I’ve mentioned the idea of writing in the editor more than a few times. Through all the inconsistency of writing posts for this blog and in making content on other platforms, three things really get me to finish publishing things:
- Writing in the editor
- Writing with a timer
- Writing with distractions blocked
I’m just going to brainstorm some issues with each individually. (In an effort to think through how to combine them to become really effective at writing and finishing things.)
If I write in the editor, it’s harder to block things, because I need to block all other websites while writing in the WordPress editor. And I can use a physical timer, which does work pretty well. Nothing’s as good as having the timer right where I’m writing, which is to say that I can always get writing done when I’m using Cold Turkey Writer. And finishing posts often means that I need to add links to things. I can probably do things like throw some TODOs/TKs in there and then add the links later in a separate phase. I think this is something to practice in isolation and get good at separating these things. I’ll add it to the list of experiments to try below.
If I write with a timer, I usually get a draft done but then I don’t really give myself time for fixing up links and revising things and often am just in the middle of a thought. I can’t just hit “Publish” right then and there. I need to break the times up into stages and actually respect those stages and build up the discipline (through practice) to stick to the outline.
If I’m writing with distractions blocked, using something like Cold Turkey Writer, I’ll often end up with a bunch of writing and then I need to take the steps to move it to the editor. The best thing might be to use something like Cold Turkey Micromanager with a different editor. Cold Turkey Micromanager + MarsEdit + Figma might do the trick to really finish a post every day.
Experiments to try
- Really practice writing in separate phases: offline writing with TODOs and TKs (20 minutes), add links (5 minutes), revise and schedule on some other day.
- Try the Cold Turkey Micromanager + MarsEdit + Figma combination for writing the initial posts. I’ll need to add links later but that can be done with that second session and maybe it’s just a browser that’s allowed at that point so that I can add links in.