A lazy writer's guide to writing a lot (from a lazy writer)

When I sat down with my partner for a drink on our anniversary this week, she asked:

‘How the hell do you do so much without losing your mind?’

And to be fair, I am an incredibly lazy person. If someone ever comes into my apartment, they’ll see me scrolling on my phone most of the time.

In fact, I run on autopilot for most days. Sometimes months will go by before I take stock of what the hell has happened.

But contrary to what you might think, I get a lot done.

In September, I proofread + started the index for my book, published a newsletter every week, and flew to Sydney for my partner’s magazine launch while also holding down a full-time job as an editor.

Yet, all these things took very little grind.

What I want to share today is the one insight that will help you permanently eliminate:

• Procrastination
• Guilt
• Crappy work
• Burnout
• Sunday dreads

It took me nearly a decade of going through the peaks and valleys of neurotic work and burnout to figure this out.

But once I did, everything fell into place.

Now I can spend a whole morning at a Sunday market without worrying about missing a newsletter.

Now I can write every day while also holding onto a job.

Now I can jump out of my apartment to see a friend, unprompted.

And all of these wonderful things came from one insight:

ELIMINATE AS MANY DECISIONS AS POSSIBLE.

Let’s break it down.

1: All that grindset BS

Most people think getting a lot done takes a lot of grinding.

But in most cases, grinding is the worst way to approach any work, including writing. In fact, your best writing should take little to no grind at all.

First of all, what is grinding? I’ll tell you what it’s not.

It’s not an avenue to success.

It’s not a badge of honour.

And it certainly won’t lead you to your best work.

Some of my worst writing weeks came from tensing up my ass, trying to squeeze out my best material. All I ended up with was crappy writing and my Korean chiropractor yelling at me for screwing up my lower back again.

After doing that a few times, I realised what grinding actually is.

It’s just another word for decision fatigue.

Think about it. When you find it hard to do something, you’re not thinking about finishing the task itself. That part is quite pleasant.

You’re thinking about all the annoying crap that comes with the task.

Simple example: washing dishes.

The thought of clean dishes is pleasant, but all the other crap, like getting food on your hand, spilling water on the counter, dirtying the sink you’ve just wiped, and smudging detergent everywhere, is what stalls most people.  

And the key is to eliminate as many of these things so the outcome becomes inevitable.

In other words, 90% of productivity is removing resistance and only 10% is doing the thing.

This is why I hate most productivity advice out there. They’re all about addition (new calendar hack, new gadget, new bell, new whistles) instead of subtraction.

And the quickest way to subtract resistance is:

2: ‘System, baby!’

Productivity gurus make this too complicated for most people.

Whenever the word system comes up, we’re thinking of some asshat who wakes up at 5, running around like a wild turkey, posting their Strava data all the while sorting through their inbox with 6 AI agents.

In reality, system = removing decisions.

For example, I only write on my laptop that has a blank Microsoft Word document open permanently.

That’s a system right there. Whenever I pull this baby out, I’m only thinking about writing. The decision’s been removed.  

Another example: I have 6 transparent containers in my fridge, all labelled with an expiration date and food type.

That’s another system. I’m no longer spending 10 minutes deciding what to cook. I pull out what’s about to go off and make a meal.

Want another one? I practice karate 3 times a week, and the class times are fixed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I've already paid for the classes, so 0 decision there.

Also, guess what? These days also line up with my laundry days. So, by the time I’m done practising for the week, all my clothes are washed and dried.

See, the secret to getting a shit ton done has very little to do with grinding. It’s all about setting up the right systems to remove any extra decisions.

And once the motors are running, you’ll find yourself getting a shit ton done without even realising it. Your systems are now running you, and the best part is that outside of these systems you can do whatever the fuck you want.

You won’t feel guilty that you’re not working enough.

You won’t fear sitting in front of a blank page.

Above all, you’ll actually have a life.

Yet, while there are a lot of systems that we can set up (and I can give you a whole list of my favourite ones in another letter), the 3 that’ll give you the most bang for your buck are:

1: When you work.

2: Where you work.

3: How long you’ll work.

And the key to mastering productivity is all about removing as many decisions as possible from these 3 categories, and here’s how to do just that:

Key 1: When to work (Or, how I wrote 70,000 words in 6 months)