] time.