Write In Bursts

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only writer who faces and deals with procrastination. So I thought I’d share something I discovered yesterday that is helping me write quite a bit in a short amount of time.

I decided yesterday that I wanted to write certain number of articles. At first, I felt very overwhelmed. But I knew if it was going to get done, I had to apply a lot of discipline and just do it without thinking about it.

That’s when I decided to try something different. I decided to just burst into writing, without taking any breaks or stopping to talk on the phone or chat online. What followed was a full hour of non-stop writing, resulting in four complete publishable articles.

How to Write in Bursts

First, stop thinking about writing. Just do it. I can talk myself out of writing any time. When I don’t feel like writing, I usually do just that. I tell myself it’s too hard. I can’t do it. I can’t think of anything to write. And then before I realize it, I’ve wasted an entire day (week…month…). Don’t think it through. Just write.

Second, tell someone you are going to write for one full hour, non-stop, then follow up with the results. Holding yourself accountable is one sure way to force yourself to get busy, whether you want to or not. I once plurked that I was going to write for an hour. When my hour was up, I went back and shared the results of my writing burst: 4 new articles.

Why Write In Bursts?

My one-hour writing burst yesterday taught me a valuable lesson. I control my output. It’s simply a matter of deciding what I want to accomplish, then doing it.

My writing burst yesterday was so productive that it inspired others to get busy writing. This morning a friend on Plurk asked me since I was so productive in one hour yesterday if I was going to double that today. I decided to do another 1-hour writing burst at noon, then work in two separate 30-minute writing bursts today (one this morning, one this afternoon).

If you’re feeling stuck or unproductive with your work schedule, maybe you need to shake things up. Instead of working all day with frequent interruptions and breaks, why not try a short writing burst instead? See how much you can get done in one hour with absolutely no breaks or interruptions.

One final note: One thing that contributed to my increased productivity during my writing bursts is that I do a lot of pre-writing. I like to outline my articles and blog posts by hand in a notebook, away from the computer (usually at night before I go to bed). Then I work from my notes and outlines when I sit down to write. In other words, these productive writing bursts are not produced from scratch.