Writing Tip: 15 Minutes
We hear a lot of people sigh when they talk about writing for their business. Or they change the subject. Writing anything longer than an email is too big of a mountain to face. That’s natural and understandable. But I have a secret to help you.
All you need is 15 minutes.
Block out 15 minutes of your day to write down all your thoughts about the content you need to write. Full sentences, bullet point, a formal outline – does not matter. Just write it all down, in any order. I guarantee you will feel better.
There are two solid reasons behind why this exercise is helpful:
Surprise the fear
The task of writing has been built up to such a painful level in your head, it seems impossible to begin. Fifteen minutes is a reasonable block of time to start hacking away at the project. See? You’ve started already! It’s not that scary a project.
Open up space
Clearing the thoughts out of your head leads to greater mental clarity. Your mind is now a bit freer to wander without this clutter. And once on paper, all in one place, you will begin to see the writing project take shape. Holes will be exposed, a flow will emerge. Your newly-cleared mind will now start filling in these gaps because it has room to do so.
Practice this 15-minute process each day, if possible. Yes, you are busy, but didn’t you just spend 10 minutes on You Tube watching funny dogs? Right, so instead, use that break today to clear your head, not fog it up. After a few 15-minute sessions throughout the week, you’ll be much further along than you imagined. The fear banished, the momentum moving forward. And you owe it all to a few simple minutes.
Give it a try and tell us in the comments how it works out for you.
All you need is 15 minutes.
Block out 15 minutes of your day to write down all your thoughts about the content you need to write. Full sentences, bullet point, a formal outline – does not matter. Just write it all down, in any order. I guarantee you will feel better.
There are two solid reasons behind why this exercise is helpful:
Surprise the fear
The task of writing has been built up to such a painful level in your head, it seems impossible to begin. Fifteen minutes is a reasonable block of time to start hacking away at the project. See? You’ve started already! It’s not that scary a project.
Open up space
Clearing the thoughts out of your head leads to greater mental clarity. Your mind is now a bit freer to wander without this clutter. And once on paper, all in one place, you will begin to see the writing project take shape. Holes will be exposed, a flow will emerge. Your newly-cleared mind will now start filling in these gaps because it has room to do so.
Practice this 15-minute process each day, if possible. Yes, you are busy, but didn’t you just spend 10 minutes on You Tube watching funny dogs? Right, so instead, use that break today to clear your head, not fog it up. After a few 15-minute sessions throughout the week, you’ll be much further along than you imagined. The fear banished, the momentum moving forward. And you owe it all to a few simple minutes.
Give it a try and tell us in the comments how it works out for you.
Labels: writing tip
posted by Anonymous at
8:43 AM
1 Comments:
I know this is an older blog post, but I still wanted to comment on it. I followed Karen's advice here, and this tip totally works. I had been procrastinating drafting my web content for quite some time. After Karen coached me on this trick, I made myself sit down and told my inner-procrastinator, "Just write for 15 minutes." Well, after just 10 minutes of writing, I discovered that I had suddenly opened the creative floodgates, and it just came pouring out. I felt so proud of my progress! Thanks Red Plume!
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