by Fumio Sasaki
The work techniques of Anthony Trollope, the god of habits
I earlier gave an introduction to author Anthony Trollope, who is, for me, a sort of god of habits. A post office employee, he was the person who came up with England’s iconic red pillar-shaped boxes. He made it his task to spend two and a half hours writing before going to work. He wrote forty-seven novels and sixteen other works while working full-time, leaving behind a sizable oeuvre in the history of literature.
His secret to producing so many works was starting the next project as soon as he finished the previous one. Once, he completed a lengthy work that comprised six hundred pages. A normal author would have wanted, perhaps, to celebrate, or take plenty of vacation time. But because he had about fifteen minutes remaining until his usual two and a half hours were up, after finishing the manuscript, he simply put it aside and got started on his next one.
The senses of pianists and guitarists are said to become dull when they don’t touch their instrument for just one day. Some musicians claim they lose three days of practice if they skip just one. Not only is there no improvement when they don’t touch their instrument for a day, they lose what they’ve nurtured. For me as well, three or four days without exercise makes it difficult to return to my previous condition. I get out of breath if I run, and I feel heavier.
I have a real sense that the longer I veer from my habits, the tougher it gets to resume them. That’s all the more reason to avoid lapses in between. Your habits are further bolstered as you proceed to move forward with them.
Step 33: Keep records of your habits
Reports say that overweight people lose weight more quickly simply by stepping on a scale each morning. When they think of stepping on the scale the next day, they become more aware of their eating habits. They’ll regret poor choices and feel down if they weigh more the next morning, which acts as their penalty. In wanting to avoid that penalty, they are more able to control themselves from overeating. We should expect these kinds of results from keeping records when we’re acquiring habits.
Keeping track of your habits on a smartphone app
I use a smartphone app called Way of Life to keep track of my daily habits. Those habits are broken down by item, and include “getting up early,” “yoga,” “exercise,” and “writing my manuscript.” The app is set up so that a habit that I accomplish is colored green, while a habit I don’t manage to carry out becomes red. There are a variety of similar apps, among which Momentum is famous.
What’s nice about these apps is that when you succeed several times in a row, you accumulate sound effects and numbers.
When I decided to make it a habit to write a blog, I was able to keep it up for fifty-two days. Once you get to that point, you’re motivated to continue without stopping.
The comedian Jerry Seinfeld is said to have marked Xs on his calendar on days that he could come up with ideas for jokes. A continuation of Xs becomes linked, like a chain. “Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer each day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain,” he said. Quitting a habit, or cutting off the chain, becomes a penalty in itself and motivates you to continue your habit.
People’s memories are vague
Unless you keep records, your memory can rewrite facts in a frighteningly unnoticeable way. At my local gym, the machines record how many times you lift the weights. On several occasions, I thought I’d lifted them ten times, only to read on the machine that I was still at number eight. It appeared that I had rounded off the number at some point when attempting to escape the tough work. I was stunned. Similarly, with my habits, there are times when I’m too easy on myself if I don’t keep records and merely go with the impression that I’m doing well.
I try to keep daily records of my habits. When I’ve succeeded in acquiring a habit, I’ll make consistent entries; it’s when I struggle that I need to be careful.
I’ve been weighing myself these last few years, but there were often times when I didn’t step on the scale after eating or drinking too much because I knew the result would be bad. Because I knew the result would be bad, it was a sort of life hack to not step on the scale in the first place. But if you’re trying to lose weight, you should weigh yourself every day, even if you’ve gained weight. The feelings of regret that you experience, the penalty, will tie in to the next step.
GOOD HABIT INHIBITOR: Pretending something never happened
Sometimes, while taking down records, I remember a misstep I’ve made, and I think to myself: “Let me pretend this never happened.” I make excuses such as: I’m traveling, I wasn’t feeling well, etc. You can always think of more excuses for something. The Way of Life app I mentioned earlier has a “skip” function. You use it as a stamp for exceptions, but use it too much, and you’ll end up full of skips. Keep a cool head and just keep track of whether you were able to accomplish your objectives.
A list of accomplishments
During the six months that I was lazing around and feeling down, there was a time when I kept a list of the things I was able to accomplish in my diary:
•I was able to send a reply to a complicated email.
•I checked the price of a pair of shoes that I wanted.
•I took the garbage out.
•I paid my taxes.
•I learned how to peel a pineapple.
People tend to think, “I didn’t do anything today,” and they feel down, but if you write down your every action, you’ll tend to discover that you have handled a reasonable number of tasks and prepared for numerous things. Keeping a list of accomplishments prevented me from getting more depressed.
Your state of progress will give you a push forward
Your memory can give you an additional push when your efforts are beginning to take shape. A study conducted at Columbia University on reward cards is a good way to illustrate this. All subjects received reward cards, which allowed them to accumulate points for each cup of coffee purchased and rewarded a free cup of coffee after a certain number of points. However, the rewards cards differed slightly:
A.One card started with zero points, and the cardholder received a free coffee after accumulating ten points.
B.The other card already had two points stamped on it, and the cardholder received a free coffee after accumulating twelve points.
In both cases, the cardholder needed to accumulate ten points for the free coffee, but those who had the pre-stamped card were, on average, 20 percent quicker to achieve their free coffee than those with the unstamped one. This example shows how actions are easier when people have the sense that something is already moving along—in other words, not starting at zero.
Hemingway kept daily records of the number of words he wrote and created charts. Anthony Trollope also made it a rule to write two hundred and fifty words in fifteen minutes and kept close count. I mimicked their habits and kept a record of the number of characters I wrote each day while writing this manuscript. In addition to the sense of satisfaction that I’d completed the day’s work, there was a delicate feeling of joy, as well. A record of your state of progress also celebrates your victory.
Step 34: Take necessary breaks to conserve your strength
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
—Indira Gandhi
In building habits, it is important to gain a grasp of just how much time off you need to recover. If you haven’t recovered by the next day, you’ll end up overdoing it somewhere along the way. A small crack will gradually spread and make it hard to keep going.
To begin with, you should gain an accurate understanding of the amount of sleep that you need. By keeping track of how much I slept before waking up naturally without an alarm, I learned that I need about eight hours of sleep each night.
“Deducting” time
Haruki Murakami spends an hour a day either running or swimming; for him, th
ere are only twenty-three hours in a day. Exercise is mandatory, and the remaining time is divided up for other things. He “deducts” his hour of exercise from the day’s twenty-four hours.
In the same way, I think we need to deduct basic things like sleeping, eating, and resting from our twenty-four hours. We first secure those basic necessities, and then set aside the remaining time for other things.
People who wind up in hospitals are often unable to meet their basic needs, such as sleeping adequately, eating well, and resting.
People who are pushed around by companies that overwork their employees may experience a euphoric sense of self-sacrifice, in which their pain is their reward. Even if they want to get away from such difficult conditions, it may be hard to cut themselves off from their corporate communities.
But if they haven’t secured time for basic needs as mentioned above, it might be time to think about whether what they’re doing is worth sacrificing the fundamentals of life.
Stephen King’s work techniques
Stephen King is a prolific author, and according to his book On Writing, he writes in the morning. Once he starts working on something, he writes every day to develop his characters. He also writes on Christmas and on his birthday.
But even though he writes every day, he writes only in the morning, so that he is never fatigued. This seems to be the secret behind the work style of a successful author.
In this way, you need to rest in order to continue doing something. You can’t continue to work if you don’t rest. And rest isn’t something that stands apart from work: it’s part of the process. If you’re too tired to continue, your work habits aren’t effective to begin with.
We’re more creative when we’re asleep
The artist Salvador Dalí painted scenes that he saw in his dreams. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, got the idea for the book in a dream. The German chemist August Kekulé came up with ideas for chemical formulas based on images that he dreamed about.
The sleeping brain will sometimes do more creative work than the awake brain. Although conscious thought disappears when we sleep, the brain continues its activities, and the number of calories consumed is no different.
In the past, I used to think that time spent sleeping was a waste, something that needed to be recovered. That’s why I envied people who could get by with little sleep. But as we can see by examining dreams, the power of our imagination during sleep can be astounding and more interesting than when we’re awake.
This is believed to be caused by the random binding of nerve cells during REM sleep that doesn’t happen when we’re awake. That’s why dreams are so surreal, why combinations of our memories occur, and why our brains produce ideas we could never have imagined while awake.
In a similar vein, while writing this book, it wasn’t when I was sitting at my desk and concentrating but instead when I was awake late at night with my mind wandering that I came up with solutions, and I felt the “Eureka!” moments. While I slept, there were things that I forgot about upon waking up, with only a sense of “Eureka!” remaining in my mind.
The brain continues to work without rest, even while we sleep, and it gives us unexpected ideas. Sleep, then, seems necessary not only for the purpose of recovery, but also for creative activities.
Making things boring at bedtime
I think the reason people like to put off sleep is their reluctance to “give up” on that day. People with busy jobs will want to spend their evenings doing their favorite pastimes: foreign TV dramas, mystery novels, puzzle games. These are examples of things that are difficult to put down; you wonder what will happen next.
Of course, such activities are fun, but if you’re doing something too intriguing before bedtime, you’ll keep saying to yourself “just ten more minutes” or “I’m just waiting for a good time to stop.” And it gets later and later.
I think it’s a good idea to make the period before bedtime a bit boring. Reading a book that isn’t too interesting, for example. With a short story collection or poetry, it’s easy to stop because they have many breaks. A practical how-to book or a book on English grammar can also be broken down by item.
The painter Francis Bacon had insomnia and continued to read old cookbooks over and over before he went to bed. I’m guessing that he needed to read cookbooks to slow down his thoughts, as if he were meditating.
I go to bed at nine-thirty, which is signified by my alarm. When the alarm goes off, it’s easy to stop what I’m doing if I’m not too caught up in it. I can thus relinquish the day without any regrets.
Step 35: Nap (the effects of a power nap are enormous)
Tell me what time you eat, and whether you take a nap afterward [and I shall tell you what you are].
—Mason Currey
There are famous stories about busy politicians like former British prime minister Winston Churchill and former US president John F. Kennedy taking naps effectively. In fact, as recounted in Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work by Mason Currey, many geniuses took naps galore: Einstein, Darwin, Matisse, Frank Lloyd Wright, Liszt. It appears that stressful work, creative work, and napping are inseparable.
NASA, Google, and Nike have nap rooms and recommend that their employees take “power naps,” short naps around twenty minutes long. (Every time I see or write text like “Google also does this or that …,” I start to feel restless, wondering if there’s a greater need for people who work at other companies to have things like those provided to the outstanding people who work at Google.)
I take a fifteen-minute power nap twice a day as well (the first is when I go back to sleep in the morning, as I’ll explain later). I believe that, in the future, companies should be required by law to provide nap rooms. If for some reason I end up creating a company one day, my first order of business will be to secure a nap room. That’s how tremendous I feel the effects are!
After Fukuoka Prefectural Meizen High School set up a ten-minute naptime, the number of students who got into the University of Tokyo doubled. According to a study at Université de Lyon, students who took naps between rote learning learned at faster speeds, and enhanced their long-term memory. In a NASA study, cognitive capacities like memory and attentiveness improved by 34 percent after subjects took twenty-six-minute naps.
Improvements in cognitive capacity mean the activation of the brain’s cooling system. The subjects’ desires cooled, making it possible for them to take actions to obtain future rewards. From my own experience, I believe this is true. I take a fifteen-minute power nap before exercising or taking on a difficult job that requires willpower. I feel surprisingly refreshed after fifteen minutes, and often I have brief dreams. Once the nap is complete, I’m full of motivation.
What does it mean to strategically go back to sleep?
I have a method for creating two “mornings.” I wake up at five, and go to the library at nine thirty. In the four hours following the time I get up, I go to work, write, do yoga, and study English. Shortly after adopting this routine, I realized that I was exhausted by the time I set out to do my most important work.
So I decided to go back to sleep for fifteen minutes. This short sleep session is a strategic act that recovers my willpower. While I make it a habit to get seven or eight hours of sleep, I don’t wake up perfectly rested every day, and sometimes I get up at odd hours in the middle of the night. I make up for this by going back to sleep, which leaves me feeling refreshed.
The author Nicholson Baker also uses this method. He gets up between four and four-thirty, and he writes for about an hour and a half. Then, he goes back to sleep and reawakens at eight-thirty.
The good thing about this method is that it’s easy to get up the first time, even if you’re a little tired early in the morning, knowing that you’ll be able to go back to sleep later. I recommend this method of strategically going back to sleep, which effectively creates two mornings.
Step 36: Rest agg
ressively
The Sechenov effect dictates that you can better calm your feelings and better your mental activity by engaging in vigorous activity, rather than simply resting and relaxing.
When you’re tired, you tend to want to lie down on your bed and roll around, but merely lying down won’t change your mood, and you might hate yourself by evening. Not expending energy is not the equivalent of resting. You can rest in the true sense by being proactive in and engaging in an activity you enjoy, like going out and getting in touch with nature.
Preparing a “coping list”
There will be times when you feel somewhat melancholy, even when you lead a fulfilling life. At these moments, it’s good to be prepared with things you can do that will bring on a change in mood; you can thus intentionally deal with stress in your favorite way. I call this list of methods a “coping list.”
My coping list includes taking a walk, getting in touch with trees, soil, and nature; starting a bonfire; driving my car; going to the movies. Sometimes, I want to go someplace far away. Even if I’m not in the mood for it to begin with, I can definitely settle down or get an emotional boost by getting away. I liken this to lulling a child with his favorite toy.
Step 37: Cherish the things that you aren’t making into habit