Napping.

When I need a nap, any place will do. I can lie down on a bench, office floor, tilted-back car seat, couch, or even under a bush, and doze off for a half-hour, regardless of background noise or distractions.

Napping is one of my most valuable writing tools—right up there with laptops, pens, pads, scraps of paper with indecipherable scrawls, backs of envelopes, walks in the woods, bike rides, toothpicks, Wikipedia (yeah, I confess), tea, coffee, wine, and a little Adderall when nothing else works or, well, if truth be told, I just feel like it.

With a nap, you get two days of writing in one. After 30 minutes or so, you wake up, stagger around just like you did that morning, make a cup of tea, and stare blankly out the window. Inevitably, if you’re patient, ideas will start floating up from your subconscious…which has been trying to get your attention all day.

Then, all you have to do is open your laptop and—here’s the hardest part—write those rough phrases and sentences down before checking the weather, e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, CNN, or indulge in any of a number of random activities that could easily wait until later.

If you do get distracted it’s no big deal. Self-flagellation is the biggest distraction of all.