The Hemingway Method
A Productivity Technique for Continuous Creativity
Ernest Hemingway had written that one of his methods for productivity was to stop writing when he knew what would happen next:
“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.”
I gave this a try over the last 3 months, to surprising effect.
Hemingway’s theory is simple:
By stopping when you know what will happen next, you can meditate on that for the rest of the day, ruminating on where your story will lead beyond the first step. Then, the next day when you awaken and get to work, you know exactly where you are headed.
By avoiding the thrashing that comes with starting, a writer avoids writer’s block, and transitions smoothly from restful meditation into the working hours.
Consider the inverse:
Write until you don’t know where you are going next.
You write your heart out, and at the end of the day, you’ve reached a milestone and are unsure of where the story turns next.
You ruminate on this for the rest of the day, and maybe there is some clarity, but often there isn’t.
The next morning you awake, sit down to write, and stare blankly at the page, unsure of where to wander next.
This is the moment where it is easiest to abandon discipline and make breakfast, or go for a walk, or call a friend, or take the dogs out.
And if you’re doing those things, you might as well call your mom, and clean the kitchen, and organize the pantry, and sweep the floors, and look at online furniture, and peruse running gear, and investigate common organic farming techniques on Wikipedia, and….
Suddenly, you’ve lost all momentum and writing feels like work.
You’ve broken the chain, as Jerry Seinfeld calls it.
I know about myself that if I stop when I do not know where I am going, I will be totally lost the next morning when my willpower is at its lowest. Getting going again is the hardest part.
I prefer stopping when I know the next step, so that I might begin again when the possibility of failure is highest.
This applies to more than writing: I’ve been using this technique as an engineer and designer, and noticed a huge uptick in productivity.
Also in the midst of the COVID-19 Quarantine situation, while working from home, I have found this technique radically improves my productivity overall.
I refer to this as The Hemingway Method, and there are a few critical details:
Firstly, be conscious of the finish line. In the last hour of the day, if I have a project that is not immediately due, I stop when I understand the next step. This contrasts with the typical sentiment of completing the project and leaving feeling successful. Instead, I think of it as opening doors to walk through tomorrow.
Secondly, keep notes. I write a note to myself — personally, I use a DM to myself in Slack — to remind me where I left off, and what my next step is. Don’t lose the lead!
Thirdly, this does not mean leave tasks incomplete. If I can see the finish line on a task any time throughout the day (except for the last hour of the day) I push it through. Checking something off my list is the best feeling of my day; why would I deprive myself of that? The situation I am trying to avoid is arriving in the morning and scrambling to find the first step. Sometimes this means staying late until I have clear action items for the morning, and sometimes this means leaving early when I have a clear path ahead.
Fourthly, adjust for your most creative time-block. I made the assumption that the morning is your most creative part of the day — that is true for me, but it may not be true for you — so adjusting this whole plan in alignment with your energy is critical. My best creative hours are between 8:15am and 11am. However, you may find your best hours are 3pm to 6pm. So be it, adjust accordingly: don’t finish a project before 3pm. Leave those doors open in the morning for your most creative hours. Or maybe you find it easy to get going in the morning, but struggle to transition from lunch to afternoon work: open doors in the morning, close them in the afternoon.
A few notes:
Beware the last hour of the day. The hours between 4pm and 6pm tend to be either the most productive or the least productive of the entire day. Everyone will admit to scrambling to push something through for the boss before the end of the day, or not wanting to start a new project in the last 15 minutes. I get it; I’ve been there too. But consider the opposite: what if you laid the boring groundwork, drew up the plans to execute for tomorrow, and then came in the next day ready to go? The last hour of your day can either be a slow grind or a chance to set yourself up for success tomorrow. You choose.
Flexible hours recommended. This whole system is amplified if you have flexible hours — as in, you are able to come and go from your work when you please. If you find yourself in a punch-the-clock position, this method is unlikely to work optimally for you. It may still help, but the best case scenario is about energy-to-task alignment.
What about deadlines? We’ve all been in a situation where we needed to crunch to get something done by 5pm. What I am suggesting is instead of cramming between noon and 4:45pm to get that presentation done, cram the night before and early in the morning. I know that is easier said than done, but the general principle still holds. Deadlines are gonna deadline; do what you can. As a mentor of mine would say: There is always going to be another deadline. This is about building a system for success.
As a final thought, I have a motivational quote on my wall, which says “Tomorrow Starts Now”.
The intention behind the quote is that your next great workout begins the moment you finish this one — hydration, stretching, recovery; these all play a crucial role in getting stronger — but it relates nicely to this thought of leaving doors open.
My recommendation: use the Hemingway Method — stop when you know the next step.
Tomorrow Starts Now.
How are you setting yourself up for success?
Brendan is a Mechanical Designer at Nymi, and blogs about startups, mental models and why hardware is hard here. He’s a Venture for Canada alumni, coffee aficionado, and cookbook collector.
