How I wrote this essay in 8 minutes

I didn’t have time to write today.

Today, I spent my entire day writing and practicing my upcoming speech, which I’m writing for a public speaking contest held by my school. As I felt I had no spare time for this atomic essay, I recalled my earlier essay How I wrote this essay in 14 minutes, and decided to challenge myself again.

1) Time pressure works wonders

I’m writing this with my iPhone laying on the desk with a countdown on it. I know I’m going to feel bad if I were to fail this challenge. I can’t really explain why, but my fingers are moving by themselves right now. If you want to work swiftly, create urgency.

Another example of this would be fellow shipper Marcel, who wrote his essay in around 20 minutes during the January cohort. I asked him: “How could you write it that quickly?”

His answer: “Just start writing at 23:40 and you’ll finish it before twelve.”

2) Get rid of your perfectionism

Observing how quickly I’m able to write this essay, I once again realize how big of a problem perfectionism is. I’ve written almost 200 words within 5 minutes now, which I honestly didn’t think was possible. It pains to not filter my thoughts and edit my sentences to my usual concise language, but at the same time, its fun.

3) Remember quantity > quality

If I wouldn’t write this essay today, I would lose my writing streak, and risk to lose my motivation to keep on shipping this month. In other words, the opportunity costs would be huge.

Just write it.

Time:

7:40 for writing

00:50 for editing

08:30 total

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