Writing-tips
High Achievers: Greg McKeown, a case study
Greg McKeown is the author of the book Essentialism and in this article, we are discussing his techniques how he planned to complete his book in 9 months.
Greg McKeown signed up a deal to write a book. He is a writer and this should be good news for him. However, as he explained in his blog, he was wide awake in his bed due to anxiety to finish his book. His imagination was going wild and probably he had some doubt in him whether he could finish the book or not.
Greg is not alone in this struggle. We all who are doing creative processes are vulnerable to these wild dreams where everything falls apart. Whether you are about to write a 200-page thesis, a 300-page book, or about to start a side hustle, we all go in the same doubt in our ability and thinking if we are good enough to complete these tasks or we just going to embarrass ourselves in front of others. But it is fascinating what Greg came up with to complete the given challenge and how he successfully completed his book.
Monk Mode
Our attention span is declining rapidly, thanks to dopamine-enhancing social media apps. Students are doing poor and poor in exams and even humanity losing some IQ points every year due to declining attention spam.
Greg had to come up with the idea where he can work or think uninterruptedly for hours. So he decided he will shut down everything and just focus on his work for the first half of the day and for the second half he doesn’t need to divide his family time for work. He shut down his emails, phone, and social media. Even he put this message on his email so anyone sending him an email can understand he is busy.
Dear Friends,
I am currently working on a new book which has put enormous burdens on my time. Unfortunately, I am unable to respond in the manner I would like. For this, I apologize.
–Greg
p.s. If this is a continuing conversation, please ignore and expect my response in the near future.
Wining the mornings
I explained in my previous article about the importance of morning, Greg committed himself to work from 5 am to 1 PM every day until he finishes his book. This was his reply when asked did he complete his book?
On a professional level writing the book was neither stressful nor forced: it flowed. it was an almost effortless process.
The book he wrote was essentialism. He Sold 1,000,000 copies of this book with this very idea. This idea is easy but not simple. You must have a concrete goal in front of you so you can plan your life around that goal.
