How to write faster and more

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Experimenting with work schedules and background music will increase your ability to work.

Writing faster takes practice, and for practice to take place, you need conditions in which you simply cannot be shirk. However, when you are just starting to write, no matter what: blog articles, advertisements, or something else - it takes a long time to mess around at first. Why is this happening and how to shorten the time frame?

When I first started doing content for websites, it took a lot of time for each text. But I did not have the opportunity to leave the unfinished for tomorrow: if I didn’t do it during the day, finish it at night. These were harsh conditions, but after a month or two I almost doubled my writing speed.

Of course, no one canceled procrastination, and if it were not for the tight time frame, I would hardly have gained good speed. But in the process, it became clear why you can write faster and what prevents you from doing this from the very beginning.

Maybe my experience will be useful for those who are just learning how to work with texts or want to speed up, but don't know how.

What prevents you from writing faster

First, you need to understand the reasons why work may slow down, and what can be done to eliminate them.

1. Sticking to information

Of course, before you write about something, you need to collect information about the subject. It is on collecting information that most of the time is spent.

For me, for example, it takes about 70% of the time to select different sources, as does another author of Lifehacker Sergei Suyagin. Nastya Raduzhnaya generally estimated the time spent on gathering information at 90%:

90%. I try to comprehensively study the topic, I always collect material not from one, but from 3-5 sources. Therefore, collecting information is the most difficult and time consuming stage. When I know what I want to say to the reader, the text is easy and fast to write.

Nastya Raduzhnaya

Of course, information is very important, but it is precisely because of it that the working time can be stretched, and the result will not be any better. It's all about the banal sticking to the material.

You move from one source to another, start reading other people's articles, often not related to your topic, simply because they are interesting.

As a result, you collect as much information as would be enough for a dissertation, and you need to cram it into 1,500-2,500 characters. Because of this, it takes much more time to systematize the material, but still, many of the data found will not be included in the article. And you spent 15, 20, 30 minutes on their proofreading!

What to do about it

First, you need self-organization, the ability to immediately see if the text contains something you need for your publication or if it is just damn interesting, but off topic. And, of course, the ability to leave even a very interesting article if it is not useful for your work.

It is necessary not to read, but to look through the information. You can only delve into it when you are sure that this information is needed.

Remember, the time you spend gathering information can be reduced. This is not some kind of fixed value, it all depends on your desire and practice.

It used to take quite a long time to gather information and search for topics, several hours every day. Now I have learned to do it faster and in 2-3 hours I find topics for several days at once.

Dmitry Gorchakov

2. Difficult to start

Sometimes it is difficult to decide where to start an article. Such attempts according to the scheme “you write something, you erase it, you write again - and again the wrong thing” takes quite a lot of time and is completely wasted.

What to do about it

If interesting articles that you have stuck on before may someday be needed, then the unsuccessful lines that disappear after pressing Delete will definitely never be useful to anyone. So do not torture yourself, achieving the perfect introduction, you can start from a different place or leave the introductory part unsuccessful: after the article is ready, it will be easier for you to rewrite it.

The author of the foreign blog The Buffer Belle Beth Cooper in her article "" talks about how difficult it is to get started and what to do with it.

Belle herself copes with it this way: she begins to write at least something. For example, "I don't know where to start because … blah blah blah." They say that the very process of work helps to organize thoughts and find that very introduction.

Personally, I start by listing the main points in a notebook. Precisely by hand, on paper, and not by printing them in the same file where the text will be. Write a couple of introductory sentences, a title, cross out and write a more successful one on top.

Another way is to get out of the workplace and walk around: around the room or office, go out into the corridor or on the street. It is often during these walks that a good start comes.

3. Don't focus

It doesn't matter where you work - in the office or at home, you can be distracted anywhere. In general, the fight against distractions seems to me to be a real war with which every author lives. Interesting conversations with colleagues, funny pubs, entertainment sites, checking mail, messages from friends - a great many of these things are just waiting for you to relax, and will immediately pounce on, distracting from work.

One article takes from 2 hours to… 4–6. But this is a “dirty” time, because I haven’t learned to work without distraction. I can take short breaks for news, interesting sites, warm up, and so on.

Dmitry Gorchakov

Even if you check your mail every half hour or check your page on social networks, concentration is broken, and you will need to force yourself to concentrate again.

What to do about it

If the topic is interesting, it is much easier to concentrate on it.

Article to article is different. Depends on the topic and involvement. The first assumes the following nuance: do I know the subject that I will write about, or will I have to study it from scratch? And the second - is it interesting to me? If the answers to both questions are "yes", then the article takes 2 to 5 hours.

Nastya Raduzhnaya

Even if the topic of the article does not particularly appeal to you, you can always find something useful in it, force yourself to get carried away, introduce yourself to those who are interested in this topic, how to become one. Perhaps you underestimate your ability to transform.

Either way, keep distractions to a minimum: close all social media windows, put your smartphone away, and if you're constantly chatting in your office, put on headphones. Rhythmic music always helps me, preferably without words, in order to abstract from what is happening in the office and start writing.

4. No deadlines

If you have very little time to write, it becomes very stressful, you panic, and it becomes more difficult to concentrate. But if there are no deadlines at all, getting yourself to work is hard enough. Again, if there is no deadline, distractions will more easily grab your attention.

What to do about it

If you don't get deadlines, do it yourself. I have noticed for a long time that when I first assess the topic (its complexity and how long it will take me to write), I actually set myself a deadline.

If I look at a topic and think: “Oh, it’s difficult, it will take at least four hours” - and it turns out to be not so scary and difficult in the end, it still takes at least 4 hours to write it. It works like magic. How much I determined for myself, so much turned out in the end.

So try to set yourself a deadline in your mind, only realistic. If you usually write in 5-6 hours, define 4 hours, next time - a little less, and so on. Well, if your time frame does not help you, ask for a deadline (I think your management will not refuse).

For me, it is not internal time frames that work (how much time I allotted to myself to work), but external deadlines (the editor said to do it today by 14 o'clock, which means it’s no other way). Whatever one may say, but Parkinson's law works: work takes all the time that is allotted to it. After all, we always set deadlines for ourselves with a margin, but we often do it at the last moment. Therefore, it is more convenient for me when other people set deadlines for me: a sense of responsibility and fear of letting down a person do not allow me to procrastinate.

Nastya Raduzhnaya

With the fact that prevents writing faster, we figured it out. Now about what helps.

We create the best conditions

Each person has their own optimal writing conditions, and if you are determined to improve, try to find them. You can experiment with the place, time and setting in which you will create.

1. Time

Every person has the best hours for work, ideas, creativity, and relaxation. Maybe your type (an owl or a lark) will not really matter and you suddenly realize that it is best to write early in the morning, and think of new projects closer to the night.

I, for example, have the most productive hours from 8:00 to 12:00 and afternoon hours until five in the evening. The longest hour, when you can do the most, is from 15:00 to 16:00. It seems that time just stands still.

The morning hours seem to be the best for writing, as both larks and owls confirm.

It works best in the early morning and before lunchtime.

Sergey Suyagin

I only work during the day. Better, of course, before lunch, at the end of the day I try to postpone something light.

Dmitry Gorchakov

I am an owl in biorhythm. Such a harsh owl. Previously, when I was a freelancer, I worked at night. Now it has changed to the daily chart. Productive hours are from 10 to 13, and in the evening from 16 to 19 hours. At lunchtime, you usually want to eat, and where to eat - there and sleep.

Nastya Raduzhnaya

Try to work early in the morning, from six o'clock, in the evening, or even late at night. Notice when creative ideas come, when you're less distracted, and when it's easier to focus.

2. Silence or music

General noise is said to have a positive effect on creativity. I already wrote about this in the article about. In short: Moderate noise makes your job a little more difficult, which automatically leaves you out of your comfort zone and thinks more creatively.

I tried to work with such unobtrusive noise from the site. It is not annoying, even pleasant in its own way, so if the music distracts you and you don't like the silence, you can try it.

Most of all I like to work with instrumental music, but quiet is also good. For some, work without music is unthinkable …

Only to the music. The genres are different, but only foreign or instrumental. So as not to confuse with thoughts.

Dmitry Gorchakov

To the music - a genre according to the mood, from Nada Surf to Scar the Martyr.

Sergey Suyagin

… but someone, on the contrary, does not accept music at the time of writing.

If I collect data or design a post, I can listen to music (in the playlist - rock and folk), but I always write the lyrics in silence. I also demand complete silence when interviewing.

Nastya Raduzhnaya

Try to work in silence and with music, experiment with noises and different genres. Perhaps working with classical music or dubstep will be your key to being productive.

3. Creative space

If you don't need to sit in the office, try different places: in different rooms (maybe on the balcony), in a cafe or in a park. There are several advantages to going to a cafe, and to working from home (the main thing is to force yourself to work). Experiment and you will find your best work environment.

That's all the tips, if you have your own ways to write more and faster, please share in the comments.

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