Summary

The author improved their writing efficiency by adopting a habit of using a timer to allocate specific time blocks for writing, editing, and other tasks, reducing the average time spent on an article from ten hours to three.

Abstract

The article discusses a simple habit that significantly enhances writing efficiency. The author shares their personal experience of initially spending ten hours per article and how this improved to an average of three hours after implementing a timed writing routine. This routine involves setting a timer for focused writing sessions, followed by dedicated time for editing and other related activities. The author emphasizes the benefits of this approach, such as increased focus, reduced procrastination, and improved writing quality due to the self-imposed time constraints. By consistently applying this method, the author suggests that writers can produce more content without sacrificing quality, leading to more frequent publishing and valuable reader feedback.

Opinions

The author believes that writing efficiency is crucial for consistent publishing and receiving reader feedback.
They advocate for the use of a timer as a practical tool to enhance focus and reduce the time spent on each article.
The author suggests that writing under time pressure can improve the overall quality of one's writing by fostering better sentence construction and reducing reliance on filler words.
They assert that the habit of timed writing helps in overcoming procrastination and prioritizing writing

This One Simple Habit Makes My Writing More Efficient

I write three times faster

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

If you are a beginner writer, you know how difficult the journey is.

You try to put yourself out there, publish and promote your work, find your community, get into publications and improve along the way. You invest a lot in your writing but don’t get immediate results. It’s frustrating.

When I started writing, my articles took days to finish. For the first ten stories, I needed on average ten hours per article. After posting over 30 stories, this time decreased to under three hours.

By writing faster, I can publish more stories and write consistently. In this article, I share what helped me decrease my average writing time. After reading this story, you’ll learn the trick to make your writing more efficient.

This One Habit Makes My Writing More Efficient

The less time you spend on one article, the more articles you can publish. It’s a numbers game. Our writing doesn’t improve if we don’t write.

Publishing what you write helps you get feedback. It shows what your readers like and what they think about your work. And if you want to publish stories consistently, you can’t afford to spend ten hours on one article.

A few months ago my writing coach advised me to aim for three hours per story. It seemed impossible back then. Now it’s my average time to craft a decent piece.

Writing my first ten stories showed me my weak spots, what takes most of my time, and what I need to improve.

I started using a timer for my writing. First, I set it for an hour and only write at that time. I put words on paper and build a storyline.

After that, I set an hour for editing. I start by reading through and deleting unnecessary parts. After that, I reshuffle the content and rewrite some sentences to ensure the story flows smoothly.

Then I set a 30-minute timer for other adjacent activities such as Grammarly check, improving the headline, and choosing a picture.

If I need another 30 minutes to finish writing, I take it. The goal is not to write whatever in under two hours. The idea is to challenge yourself to create a good piece in a shorter time.

Be reasonable, and don’t stretch your writing for eight hours. The point is to stay efficient and focused at every step of the way while doing your best. Quality is key.

How You Can Benefit from This Trick

The idea of deadlines is not new — they help us get stuff done. In the case of writing, a timer serves as a milestone deadline to help you write a good piece as fast as possible.

Here’s how you can benefit from this trick:

1) Feeling under pressure increases your focus

When you know you only have a limited time to finish a task, you feel under pressure. This feeling creates a bit of panic in you. You realize you can’t procrastinate or postpone it, so you start doing it.

We tend to perform better under pressure. Setting deadlines makes you more productive. Your focus increases, and you get things done faster. Your writing becomes more efficient.

2) It reduces procrastination

Having limited time for your tasks means that you have to stop procrastinating and start doing. You realize you can’t waste time. The need to distract yourself with something is gone because you know you can’t afford it.

You mentally eliminate any distractions. Finishing your task becomes a priority. A timer helps you focus on what you need to do. It prevents you from procrastinating and keeps your concentration high.

3) It improves your writing

By practicing writing under time pressure you learn to write better. It’s easy to produce a good quality piece if you have all the time in the world. But you don’t.

Writing well and fast is a skill that improves with practice. You start building better sentences from a first try without rewriting them. You remember the filler words you clean up, so you stop using them in the first place.

Practice makes perfect. The more you write under pressure, the better you get at it. It helps increase the quality of your work while reducing the time you spend writing it.

In Summary

No one wants to read crappy stories. One way to increase your writing quality is to spend hours on one piece. But it’s not sustainable, and it may leave you feeling frustrated or burned out.

Another way is to focus on quantity. But you can’t increase the number of stories you publish without decreasing your average writing time. To make your writing more efficient, use a timer for every step of your writing process.

This technique helped me decrease my average writing time from ten hours to three hours. Try it, and you’ll shorten your writing time and publish more.

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