The world we live in today is full of distractions. Your home, your phone, and even the computer you type on can be distracting tips and make it hard to concentrate.
For many of us, these distractions lead to procrastination, which leads to inefficiency in writing.
To help writers overcome these challenges, GrammarCheck has put together eight surprisingly simple tips that will make you a more efficient writer and visualized them in a handy infographic at the end of this article.
These are the main problems I’ve found.
Writer’s Block vs Speaker’s Block
To start writing efficiently, you need to find a space, physical or mental, that eliminates distractions. Writers who struggle with distraction may struggle during various parts of the writing process.
If you’re having trouble getting started or formulating your ideas, GrammarCheck recommends calling a friend or colleague to discuss the topic of your choice.
Seth Godin said it best: “Nobody has a conversation block… The reason we don’t have a conversation block is that we get into the habit of talking without worrying too much about whether or not our follies will continue to haunt us. ” we… We speak poorly and eventually (or sometimes) we speak intelligently. Precisely because we speak, we speak better.”
If you’re “stuck” in writer’s block, it’s best to discuss your ideas with someone else.
Sharing your ideas in a conversation will make it much easier for you to formulate them. The conversation will probably start out blurry, but over time the content will align and your ideas will form.
Even a short five-minute chat can get the gears spinning in your head and boom, you’re ready for the races.
Moment is crucial
Once you have that decisive moment and those gears start spinning, it’s critical that you maintain the momentum.
One of the best ways to maintain that momentum is to keep writing.
Stopping researching every name, date, or stat you can think of will slow you down and distract you from your writing.
Instead, leave padding like ‘More than XYZ# people used Instagram ads in 2019’.
It is more important to write the content and stay on the topic than to fill in the essential details.
By doing this, you produce content faster and it is of higher quality.
Another tip to maintain your writing momentum is to write down all the relevant ideas that come to mind.
If there’s an afterthought on your mind, write it somewhere on the page.
While it may not seem entirely relevant right now, it can be a crucial part of your content later in the editing process.
Clean up the mess… later
When it comes to editing, save it until you’re done with your draft.
Constantly switching between the creative and critical sides of your brain can significantly slow down your efficiency.
Even if each switch takes you 1/10th of a second, switching back and forth for each sentence can cost you up to 40% of your productive time.
By interrupting that flow of creativity, you’re wasting valuable writing time and continuing to produce a less-than-perfect product.
Instead, consider the way Sharon Hale envisioned writing a concept.
“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself to just put sand in a box so I can build castles later.”
To create the masterpiece, you need to lay the foundation. If you don’t have all the necessary parts at your disposal, you’re making something that’s incomplete.
Efficient and effective
Your content is one of the most valuable parts of your organization’s sales and marketing strategies. As a content writer, you hold the key to the success of your content.
Come back to these tips and strategies for moving forward when procrastination thoughts start to surface.
