Hey, I Did a “How I Work” Feature on Lifehacker
Posted on August 5, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 14 Comments
In case you’re curious how I do what I do on a daily basis. And I know you are! Here’s the link.
Also, if you’re coming over from Lifehacker on the promise that I am hilarious, here’s a link to what happened when I installed Windows 10 on my laptop the other day. If that is not sufficiently hilarious for you, I am sorry. I suppose I am not actually funny at all.
Did you enjoy Sevenses?
I thought the first two thirds were great. The last third I’m not entirely sure was necessary.
That said, I would prefer this not become a thread about Seveneves, please.
Sorry for the derail (I have the novel but not yet read it).
I did read your answers and echo your thoughts on writing software. Scrivener is just too much stuff for me. (I hope this is on topic–not sacrasm)
Really glad you got featured. :)
When I saw that Veronica Belmont mentioned you in the “who would you like to see answer these” of her piece, I was hoping they’d contact you about it. It’s really refreshing to see productivity discussion that focuses on actually doing the work, not relying on some new software or system with big promises.
“Bathrobial”! YES! I work that way on my translations, too! Now I have a word for it, especially when being teased by other family members. “I’m working bathrobially, please let me get on with these pages.”
Now we (the fans) just need to hear you on the Nerdist! Maybe next time you are in LA?
It was great to hear Wil mention playing life on the easy difficult level last week during his episode.
This is great! Thank you so much for sharing.
You are wonderfully boring: I love that you talked about how things get done.
I use Word too but have a love/hate thing going with it. I keep hoping that some new and wonderful version will refrain from crazy unwanted formatting. And I miss Paint.
As my mom might have said: “Oh, you’re *very* funny–but looks aren’t everything!”
Seriously, great interview, and I love your perspective on life and work. -How do you do so much work? -Well, by, you know, working on it.
And I love that you write novels in Word, even though Word and I are not exactly besties. I do most all my writing in WordPad, because it communicates well with other software I use. I am also not really published, though, except on my blog and one other. Yet.
Related to the article: what sort of desk chair do you use?
That’s some terrible sleep hygiene you have there, I’d be a zombie if I woke in the middle of the night and surfed social media for an hour. I also don’t have pets to harass me though so I can get my too few hours of sleep in a solid block.
What? Your twitter stream on the Windows 10 upgrade was meant to be funny? I took it as the literal truth. . Stross isn’t ragging on Windows anymore so I’m glad to see that torch being picked up.
Relevant to the article: have you considered blue filter software, like f.lux on Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS or Twilight on Android? They might be useful for your late night social media sessions. I do my bedtime reading on my Nexus 7. When I started using Twilight a couple of hours before going to bed, I noticed that I went to sleep more easily.
I find that just setting my books to sepia background helps a lot with the dreaded blue light. Plus it seems fancy.
My last Windows machine actually had WordPerfect, my favoritest. Hardly ever decides to randomly format something. I’ve never used Word in this millennium.
“I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and faster than anyone who can write better. ”
A J Liebling