I'm not famous, but I can tell you a few things about my productivity:
1. When writing The Geek Atlas I worked consistently Monday to Friday from 0900 to 1200 and then 1300 to 1700. I used a spreadsheet to track my progress, predict completion time and motivate me.
2. On a daily basis I grab a standard note card and write down five things that I want to achieve that day. That keeps me focussed on what's important.
3. I travel by public transport and use that time for thinking, reading, and writing. Many of the articles I've written have been banged out on a Macbook Air on a London bus. Most of the content has been refined in my head in bed, walking down the street, in the shower etc.
4. I keep my email inbox triaged ruthlessly. Currently there is a single email in my work inbox, and four in my personal one.
You can boost your productivity even more by combining several of these methods. For example, you could shave half your head, take off all your clothes, and walk to work with a drink in one hand and a rotten apple in the other.
Just a note to say the magazine, Lapham's Quarterly is amazing, it gives you essays and information from ancient Greece to modern america. It is my favourite subscription, really gives perspective on all sorts of issues that were as important 3000 years ago as they are today.
I love this post! I'll probably make a hard copy and put it over my desk. Why? Not any particular reason, just for fun.
Thanks to OP for not saying something like, "Productivity Improvement Methods". These are just random things famous people did that worked for them, with or without any good reason.
I remember standing in the rooms where Victor Hugo (Paris) and Ernest Hemingway (Key West) did much of their work. I just took in the vibe, hoping it might improve my own work. Still not sure it did.
A sample set specifically chosen for the intersection of 'weird' and 'famous' (for productivity). Would anyone else but an eminence like Victor Hugo get written up for telling his valet to take away his clothes so he would write naked - or get written off as mad?
1. When writing The Geek Atlas I worked consistently Monday to Friday from 0900 to 1200 and then 1300 to 1700. I used a spreadsheet to track my progress, predict completion time and motivate me.
2. On a daily basis I grab a standard note card and write down five things that I want to achieve that day. That keeps me focussed on what's important.
3. I travel by public transport and use that time for thinking, reading, and writing. Many of the articles I've written have been banged out on a Macbook Air on a London bus. Most of the content has been refined in my head in bed, walking down the street, in the shower etc.
4. I keep my email inbox triaged ruthlessly. Currently there is a single email in my work inbox, and four in my personal one.