{"id":95655,"date":"2026-09-14T07:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=95655"},"modified":"2026-09-14T07:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:58:34","slug":"how-do-you-find-the-time-for-all-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/09\/14\/how-do-you-find-the-time-for-all-this\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you find the time for all this?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader of this blog recently asked me a question<\/a> that I suspect quite a few people have wondered about:<\/p>\n

How do you find the time for all this?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But neither of those things really explains how I can produce as much as I do.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s blog posts. The thinking has been going on for decades.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The second explanation is that I have developed a methodology that lets me turn those thoughts into written material very quickly.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\"\"

Screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n

The same method also works on computers and iPads. Android does have a version, too.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. Others are available and may be cheaper.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 There is lots of material available on how to do this.<\/p>\n

From that, an article, post or video script follows, which might then need final HTML formatting and links added, if required.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In fact, my problem is not finding enough things to write about. It is almost exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0is deciding which of the ideas I have are worth publishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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
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