Carol Ann Duffy Quotes

I usually sit down at 8 A.M. and work through to 7 P.M., with breaks that total no more than an hour and a half.

My lab and academic work fill my day from about 9 am to 7 p.m. Then I zoom out the lens to work on my other writing.

If I want to get work done, that's usually about 3 in the morning.

I try to deal with my serious reading before work.

If I'm right in the middle of a deadline, I'm up really early.

I used to start at about 10 at night and work until early morning. My preferred way to work is to start in the early afternoon and work until about 3, go do errands, have dinner, and then write for a few more hours in the evening.

I just have to be very, very organised.

I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.

You have to make one thing a priority and achieve balance that way, rather than trying to do everything all at once.

When I was bringing up a child, I taught myself to write in very short, concentrated bursts. If I had a weekend, or a week, I'd do unbelievable amounts of work.

Because I am kind of distracted, I don't tend to sit at my desk 9 to 5. It can be two hours a day, or, when I'm in the final editing stages, it can be 14 hours a day.

Competition is an easy way to get into flow.

I don't look at emails, Internet or newspapers before 1 P.M. I wake at 7 A.M., eat fruit, drink tea or coffee, and read what I've achieved, or not achieved, the previous day. Then I take a shower and work on my next sentence until 1 P.M. After I've done emails and so on, I write again from 3 P.M. until 8 P.M.; then I socialise.

One of the nice things about being busy is it makes you focus on what's important to you and how you use your time.

I have certain rules that I've established for myself that took a while post-day job to figure out. Everyone says people who freelance or are writers struggle with the structure of it. I'm not allowed to check email before a certain hour. I'm not allowed to run errands during the day. I have to write a certain amount every day.

The secret to multitasking is that it isn't actually multitasking. It's just extreme focus and organization.

There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.

I try to keep the number of projects I'm involved in down to one per year.

I have found that if I spend the first hour of my day at home, I get more done, and less people steal my time.

I pay attention to every minute of the day.

I try to keep a regular work schedule.

I try to prioritize a certain amount of quiet work every day.

Don't write more than 3 hours at a time. I write three hours in the morning, 9 A.M. - 12 P.M. Other people are best late at night.

I can't even carpe 15 minutes in a row. So a whole diem is out of the question.

When I do something, I do it for the specified amount of time, and then I do something else.