Writing Less to Write More

Has anyone noticed that I’ve written less recently?

Has anyone noticed that I’ve written more recently?

Depending upon what you read you may have noticed different things.

I took a look at the amount of time I spent writing interrupt driven content on Twitter and Facebook and decided that it wasn’t the best use of my time.

I found that I was spending a significant amount of time checking for updates so I could respond to updates. All I was doing was feeding my ADT.

I decided that it was time for a bit of housekeeping. My aim was to replace quantity with quality. Rather than writing hundreds of 140 character interactions, I want to write more considered, longer interactions of a higher quality.

So I’ve taken a few simple steps:

• I’ve removed the Facebook and Twitter apps from my BlackBerry.
• I’ve hidden Tweetdeck on my laptop, so I have to go and consciously choose to start it.
• I’m limiting myself to one session on Twitter and one on Facebook a day.
• I’ve made a conscious effort to maintain a list blog topics to improve the quality of what I write there.
• Facebook and Twitter are banned after 8:00pm
• Although Google+ looks interesting I’ve resisted the urge to add to my list of interruptions.

The result is that I’ve written a lot more on my blog and managed to calm down my ADT quite a bit. A bit like a reformed smoker, I’ve started to notice how bad some people are. I’ve read a lot more. As well as being more productive on my blog I’ve been more productive in a number of other areas too. I’ve also been sleeping better and increased the amount of exercise I do.

Not surprisingly, the number of visitors on my blog has grown significantly too, but that’s not why I’m doing it.