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Letter #5: 5 proven steps to pull yourself from the research rabbit hole
Write faster without compromising quality
Hey, you!
Know what extensive research, that is useless after a point, is called? PROCRASTINATION.
Yes, really!
Your mind will dupe you into believing you’re doing productive work — work that’ll help inform your content strategy, the briefs you send out to writers, and the drafts you write.
But there’s a point when you know you’ve enough raw material and you’re ready to roll. But you don’t. Because: let me just see what’s on the third page of Google. 😳
So how do you crawl your way out of this research rabbit hole?
Here’s how:
Create a list of all that you need to research. This is going to be your breadcrumb trail that shows you the way back to safety.
Set a 30-40-min timer and make a beeline for the first topic. Allot time to each pointer on your list based on your prior understanding of it so you don’t want to spend extra time on any area of the research rabbit hole.
Start outlining and interviewing experts. Best to head back to shade now and start outlining based on what you already know about the topic + what your research has taught you.
Now, write. If a timer doesn’t make you anxious when drafting, set it up. Otherwise, turn off your WiFi and log out of social media for focused work.
It’s possible you feel the itch to research some more in the middle of drafting. The solution? Placeholder text in square brackets. Want to back your point with a study? Think you’ve seen a fresh stat on the point you’re making? Resist the urge to quickly google the issue. Add what you need in square brackets (see how below) and move on — keep writing.
Return to research for a 30-min slot. Go on now, find the relevant stats and studies you wanted to complete your draft.
And that’s all!
It’s easy, isn’t it? And it works too — it’s saved me a ton of time with every technical topic that I've written.
With that, buh-bye for the week!
Cheers,
Masooma
P.S. Next week in the Workshop, we’ve an awesome expert interview with tips on writing with brevity — I’m sure you’ll love it!
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I'm definitely using this advice to improve my speed of producing the ugly first draft!
Ugh, I needed this one so bad. I lose so much time on research, even more on producing that first draft. And let me not even start with editing.
I made a checklist from this letter, and I'm looking forward to applying it.
Thank you for sharing.