One morning recently I was working on a chapter of my current project. An hour and a half in, I came to a point where I decided to stop, heading off to work – meetings, email, and documentation – to make money.

Early that afternoon I was in a meeting. I was focused, contributing, really earning my pay, when it hit me. I had stopped writing that morning at a really strong chapter break, and had not realized it! It had been hours since I had “thought” about the passage at all, but suddenly I was really excited about this new-found fact.

The brain is a stunning device. While I was consciously working on business matters, my subconscious was scanning its images of the pages I had been working on at home more than six hours before. My subconscious had had an epiphany and it stormed up, kicking in the door of my conscious to deliver it!

The discipline of writing every day can earn you near constant concentration on your writing, regardless of what you might actually be up to. Give your subconscious something to do all day besides think about food and your weekend plans. Your brain has a back-office that can be working for you while you work for the man.