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How I Write Every Day While Working Full-Time

A while back, a person that I was coaching revealed that he thought that I was a full-time writer. Then yesterday, a friend at work asked me how I was able to write so much while working full-time.

I’m not a full-time writer and most of my income is from my work as an engineer in the field of deep learning, an approach to artificial intelligence. But I do write a lot and I even make a little money from my writing.

I usually wake up at between 4 am and 6 am. I usually meditate for at least 30 minutes. I practice Vipassana meditation, as taught by S. N. Goenka. I often then also exercise (sometimes CrossFit), make bulletproof coffee, water the plants, and run some laundry.

Then the first thing I do on my computer is to promote the article I wrote the previous day, which was automatically published on Medium at 6 am Pacific time. This often also includes giving the article an additional editing pass.

I maintain a list of hundreds of article ideas, but I have found that the most effective thing to write about is whatever is fresh and alive in my mind. This is the art of noticing the article that wants to write itself. When that edge of aliveness can be felt, writing becomes effortless.

I then enter a period of flow in which I just write the article from start to finish…