SPECIAL GUEST: Author Carmen Amato
Can Small Time Blocks Unlock Big Productivity?
Hey Readers!
This week we have an incredible special guest, Carmen Amato! I am beyond excited to share her amazing insights on how using small time blocks can boost your productivity. Not only has Carmen written 17 novels in just 12 years, but she’s also done it while serving as an intelligence officer with the CIA, raising a family . . . and MORE.
Her advice is nothing short of life-changing, and I’m thrilled for you to dive into her approach. Also, check out her bio below and thrilling mystery novels here:
THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY
Thank you, Carmen, for sharing your wisdom with A Busy Lady community!
Can Small Time Blocks Unlock Big Productivity?
By: Carmen Amato
In my high school, the bell rang every 15 minutes. All day long, ding, ding paced our innovative (at least way back then) modular schedule.
The entire school day was broken into 15 minute “mods.” Some classes might be 2 mods, or 30 minutes long, while others could be 3 or 4 mods long like the physics lab I hated and nearly failed. Except for the lunch mod, stray mods between classes were automatically designated study time to be spent in the library.
There was no extra time between mods to get from one classroom to the next in a 3-story building with 400 students. This meant pre-planning and hauling around everything needed for all the classes you had before you had a free mod and could go back to your locker.
Four years of high school sliced into 15-minute increments instilled in me an appreciation for what can be accomplished in a short amount of time. That in turn led to productivity and time management habits that I followed as an intelligence officer with the CIA for 30 years and still use today as a full-time mystery and thriller author.
“Low brain energy” versus “high brain energy”
Ever since high school, I constantly ask myself, “What can I get done in the next 15 minutes?”
Not write a novel, that’s for sure. Fifteen minutes is barely enough time to shoo the dog away from my laptop, find my document, decide if I like the last thing I wrote and resist the urge to check email.
Frankly, I need a big block of time to take on a high brain energy task like composing original fiction. To make that happen, I have to clear the schedule. Distracting tasks have to be out of the way.
Most distractions don’t take as much concentration as writing. These are household tasks that keep the dog from starving and prevent us from drowning in laundry and dirty dishes. Think beyond the basics to organizing, note-taking, and decluttering. Social media.
Basically, these are low brain energy tasks that can be done in 15-minute increments.
If I get enough of them done in otherwise wasted pockets of time, I can build capacity for big blocks of time for high brain energy tasks.
This high versus low approach let me start writing fiction when my kids were young, and my husband and I both worked high-stress full-time jobs for the CIA that required travel. Oh, and we had an international move every few years, which meant new cities to navigate, maps in a new language and a new house to decorate. I helped my kids deal with new schools, new friends, new dentists and doctors. In short, I didn’t have much spare time to write.
So, I stuffed as many low brain energy tasks into stray increments of 15 minutes as possible, which freed up a few hours on the weekends to write fiction. It wasn’t always easy, especially with kids and dogs clamoring for attention and a husband who was often out of the country. But somehow, the process worked, and I published my first book, political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY in 2012.
More ways to harness the power of 15 minutes
As time went on, I began to use the same “mod” approach to writing-related tasks:
Editing: I often print out 3-5 pages of a work in progress and edit whenever I have a bit of free time. When I started doing this, I thought I was the only one until I was waiting while my daughter was doing a Girl Scouts activity and another mom pulled out a similar sheet of paper and a red pen. Of course, we struck up an immediate friendship.
Research: It’s really hard for me not to go down the rabbit hole when it comes to research. I want to find the original source, compare news articles, and make sure I have a detail just right. I focus better on a single topic if I only have a short amount of time. Generally, I’m doing this on my phone. To make sure I can access the research later, I create a bookmark with a topic-specific keyword, or I send the link to a notepad app that can be exported to email.
Outline: I used to think that every blog post or scene in a novel required hours and hours of effort to outline. Now if I know the end before I start, I can make outlining a low brain task. For those familiar with productivity guru Stephen Covey, you’ll recall his mantra of “Begin with the end in mind.”
I still need big blocks of time to compose original fiction prose like the next Detective Emilia Cruz mystery. Nothing feels better than the word count after being in a flow state, but improving how I use stray mods of time has let me publish 17 books in 12 years.
Last words
Today, I have a whole office in the house but in years past I was not so lucky. As we moved from country to country, I always managed to create a writing spot for myself. In one house, it was a desk in a wide hallway. In another, it was a spot in the basement next to the washer and dryer. Yet another country had such good weather, the back patio became my designated writing spot.
But because my (now-grown) kids never went through a phrase of disliking their parents, I always had an extra seat nearby. My daughter dubbed it “the therapy chair.” Not in the least concerned about interrupting me, they always felt free to plop down and start talking as I wrote. Sometimes they wanted to share an issue (boyfriends/girlfriends/teacher/clothes/why can’t we have more dogs/movies/music) that merited attention. Other times they just wanted to hear what I was working on or keep me company.
No 15-minute time management tip is going to change that. What a good thing.
About the author
Carmen Amato is the author of the Detective Emilia Cryz mystery series pitting the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico's cartels, corruption, and social inequality. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series is a 2-time winner of the Outstanding Series award from CrimeMasters of America and was hailed by National Public Radio as “A thrilling series.”
Her standalone thrillers include The Hidden Light of Mexico City, which was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award.
A 30-year veteran of the CIA where she focused on technical collection and counterdrug issues, Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal. A judge for the BookLife Prize and Killer Nashville’s Claymore Award, her essays have appeared in Criminal Element, Publishers Weekly, and other national publications. She writes the popular Mystery Ahead newsletter on Substack.
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*All photos not referenced above used with permission by Carmen Amato.
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