Good crazy

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Both good crazy and bad crazy. The good: I've been on a writing tear and I actually feel quite happy with the results. (I'm going to skip the bad, because it's boring and I don't feel like thinking about it right now.)

What I've learned in the last two weeks: I work much better with strict and frequent deadlines; I work much better when I have very specific goals; and I get more done when I'm busy than when I have lots of empty time. That last one sounded a little Yogi Berra, but you know what I mean. When I have two weeks devoted vaguely to "writing my book" and nothing else I tend to do everything but write my book. When I have six hours to write 600 words on a very specific topic, it gets done. Duh.

Unfortunately, this writing has been only tangentially related to my book, and is for a decidedly non-academic audience. Can I recreate this sense of urgency and focus for my "real" work?