Walking as a Productivity System

Most writers have a system in place to drive the work they do. My own system, for example, is mad and unpredictable, and it’s based on a mysterious alchemy of guilt, panic, dumb luck, and caffeine-induced tweaking.

Craig Mod, on the other hand, has a fascinating (and slightly less neurotic) method for driving his work as a writer: walking.

Craig thinks of a walk as an operating system that he can use to support, feed, and inspire all the basic functions of his writing. Walking gets his mind moving, stimulates his bottomless curiosity, and energizes his creative force.

But it’s more than that: the whole gamut of work Craig does, whether digital, or tangibly, unapologetically analog—is supported by his approach to walking. Both how he writes and what he writes about are inextricably linked to the process, discipline, and experience of putting one foot in front of another.

The results speak for themselves. Craig’s writing has developed an engaged and loyal following over the years—tens of thousands of people read his multiple newsletters, and his work has appeared in publications like Eater, Wired, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

His greatest love, though, is making books. It’s the most tangible and soul-satisfying work product of all his walking. The latest is Kissa by Kissa, currently going into its third artisanal printing, and there’s another opus marching towards the presses in September.

So how does Craig transform steps into words, and words into books? Let's take a stroll together to see how walking enables Craig to do what he does.