Writing Under Pressure Tips and Hints
Release the pressure. Avoid, if possible with planning, but if that cannot be then redirect, release, and ignore any pressure or stress you might be feeling. Focus tightly only on the task ahead of you—not what led up to it. Research has shown that increased stress or pressure actually decreases your ability to handle the project, because it decreases your memory, ability to critically reason, and your response time. So work to relax—how do you relax? Light those candles, play that music, clean your office/writing space, do whatever you can do to relax. Redirect into exercise or some other activity like a stress ball or smelling a Play-Doh or crayons (studies have shown that our sense of smell is highly linked to our abilities to relax and respond)—scheduling time for both the activity and the writing. Release the pressure via mediation or some activity like it—there are lots of different meditations besides sitting silently, anything that makes you reflective in a mindful way like cleaning the house, fishing, or mowing the lawn can work. These mindful activities are often great pre-writing activities that prime your brain for writing; sometimes without these activities some writes experience writing block. Finally, denial, isn’t just a river in Egypt, but can be a healthy tool when the stress or pressure of writing and deadlines can be recasting into something positive or acceptable helping you complete the project with more ease. For example, try filling in the blank, this project could only have happened this way, because _____________.
Release any resistance that you might have developed toward the project. Resistance to a project will only make that project more difficult to write. Figure out why you are feeling the resistance or dislike for the project, and work to address or get rid of your feelings for the project. You might try doing the aspects of the project you hate first or last, whichever is more motivating for you or perhaps, you can delegate those to another. You can also try approaching the project with the attitude of loving it until you like it, in other words, make a list of what you like about the project and increase your appreciation of the project by focusing on the end goal: what will this project ultimately do? Another strategy that often works to disarm resistance is to practice gratitude—make a list of what you are grateful for when it comes to the writing project.
Do it in the Morning. Productivity research suggests that working on your most complex and challenging project first in the morning after a good night’s sleep is best. Alpha waves stimulate creativity in our brains and are most readily available to us in the morning, but you can also listen to alpha wave inducing music or take an afternoon nap to increase alpha waves at any time during the day. If you get stuck, move onto another section of the project and/or sleep on it or distract your mind from it for a bit and come back to it later. Sometimes, we focus too hard on an idea, and our brains get overloaded or overwhelmed or overemotional—give it a rest, and come back to it later.
Eat. Our bodies turn digested carbohydrates into glucose of our brains, if there is too much or too little then writing can become difficult, so eat, but avoid eating too much sugar, because like our bodies the brain also experiences sugar highs and lows. While a sugar high might give you a short energy boost, the sugar low that follows will decrease your brain power, memory, and productivity to a level well below the high. While writing keep blood sugar levels steady and level to enjoy optimal periods of productivity, creativity, thinking, and writing.
Know Your Writing Process and Plan for it. Do you use an outline or check-list? Or do you write from a discovery draft. Whether you work from a discovery draft or outline, develop a writing plan. Look at the time to deadline, then look at chunking the writing project into manageable pieces, reflect on what parts might take the longest, and fit the pieces to the timeline. From this you can develop an outline or even a template for your writing project, but if the writing task and/or writing material is not familiar to you, then you might use a discovery draft to find out what you know about the project and what you need to know. Some folks always start from a discovery draft, which is to just sit down and start writing—this may or may not have much structure and some or more structure will need to be applied later. I recommend pulling the main ideas from the discovery draft and turning those ideas into an outline, check-list, or template, reflect on what is still needed/missing, and apply what you have and what you might still need to cover or research to your timeline.
Schedule concentrated, uninterrupted writing time with breaks for eating, resting or exercise about every 25 minutes according to studies, but not for other screen media like your phone, television, movies, Twitter or Facebook. More screen time when you are writing will increase eye and brain fatigue. And, an interruption in your writing becomes a distraction for your brain, it takes us approximately 15 minutes to re-cover our concentration from an interruption. Brain concentration is optimal at 20 to 25 minute intervals for complex tasks.
Buddy Tag it. Leave each writing session with an easy way to start the next one. Using an outline, leaving yourself a note or record an audio note, writing only 1 section at a time, or keeping a prioritized list can help you quickly re-pick up your project. Try not to begin each writing section re-reading what you have already written, simply because you will spend more time (re)polishing what you have recently written then on the new section you should be writing. That practice is like a feedback lope—it doesn’t allow your brain to move on and focus on the next step of the project or the new material for the project you should be writing on during that session. Try to keep edits and revision for the end of a section of writing, writing session, or as the only focus of the next writing session, but after that leave it behind until your more of your draft is complete or until you are in the final stage of the project.