Do These Things Before Sitting Down to Write and You’ll Help More People Than You Could Ever Imagine

Your best writing is shaped by your preparation.

There is a lot of advice on how to write and what works best.

Nobody talks about what to do before you sit down to write. After sitting down to write every week for six years, I figured out the hardest part about writing was getting started.

Once you’re in the flow of writing, the words take care of themselves.

And the quality of what you write is determined by how you feel as you’re writing. If you want your writing to feel different, you have to change how you feel before you start writing.

Before you write, try doing these things.

Before You Write

Write the headlines in advance

In the days leading up to a writing session — lasting, typically, eight hours — I write the headlines in advance.

Potential headlines are written down as I go about my day and then emailed to myself. They are then put into their own folder in my email inbox.

The headline guides you as to what you’re going to write.

One thing I do that’s weird is copy and paste the headline below every point in my article while writing, and then remove each instance of the headline at the end. This ensures I never forget what I’m writing about or my main point. You can go off on tangents when you forget the headline. (My goldfish brain forgets everything!)

Get plenty of sleep the night before

If you wake up tired, your writing is going to suck. Trust me on this.

Your words are supposed to move people to action or make them think. You can’t do any of that if your mind is groggy and you have no energy. The energy you feel when you write is transferred to the reader.

Brew some coffee

Don’t go fancy. Strong instant coffee works fine and does the job. No need to become a coffee snob to write well. Coffee helps to produce flow states by getting your brain started and waking it up.

Hit the gym hard

You’ve had your coffee. It’s time to hit the gym. Why? Working out relaxes the mind and produces endorphins.

Lift weights before you write or do cardio and you’ll see a noticeable difference. Raising the intensity of the workout for me has increased the results associated with my writing.

Have a warm shower

My friend from work asked me the other day, “Why not a cold shower?” The temperature of your shower doesn’t make you hip or a warrior. A warm shower helps relax the mind and that’s perfect for writing.

While your mind is relaxed, write a few ideas on the wall of your shower using a liquid chalk pen. You’ll be surprised how good the ideas are.

Speak to your partner (or a person you love)

They are part of the reason you write. Think of them as you write and the love they give you. It makes your writing better and the world needs more writing laced with love, not hate.

Remember your writing is therapy

Getting your thoughts out of your head and on to a blog is good for you. Even if nobody reads what you write initially, it’s a free form of therapy. You’ll feel better after you write.

Have a clean desk

A cluttered desk equals cluttered thinking.

You can’t think straight when there is crap spread all over your desk. You want your desk to help you, not distract you. Get the dishes, loose papers, wallet, and keys, and remove them from your desk. Clean your desk, keyboard, and mouse with wet wipes.

Phone out of sight, on “Do not disturb”

If you want to interrupt the best flow of thoughts and writing you’ve ever done in your life, put your phone on your desk with all notifications turned on and the sound turned up. You’ll write like crap. You’ll forget what you’re going to say.

Your phone doesn’t help you write better. It’s a distraction. Having your phone there is a temptation to check it to see if you’re still important. Or it’ll play on your fears that something terrible has happened and you must look at your phone to make sure everything is okay. Rome didn’t burn down while you were writing.

Put the phone in another room, on “Do not disturb,” before starting any writing session. Or call a counselor about your addiction.

Open a new browser window

It is now time to boot up your desktop, laptop, or tablet to write. Once you’re at the desktop, open a brand new browser window with only one tab open.

A million tabs open when you’re writing is distracting and lets the evil browser notifications make their way into the titles of your tabs.

One browser window and one tab equal a focused mind.

Close all social media apps

If you have social media apps installed on your writing device, turn them off or close them. A social media notification during a writing session is like a bullet to the head for a writer.

Fire up the Tube

Before you start writing, you want to change your emotional state based on the type of writing you’re seeking to produce. YouTube is a great tool to manipulate your emotions.

Create yourself a playlist in advance that represents different emotions. I have a playlist called emotional that makes me cry every time. If I’m trying to bring a reader to tears with my words, this is my go-to playlist for before I write.

If I want to inspire you with huge amounts of energy, there’s a playlist for that, too. Let YouTube prepare your emotional state and help bring out the emotion in your writing.

Emotion creates motion in your readers that encourages them to think or perhaps take action. That kind of writing is helpful and highly shareable among humans with heartbeats.

Writing is thinking — prepare your thoughts

Once you’re in the state thanks to YouTube, think for a bit. Prepare and organize your thoughts. What do you want to say? Or, how can you be helpful?

The best writing is thinking clearly, and now you have done all the preparation to think extremely well.

Turn on the binaural beats

What the freaking hell are these? I had no idea either until cool writers that are way more niche and hip than me started talking about them.

When I studied sound engineering as a young man with an inflated ego, we called them Shepard tones. The new phrase is binaural beats.

Binaural beats are simply background music you play that is repetitive and seems to never end. The point of these beats is they give you laser-like, Skywalker focus.

Pump the binaural beats through your headphones and get ready to write. You’re almost there.

Write the first sentence and then breathe

Okay, you’ve finally made it. This is the hardest part about writing. It’s what all the preparation is for and will determine everything that follows.

Look at your screen, and write the first sentence. Don’t worry if it’s good or bad. Just write it without judgment.

Now I want you to breathe. The hardest part is over.

Try to write the next sentence. And the next. Before you know it, your focus and flow state will be so supercharged that you’ll be writing words that help more people than you could ever imagine. Your words may even help change a nation — that’s their power.

Final Thought

Writing is a gift. Next time you sit down to write, be grateful you get to do it.

There are kids who have no food and adults who have full-time jobs and no internet who’d kill to be able to write. There are people in hospital beds who are looking down the barrel of their life, knowing time is running out. They may never get to write and feel that beautiful feeling.

When you’re grateful about the whole writing process, you will become more helpful as a result.

Next time you sit down to write, prepare the headline in advance, get plenty of sleep the night before, brew some coffee, hit the gym hard, have a warm shower, speak to your partner (or a person you love), remember that your writing is therapy, have a clean desk, place your phone in another room, open a new browser tab, close all social media apps on your writing device, fire up YouTube, prepare your thoughts, turn on the binaural beats, and write the first sentence, followed by taking a breath in.

If you do these things before you write, you’ll be in the best flow state of your life and the emotion will come pouring out of you. Writing that comes from this place will help more people than you could ever imagine. Your life will have an enhanced meaning, too, while allowing you to be helpful.

It’s the preparation you do before you write that determines what you write and how helpful your words are to the audience.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net