Some thoughts on making writing more efficient

Please add anything you would advice people to do.

1) First drafts should be messy and sloppy. Don't get hung up on word choice and grammar when you're just trying to get your ideas out. Separate out "content and idea generation" (first draft) from "content editing" later drafts. Note though that some readers don't agree with me on this. Some bosses and advisors will want everything they read to be cleanly edited, spell checked, grammar checked, etc. If you're not sure what to do, ask, and explain the state of your draft when you share it, since people have very different ideas of what a draft should be.

2) You can start with a stream of consciousness, or your can start with an outline. I tend to mix and match depending on how I'm thinking at the time and on the topic.

3) Put next actions and to do items in the mansuscript itself, then they'll never be separated from it.

4) Change your Word normal template to include file name, page number and any other info you'd want to have handy in a print version in the header. Also change Word defaults for the font, spacing, and margins you prefer (or need most often) so you don't have to do that in every document.

5) Don't confuse writng with formatting. If underlinnig, bolding, and sections help you organize your thought, great! But don't get sucked into time-wasting format tweaking. You'll likely have format imposed on you by a boss, a publisher or journal, or some other entity. This is one piece of advive from Latex advocates that I really like. Notice that this also means you don't need Word to write a draft document. You can use any text editor, so putting off writing "Because I don't have Word on my computer" is no excuse.

6) On that point, any tool that helps you write should be used. Take notes by hand on paper if that helps. Draw diagrams and figures. If you're doing that in Word, though, don't get sucked into spending time perfectly formatting the figures until your final editing.

7) They say "A picture is worth 1,000 words," but so is a table. For summarizing research, comparing ideas or theories, or anything that has a handfull of dimensions that are being systematically compared, a table is VERY helpful tool.