Personal Development For Distracted People

  I've been getting a lot of satisfaction from writing blog posts, and some other bits of writing, in 10 minutes flat. But can I apply the same strategy to finishing old jobs off? I have loads of things I've started and parked until I have time to finish them off properly. What if I could get them done in 10 minutes? With what I have learned from writing new pieces in 10 minutes I think the trick is to focus on first getting the job in a state where finishing it is possible, and then giving it total concentration until its done. But I need a get out clause here. Some things simply can't be done in ten minutes. So one acceptable outcome is - this is going to take longer than it is worth. Drop it now forever. Another is, this is worth spending more time on. In either case I need to get to the stage of actually dropping it - i.e., delete previous work and forget forever. Or I need to leave it so I can get closer to a ten minute finish than before.

  Ten minutes is longer than you think, but all the non-writing bits of composing a blog post take longer than you think to. And my 10 minute blog post concept is that you finish the whole thing and have it scheduled to appear within 10 minutes. As soon as you let yourself drift over the end point you are already into mission creep.

I like to linger on my writing. I enjoy leaving it, coming back to it, and editing it. Then re-editing it. The less pressing the writing is, the more leisurely my approach. The writing that is least important to me, and judging by my stats to everyone else as well, is my blogging. As a consequence, I produce very few blog posts, and what I do produce often stays in draft form for quite a long time. Often indefinitely.