The Kitchen Timer Technique

The Kitchen Timer method was lifted from Award-winning comedy author, Lauren Graham's, book, Talking As Fast As I Can. Graham recounts how she learned it from Don Roos, who based it on the Pomodoro Technique. Along with Graham, I can say that this method has transformed the way I write. I now spend way fewer hours, being productive. It gave me structure where there was none. It has changed my life as a writer, and I hope it changes yours too.

The principle of Kitchen Timer is that every writer deserves a definite and doable way of feeling successful everyday. To do this, we learn to judge ourselves on behavior, rather than content. We set up a goal for ourselves, as writers, that is easy, measurable, free of anxiety, and above all, failproof—because everyone can sit, and an hour will always pass.

Here’s how it works:

1. Buy a kitchen timer that goes to sixty minutes. Or use a timer app. Or tell Siri to start a timer for sixty minutes.

2. Decide on Monday how many hours of writing you will do on Tuesday. Some people make appointments in their calendar for these hours, as if they are business hours or dentist appointments. A good strong beginning is one hour a day, but when you are doubting yourself or under pressure or self attack, choose fewer hours rather than more.

3. During the hour, follow the rules. No phones, no texts, and no Internet. Silence ringers. No music with words unless it’s a language you don’t understand. Headphones with a white noise app can be helpful. Turn off your computer’s WiFi. Turn your phone face down. No reading, no pencil sharpening, no desk tidying, no organizing. This is your writing time.

4. Immediately upon beginning the hour, open two documents: your journal and the project you are working on. If you don’t have a project you are actively working on, just open your journal.

5. An hour consists of time spent keeping your writing appointment. That’s it. Here’s the beauty of it: you don’t have to write at all if you are happy to stare at the screen or the page. You don’t even have to write a single word on our current project. You may spend the entire hour writing in your journal, and anything you write in your journal is fine, even “I hate writing” typed 400 times. It is fine, good, and right if you spend the whole day writing in your journal. This is just as good a writing day as one spent entirely in your current project. When you wish and if you wish, pop over to the current project document and write for as long as you like. When you get tired or want a break, pop back to the journal. That’s the brilliance of it: you use your boredom to your advantage. When disgust or fatigue with the current project arises, take a break by returning to your journal. When that in turn bores you, then go back to the project at hand, and so on.

6. It is infinitely better to write fewer hours every day than many hours one day and none the next. If you have a crowded weekend, choose a half- or quarter-hour as your writing time. Put in that time, and go on with your day.

7. When the hour is up, stop. Even if you are in the middle of a sentence. If you have scheduled another hour, give yourself a break before beginning again. Read, eat, run errands. Then begin again.

8. If you fail to make your hours for the day, you have scheduled too many. If on Wednesday you planned to write two hours and didn’t make it, then you schedule a shorter appointment for the next day. Don’t schedule an additional hour to make up or catch up. Let the past go and move on. (I love that sentence with my whole heart.)

9. When you’ve fulfilled your commitment, credit yourself for doing so. You have satisfied your commitment to yourself, and the rest of the day is yours to do with as you wish. Congratulations.