Anyone in a creative field that has high standards of craft, likely has an indelible urge to refine what they’re working on to perfection, even when their idea is simply a seedling and in its very early stages. While this urge is the strength that helps them make some of the nicest things ever to exist on this planet, it can also be a curse because that delays getting started.
Andy Matuschak describes a trick to turn off your editing brain:
One thing I really like about audio notes is that they remove my editing instincts. If I’m trying to write something even here, not on a walk and I’m struggling to figure out how to say what I’m intending, then I will often start dictation on my computer and then turn away from my computer, and walk out here with an AirPod in my ear and just walk in big circles. And I’ll come back and a thousand words of texts will have been generated, I will probably use none of them, but at this point I’m ready to sit down and start typing.
I do something similar and can attest that choosing a format which reduces your ability to edit is effective at helping you making progress when stuck. I personally use Google Docs audio transcription (as it auto-corrects based on context and understands my Indian accent much better than alternatives) or pen-on-paper, when I sense I have an urge to edit thoughts I have barely begun to formulate. This usually frees my mind enough to enumerate all the subject matter, even if in the form of largely disconnected blocks. The next round of writing is 70% faster, because I can draw from what I know is already pretty comprehensive.
