Outdated Writing Productivity Tips I’ve Heard 1 Million Times [& They Need to Die]
Especially in the age of maturing Generative AI
You are not me.
Me? Not you.
No, this is not about identity philosophy. It is about our individuality. I love Wolverine and Venom. You might want to read Batgirl.
That is all good.
Yet, that sense of individuality goes away when it comes to writing tips, especially keyboard productivity.
Heard of these?
- Write when your mind is fresh. 5 am is best [except that you’re nocturnal]!
- Show up daily. Write 1 article per day [except that you’re sick of it].
- Want to write better? This is the guru. Buy his/her course [well…].
You must have.
1,000,000 times… maybe.
Would you be better off not listening to recycled advice?
I think so.
I have something against 5 am
Sorry.
Not listening.
This is flawed advice.
Something is fundamentally wrong if we must sacrifice sleep for writing. I don’t know about you, but I cannot go without my 8–9 hours of beauty sleep.
I get cranky.
And ironically, it makes me unproductive.
My mind is shrouded in a dense fog. I cannot think straight, and I want another cup of coffee. And then another one. And another one.
20 minutes in, and I’ve downed 3 cups of black Americano for f**k’s sake.
What have I accomplished?
An introduction.
Yes, it is written. And yes, it sounds broken.
So, I say this.
There is no need to follow those pieces of advice you extracted online. It may work. It may not.
Experiment with what works for others.
When it doesn’t work for you — Abandon it.
It is free advice anyway.
There is no cost to begin with.
Stop telling me to show up
I don’t understand this.
This is like a badge of honor we wear on our sleeves. Like it or not, show up. Type. Go slower. Go faster. Write [at least] 1 sentence to keep it going.
This is weird to me.
Firstly, I believe in structure. I like to write on Saturdays, run 10km on Sundays, gym on Tuesdays, and visit my clients at their offices on Wednesdays.
My gym rat friends never told me to lift 1 rep only when I am not up to it. They said to come back next time.
My running coaching never instructed me to just run 1 lap on the tracks because I come after a 13-hour work day. He tells me to go home.
But online writing gurus tell me to type daily. Even when I am sick. You can work on your headlines while waiting at the doctor’s office.
Sorry, no.
Writing is a form of creative endeavor.
Stepping aside allows us to busk in new ideas, collide perspectives, and steal stories.
Instead of showing up — Disappear.
It has done me a ton of good.
It made me realize that gungho writing productivity leads to nowhere.
You know it — Writing more does not [necessarily] mean we get better
This is my opinion.
I will take the hit for this.
Writing more helps us with,
- Typing faster,
- Structuring our article more intuitively,
- Numbing our inertia senses so we can keep going and going with our eyes closed.
Conventional writing productivity tips have a place. Don’t get me wrong. They do.
But there are more variables at play.
Let me push this thinking to the extreme. Imagine that you write daily. And you enjoy writing what you write about.
You write about money daily.
Or writing on writing faster & better daily.
Or how you earned $1,000+ on this platform this month.
Except that…
You also wrote about earning $1,000+ on this platform last month. And the month before. And health benefits of ice baths for 6 out of 10 recent articles.
Will your readers find you boring?
I don’t know. Maybe? You tell me.
So yes, write more to write faster.
At the same time,
- Write [slightly] less in frequency,
- Write more about new topics infused with your style,
- And take more time to think and collide perspectives.
We will do way, way, way better as online writers.
Write less to write more.
The close
Writing productivity is such a weird thing.
It turns us into word-producing machines.
And that is a losing game.
Why compete with ChatGPT?
We cannot be as fast or as productive as Generative AI platforms. Forget that. Focus on writing better, not faster.
You are not a robot.
Don’t fight with one.
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Oh, oh, you can buy me a cup of black too! Thank you!