A reader of this blog recently asked me a question that I suspect quite a few people have wondered about:
How do you find the time for all this?
The answer is partly very simple. This is now what I do in retirement. There are no longer many other claims on my working time, and I also have support from the team around me. That undoubtedly helps.
And let me be clear: if I spent all day on a golf course or watching television, no one would think it odd. I just spend most of each day thinking and writing. People do think that odd, and I suppose it is, in that not many people choose to do it.
But neither of those things really explains how I can produce as much as I do.
The first explanation for that is that I have been thinking about many of the issues I write about for more than 50 years. I did not start thinking about tax, accounting, economics, political economy, business, inequality, the environment, government and the role of the state when I sat down to write this morning's blog posts. The thinking has been going on for decades.
That matters. I am not usually starting with a blank sheet of paper. When something happens, or I read something, or an idea occurs to me, I am normally relating it to an accumulated body of thought that I have been developing for most of my adult life.
In that sense, the time taken to write a blog post is not really the time taken to create the ideas in it. If doing so takes 50 minutes, then the time taken is those 50 minutes and the 50 years that went before it. What I am doing when I write is bringing my ideas together in response to whatever issue has caught my attention at a moment in time.
The second explanation is that I have developed a methodology that lets me turn those thoughts into written material very quickly.
Usually, that starts with my phone. I dictate a note. It is easy to do. Every phone has the technology to translate the spoken word into text now. Nothing special is required. I use the Apple software on my iPhone. People try to sell me much more expensive options, but the Apple version works for me. Just hit the microphone button on your keyboard (bottom right here), and it will transcribe what you say:
Screenshot
The same method also works on computers and iPads. Android does have a version, too.
I usually dictate that note that rapidly because, once I know what I want to say, I can normally talk through the argument quite quickly. Dictation is much faster for me than typing, and using a reasonable-quality microphone reduces the number of transcription errors considerably. I usually use a Rode system. Others are available and may be cheaper. All will be better than using the built-in microphone. I should also add that I have been dictating as part of my professional life for more than 40 years now. Practice does help.
That said, there are, inevitably, still mistakes. Dictation software misunderstands words. Punctuation can be wrong. Sentences sometimes need tidying. That is where I now use AI. I give it the dictated text and ask it to smooth the transcription, correcting the obvious errors while leaving my argument, structure and style intact. It is usually pretty good at that, although the result always has to be read with care. Some glaring errors might arise otherwise. I have trained AI to recognise my style. I had plenty of material available to provide the guide. That helps. There is lots of material available on how to do this.
From that, an article, post or video script follows, which might then need final HTML formatting and links added, if required.
The result is that I can quite often produce a piece of around 1,000 words from beginning to end in about 30 minutes, and sometimes less. I should also add that sometimes it takes much longer. I sometimes totally reject my own first drafts
That does not mean that the thinking took 30 minutes. It means that 50 or more years of thinking, combined with a methodology that I have developed for capturing ideas quickly, allows me to turn those thoughts into publishable material in that time. And whilst AI helps with the mechanics, it does not supply the accumulated experience, the argument or, most importantly, the reason for writing the piece in the first place. Those are mine.
In fact, my problem is not finding enough things to write about. It is almost exactly the opposite.
I usually have many more ideas than I can use, and I think there is a practical limit to how much I can reasonably publish in a day because there must be a limit to how much anyone might reasonably want to read from me. As a result, ideas are constantly being discarded, postponed or added to the list of things that I might return to another day.
So, when someone asks how I find the time to write so much, the answer is that the constraint is not the time it takes me to write; it is deciding which of the ideas I have are worth publishing.
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It’s a remarkable output, that’s for sure. It’s all similar though as my husband pointed out. It’s all about how can I show my dislike of the current state of Great Britain while wishing more powers to its government.
It’s about the same as most trolling is.
Maybe that is why you recognise it.
Thanks for the explanation. I’ve never queried the time involved. I’ve just assumed you are outputting the thoughts you have and it’s a labour of love. But it’s a bit like people who think nothing of spending £20 in the pub at night but think the same money on a craft kit that will give me hours of entertainment and a finished object at the same cost is expensive.
After the number of rudderless governments we have had, it would be a good thing if we had more thinking and less knee jerk responses. Like you I am critical of Labour, but grateful we have some conviction politicians left. Ed Milliband clearly believes in what he is doing and has thought it through. I suspect he probably wanted to go further but wasn’t allowed to. Our welfare state was built on series policy and is being dismantled on knee jerk responses and assumptions about what is popular. The disabled are being demonised only to discover the majority of people think they should be paid more not less.
Carry on writing and hopefully influencing.
Thank you
The story goes that a home owner employed a plumber to fix their boiler. The plumber walked in looked at the boiler and said i see the problem and tapped on the side of the boiler which immediately sprang into life. The plumber then said that will be £80 to which the home owner said that you have taken less than a minute to fix the problem. The time served plumber’s response was that a 1 minute fix is the result of a lifetime of experience and it is that knowledge you are benefitting from and therefore paying for.
Thank you for sharing your lifetime of knowhow, thoughts and experiences which continue to inform, amaze and like the time served plumber hopefully fix our broken system and wrong thinking with a tap in the right direction.
Thank you
It is, as some of my former colleagues would say, the power of the unconscious mind. When I was training in counselling of the tutors said, ‘I don’t think much when I’m counselling.’ I thought, ‘come on, you are one of the most intelligent people I know.’
But after a few years practice, I knew what he meant. If one understands how the mind and emotions work, responses arise without much thought. Of course, the idea needs expression and often explanation which does need thought. Do we say something now or keep it for more information, and other issues.
I now think consciousness is not just a product of the brain but, as Max Planck, said intrinsic to the Universe. But that is not a topic for your blog.
Thank you
If I were to make a few comments on your output
Firstly and this is an observation not a criticism there are those who can write in the way that others can paint/draw/design/make things etc and do it day in day out.
When it was worth reading I got a letter into the local paper most weeks you are just able to be much more productive than I am!
Secondly there are a few bloggers and you are not one who are rather ‘one trick ponies’ rehashing the same argument, something I dont experience here, although after several years the sheer ‘oddness’ of money still hits me
Thank you
I try to innovate
You haven’t mentioned in that piece, as you have before, that you are capable of doing two things at once, which means you can do twice as much as I can. You also read much more quickly than I do whilst still (mostly) understanding the content. I am in awe and somewhat jealous.
Jacqueline has got used to me typing and talking to her at the same time on a different issue
Yes. I’ve said before that I sat near to you at a GIMMS conference and you were busily typing away on your laptop whilst still still interjecting in the proceedings which you were obviously following simultaneously.
That is very easy to do
An extremely active curious and enquiring mind is a great recipe for health and longevity. Good on clever you.