In praise of Melissa Febos' article on not dying of email

In a search for “apologizing for late response to email” or some such thing I searched for this weekend on Google, I came across the enlightened writing and article of Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart.


There were so many good nuggets of wisdom to the aspiring writer or the aspiring liver of life who finds it hard to say no, but, distilled and reinterpreted, these were my favorites:

-Choose being “a reliable source of literary art” over being a prompt responder to emails.
-Your work is what you owe your readers. No more, no less.
-Schedule time into your calendar for writing.
-Think not in terms of what you’re saying no to, but what you are saying yes to, when you set boundaries.

There were so many beautiful and imperative pieces of advice in this article and I’m feeling re-inspired to set boundaries so I can work on my current writing project.