The Minimum Unit of Work

I'm a big fan of productivity expert Tiago Forte. One of Tiago's articles begins with a simple but dramatic question: "What would it take to multiply someone’s productivity by 100?"

(Interesting how the question appears everywhere, once you start to notice it.)

Tiago’s answer? Look to the revolution of networking and broadband internet: in particular, the innovation of packet switching. What’s the first step to a 100x improvement in productivity? Breaking work down into what Tiago calls small intermediate packets.

I believe this same principle, which has been proven to be so effective in manufacturing and productivity, can also transform your writing process. I believe it can multiply your writing output by 100 - not only in sheer quantity, but also in quality. All we need is a way to define those small batches of work. And hostwriting provides just such an answer.

A central component of the interactive hostwriting process is that I ask questions, and you answer them. In hostwriting, the minimum unit of work is one question, one answer.

It’s like an interview, but our goal is to use my questions and your answers to create stand-alone piece of writing written by one author: you.

I can ask you questions on any platform - in person, over the phone or video chat, in a messaging app or by email. Whatever’s easiest for you!

You can answer questions at your own pace - off the cuff, for just a few minutes, or taking several days to carefully consider your response. It’s all good!

Later, you can revise your answers and reuse them in any way you like. They can become a small tweet or a whole essay. You can adapt them for marketing materials, or write an entire book in response. Whatever you decide, the process is collaborative, cross-platform, and scalable.

Of course, you’ll need to do some work to revise your answers, and adapt them for whatever final product you decide on. But it’s my job to help you get started.

Complete and Continue