✍️ Deep Work as a Building Block to Success

Your success as a working writer begins with committing to a cozy writing routine.

My minimalist desk setup here in SF!

Hello from San Francisco! 👋

I’ll be running around this city and taking Waymos everywhere until further notice. And what better place to talk about cozy writing rituals than this foggy coastal city full of writerly vibes?

In today’s newsletter, you’ll read about:

✨ Why your secret to success lies in a commitment to deep work

✍️ Writing jobs you may have missed

📚 Takeaways for writers from Cal Newport’s book Deep Work (which I read so you don’t have to!)

✍️ Missed This Past Week’s Writing Jobs?

Did you miss it? Here are the writing jobs on this past week’s job board:

• Earn $600-$1,200/month writing LinkedIn posts

• Pitch a dating app your story on culture and relationships

• Get paid $40-$45/hour to write jokes as a freelance comedy writer

If you missed the last issue of my writing job board, check it out at the link below:

🫖 Sunday Tea: Your Writing Routine as a Building Block to Success

I recently read Cal Newport’s book Deep Work as part of

Evelyn Skye

’s book club, and while a majority of the book skewed a bit corporate for my taste, there are 3 concepts covered in the book that changed my perspective:

• Concept #1: Deep work is the difference between writers who thrive — and writers who never finish their book. Are you spending long, uninterrupted hours writing your book? If not, that’s bad news for your career as an author. The bedrock for every writer’s success can be found in luxuriating in long hours of a satisfying flow state — and I’ll dive into this in a second.

• Concept #2: For most authors, quitting social media makes total sense — even in the age of BookTok. Instead of posting frequently on your own accounts, it’s actually smarter to just send tons of free books to influencers and let them do their thing while you do yours (write your next book!)

• Concept #3: Your Focus is Precious and is Easily Ruined By Residual Task Switching. Even just briefly checking your phone can pull your attention and ruin your focus. Turn off your notifications, put your phone on “do not disturb,” and only check your email twice per day if you can help it.

These are the major headlines of the book that convinced me to delete all of the social media apps from my phone, helped to reduce the time I spend checking email, and made me continue to cherish the time I spend in a deep work state.

Over the past 3 months, I’ve written (and rewritten!) over 130,000 words of my new novel, The Ash Trials. I say this not to brag, but to underscore how valuable deep work time is. Without it, I would have never been able to finish the draft — especially not on this schedule.

As part of my writing process for this book, I spent 2.5 weeks alone in Chelsea, Manhattan. I rented a cute little place in a brownstone with a view of a treelined street that was within walking distance of Brooklyn Bagels and a Sweetgreen.

getting ready in my tiny NYC home before heading to the Substack Bestsellers dinner

Each morning, I’d go on a walk to get my bagel and a hot chocolate. Afterward, I’d return and hit the page. In the afternoons, I would walk to a gym nearby for a workout, and then pick up a salad. Then if I didn’t have a writing event to go to that night, I would pick up a turmeric latte and then return to my desk for my evening writing session.

I averaged around 5-7 hours of writing per day, with no distractions. I only took urgent meetings during this time and (for the most part) stayed off social media. My only other writing projects were my weekly posts for you here on Substack and my client projects.

This week, I finished addressing notes from two amazing beta readers I hired to give feedback on the book (thank you so much, Anna and Presley!) as well as finished up the last round of notes from my editor/partner-in-crime Kyle Cords. By the time you’re reading this post, my awesome proofreader Sierra will be hard at work proofing the book.

This book has been a labor of love, but the building blocks of how it got written were formed in the daily writing routine I established when there was nothing but blank pages ahead of me.

You don’t need to temporarily relocate to trendy NYC neighborhood to achieve your writing goals, but you should figure out what parts about your writing routine can be made more sacred.

Here are the 3 things to consider when crafting your cozy writing routine:

1. How can you carve out 1-3 hours per day to write your project? Even if you can only commit an hour per day to your writing, that’s fine! Just pick an hour when you won’t be interrupted. This may mean waking up an hour earlier, or staying up an hour after everyone in your household has gone to bed. And by “no distractions” I mean your phone is not invited to this party! Turn it off, put it in another room, seal it in a glass box, and chuck it into a nearby body of water — do whatever you have to in order to ensure a truly “distraction-free” writing session. Trust me, this is essential.

2. What can you do to make your writing space enjoyable? You don’t need to spend any money to make your space nice. Even just clearing off a section of your kitchen table and reducing the clutter in your space or lighting some candles can help create an ambiance primed for creativity. As a digital nomad who has been traveling the world for the past 4 years, I’ve learned that I can make any space into a writing space with some simple adjustments.

3. How can you enlist friends and family to help you protect your writing time? If you live with others, you’ll need to let them know when you’re available — and when you’ve scheduled writing time that you’re trying to keep distraction-free. Explain to anyone you live with why you’re setting aside this time, what you’re trying to accomplish, and then how they can best support you. Noise-canceling headphones are also a great investment if you’re easily distracted by different sounds. In a worse-case scenario, you can also take your laptop to a nearby coffeeshop or park and write somewhere else.

These building blocks are great ways to help carve out a cozy writing routine no matter what’s going on in your life.

But if you find yourself up against an aggressive deadline like I was, it doesn’t hurt to sequester yourself in a new place with nothing but your writing and some great bagels to keep you company.

What helps you stay in the flow of your writing? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

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Sending creativity and good writing vibes your way,

-Amy