Too many drafts

For writing I have content in multiple stages-

• Fleeting thoughts in my head.

• One liners about topics that I want to write about. These require more research and/or story telling work.

• Draft blogs about topics I’ve started writing content for.

• Published content you see here.

Over the past few months I’ve actually generated many drafts that are waiting for the final stages. Turns out that completing an article is just like almost any other project that I’ve worked on -

• The first 80% of the project takes 80% of the time.

• The second 20% of the project takes the other 80% of the time.

(I’ve observed this principle for a long time. Do you know if this can be attributed to anyone?)

Moving from almost complete to complete somehow always needs that extra push. And that extra push requires some additional motivation.

To write I usually like to ruminate on ideas for some time. If I’m too caught up with projects then I don’t end up getting that mental space and then just end up at draft mode.

According to this nyt article, procrastination involves delaying a task that is also causing some sort of self-harm. But let’s not get into productivity hacks and time management solutions.

Another blog with a simpler message that I liked was “Write 5x more but write 5x less”. Advantages of writing more often which resonated from my original start of this blog were;

• Because writing helps thinking.

• Because practice will make you better.

• Because writing is more shareable than speaking.

• Because humans are worse than computers at storing knowledge.

• Because writing your old thoughts frees your brain to think of new thoughts.

Oddly one of the advantages of writing shorter was - Because of the Pareto principle: 80% of the value is in 20% of the length (hence “5x shorter”).

Maybe my 80/80 work effort is the anti-pareto principle.