It takes days, not hours

Certain things cannot be measured in hours alone. They require more than just time at a desk, but instead long-term dedication. Daily practice. Consistency.

One thing I wish I had learned much younger is that achievement comes—certainly—from consistent effort over a long period. It is that simple.

It’s easy to believe that exponential growth is right around the corner. Or that we can make up for lost time later through extra effort. But these are generally not true. Even cases where these beliefs do come true are more a matter of luck than strategy—those cases cannot be optimized for.

And so, many things are more honestly measured in days, not hours. While the hours are still important, it’s often more important that you spent many days working, even if for each day it was only twenty minutes.

While deep work is crucial in its own right, I’d argue that consistent work serves as a greater foundation. Deep work can be added once consistency is reached.

I. The lives of writers

If you study the working lives of writers you’ll find they nearly all have two things in common:

  1. They spend fewer hours per day writing than you might expect (2-4).
  2. They spend more days per year writing than you might expect (nearly every day).

I believe—whether knowingly or not—this comes from an understanding of a simple creative concept:

Certain things in life take days, not hours.

That is, some things that can only be estimated in days to completion because there is a limit to how many hours you can work before you need to recharge.

Writing is one of these things.

Writing takes a great deal of creative energy. For most people, even many of the greatest writers in history, this energy exhausts after four hours of work.

Each day they are granted four hours of meaningful work. Those four hours either get used, or are lost. There is not saving them up for later.

II. Simple advice

All this to say, if you are trying to take something seriously, the one thing you should keep in mind above all else is: Be consistent. Work at it every day.

Understand that there is no making up for lost time. There is no saving your energy for a later day. The sooner you get started the further you’ll be able to go.

Have the patience to understand it will take time. Have the discipline to put in the hours each day to make it happen.

It takes days, not hours.

2021-05-05