Without stopping, there is no distance.

Shenzhen Translation Bureau is its compilation team, focusing on technology, business, workplace, life and other fields, focusing on introducing new foreign technologies, new perspectives, and new trends.

Editor’s note: A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step; Without accumulating steps, there is no miles, and without accumulating small streams, it is impossible to become a sea. We are familiar with these famous sayings and phrases, but when it is implemented, it becomes a three-day fishing and two-day drying net. They all know the power of persistence, but they lack the means to persist. Alex Allain, author of Jumping into C ++, shared his experience writing the book. After writing 70,000 words in 2 years, it only takes 10 minutes per day. I believe it will give you a good inspiration. Originally published on usejournal.com, the title is: The power of ten minutes a day

To make a big thing, you only need to spend 10 minutes every day

In early 2012, I published the book Jumping into C ++. From the schedule, it took me 2 years to write this book-from January 2010 to January 2012, but it actually took me less than 200 hours in total. I know this because most of the time I’m writing this book, I keep a careful record of my time. From January 4, 2010 to September 29, 2011 (when I stopped tracking), I spent nearly 156 hours writing more than 70,000 words on this book.

How could I write a book in such a short time? I made a rule, it’s simple: I must spend 10 minutes a day writing this book without any excuses . Never allowed.

Actually, I tracked time at first because I wanted to use a series of time to motivate myself, and then I decided to record the exact time spent on this matter, not just to write today or not. This worked-I haven’t missed it in a day.

I don’t mean that I write books every day, but that I spend some time on this book every day . For some time (many days), I will use it to study the sample code, toss some typography, brainstorm or edit. All i have to do is stareLook at the page for ten minutes and then try to do something that feels like progress has been made.

Even when I entered the state, I didn’t spend too much time every day-out of 499 days, I used less than 15 minutes a day. I only spent 5 days more than 1 hour, and the longest time was 72 minutes. Entering the state is definitely helpful, but it’s definitely not Jack Kerouac who claims to spend 3 weeks writing the peak state described in On the Road.

Instead, I enter another type of state, a job that is omnipresent, but a state behind the scenes. This state is Wenhuo slow stew, not Wuhuo refining . Writing every day will make you think of it all the time. After I write every day, I still think hard when I commute or take a shower, and then I discuss with others. New ideas are in the corner and will come up at any time, it’s easy to pull you back. If I put those 10 minutes to 70 minutes of continuous writing every Saturday, the progress will definitely be much smaller. Whenever I am ready to start writing, I forget where I wrote last time.

Nevertheless, I sometimes get stuck. Instead of forcing myself to write a lot of words in this situation, I will let myself adjust a little. If I’m exhausted, I won’t toss myself -today may not be a good day, then use it to do other things that must be done. There will always be another to try to write tomorrow.

In those days, I often reviewed and edited dozens of pages of content. At that time, I had to consider the differences between the global and the content. This kind of thinking was impossible when the cursor blinked in the sentence. It’s rare that you can’t write a word for more than a few days or a week.

One other thing that helped me a lot was that unless I wrote a book today, I would n’t allow myself to read emails. I didn’t realize until recently (after watching http://dimitarsimeonov.com/2016/05/13/the-blinking-cursor-and-the-hot-towel) that I was actually building a habit loop < / strong>-I give myself permission to check emails as a reward for spending time writing books. In this way, the concept of writing a book is linked to something very specific. It is impossible to forget.

Of course, sometimes I feel like this book can never be completed-it’s a mountain I can never climb. When this happens, reviewing how much I have written and editing it will allow me to see how far I have traveled and motivate me to start my journey again.

So, your next 10 minutes a dayWhat is Zhong going to do?

Translator: boxi.