Are You Caught in a Never-Ending Loop of Article Polishing? Here’s How I Got Out.

Quit running in circles, shall we?

Whoops!

That should be a was.

Ah, geez!

This paragraph is wordy. Prune it!

Oh~ My~ Goodness~

Why was I writing just now? I stopped here… What the heck is next?

Is this you?

Fret not. That was me.

Now? No longer.

We spent too much time polishing our leather boots

This is a popular saying in the military (in Singapore).

And this is the background.

As uniformed personnel, we must present our best at the parade square. The top is pressed, the pants have mid-lines, and the boots must shine.

Our pride is on the line.

And oh, our badges must shine brighter than the son-of-a-b!**h standing beside us too…

How do we do that? Simple.

We polish our boots and badges endlessly. 3 nights before. 2 days prior. Our faces must appear when we look into our boots and badges.

• “Ah… my precious.”
• “Wow, my handsome face is finally showing. Darn, a pimple…!!!”
• “My boots are reflecting the sunlight. The instructor will be blinded by my boots! Yeah!”

We would assemble at the parade square beaming with pride…

… Only to be reprimanded by our senior officers.

“Shiny boots do not make you a patriot! You young punks!”

We ignored them. We were proud. We were reflecting sunlight, man!

That was then.

Now?

This is what I think.

Man, I am such an idiot.

Are you spending too much time polishing your article?

Chances are, you are.

We oscillate between unpresentable work [the lazy us] and extreme perfection [the crazy us]. Both are us.

For me, it depends on disposal time.

This is the funny thing.

I waste more time when I have more time. It’s nuts. If I have 2 available hours to write an article, I would…

• Speed type the draft,
• Update, adjust, rewrite my headlines,
• Edit, polish, prune, bonzai, trim, add quotes, and remove sentences during edit,

… Until the entire 120 minutes is consumed.

The same goes for 50, 60, or 70 minutes.

Weird? Not really.

Cyril Parkinson is right.

He says and I quote,

Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

This is magnified by our need to be writer-perfect.

Wondered why? I have. This is my list of reasons.

• Searching for THAT punchline to be positioned at the introduction of the introduction,
• Tightening the synchronicity between our introduction and conclusion,
• Deliberating between single-line sentences or bullet points,
• Keeping our introductions to a 100-word limit,
• Adding hyperlinks one after another,
• Citing quotation after quotation,
• Rewriting our call-to-actions.

Are you doing all of these? If so, hours would pass without you noticing.

I know because that was me.

A silly, time-wasting, relentless boots-polishing online writer.

Of course, you might think what’s wrong? We are beefing up the quality of our work!

Quite possibly, yes.

But you need not spend 2 hours polishing your article until it reflects sunlight.

How to avoid polishing your next article excessively

These are my recommendations.

• Learn to write shorter sentences,
• Work towards an end-time,
• Observe article length.

Allow me to explain.

Writing shorter sentences is [by far], hands down, the best way to slash writing time down across the board. Here’s why.

• Fewer words, fewer grammatical errors.
• Also, it is simpler to read.

I stick to these rules of thumb while writing.

• Commas are like a plague — Avoid them.
• Periods are visual pit stops — Sprinkle them.
• Bullets streamline thinking — Construct them.

That is my advice for writing shorter sentences.

From there, we can work towards an end-time in mind. Imagine a shot clock. When time is up, you drop.

You learn to write [a tad] faster. Just a tad. Think 1%.

All the 1% adds up. It will spiral you upwards.

At first, we pause when the time is up. With time, we finish before the alarm rings.

Here, I observe 2 golden rules.

Don’t start clueless.

You end up typing, deleting, lengthening, shortening, elaborating, pruning. Avoid that.

Also, don’t start without a conclusion in mind. You will drift to the writer’s hyperspace.

Last point.

Observing article length.

You might ask, what is that? Easy.

Question.

How many words make up a minute of reading time?

As a guideline,

• 500 words = 3-minute read.
• 750 words = 4-minute read.
• 1,000 words = 5-minute read.

So on and so forth.

Is this relevant to article polishing? Great question.

1st answer.

Article polishing time increases [exponentially] as words increase. I spent more time on Grammarly checking a 5-minute piece than a 4-minute piece.

Next.

You want to find the sweet spot between,

• Maximum concentration without distraction (a.k.a. flow),
• The ideal length of your preferred genre,
• Publication requirements.

Many publications look to the 4-minute read as their ideal length. There is magic in the number 4, I guess.

Also, my best-performing articles fall within the 4-minute bracket. For full disclosure, I write about business, entrepreneurship, sales, money, and retirement.

And~DD~

I can spit 800 words out in one cut.

This is my ultimate sweet spot.

What about yours?

The close

What if, what if, you make the same $0.22 writing…

• A 4-minute read article?
• A 5-minute read article?

And what if you spent,

• 10 minutes polishing the 4-minute read compared to,
• 17 minutes polishing the 5-minute read?

Would your thinking change?

I hope so.

Less can be more in more ways than one.

Avoid polishing your article like how I shined my boots!

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