Your duck + 101 Writing Tips… Merry Xmas!

Sleigh ‘em in 2010!

Give wings to your writing next year with these Golden Writing Tips that we collected from people like YOU:

Download your 101-Tips eBook (free)

People’s tips were in answer to this question:

“What writing tip, technique or strategy has saved you the most time,
made you the most money, or given you the best results at work?”

In 12 years of professional writing I hadn’t heard of some of them. This is high-protein brain food — and it’s our Christmas gift to you!

Get your gift here: “My Golden Writing Tip” eBook

What’s with the duck?

In return for your “golden” writing tips, we promised to donate $2,000 to Oxfam to buy ducks for third-world families.

We made the donation (see proof), and you made our day — we love how we all worked together to make a difference. Now that’s Christmas.

Here’s to you getting more kick from your keyboard in 2010!

Merry Christmas from all at Magneto,

P.S. Did you pass the “comma” test in the reindeer’s caption? Omitting a little comma can make a big difference!

P.P.S. Please share your thoughts below about the 101 Tips eBook. Or do you have a tip of your own you’d like to share? Comment away!

Distractions make you dumb

Did you know your IQ drops when you’re distracted?

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points — the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep, and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking pot.

So if you’re constantly interrupted while writing something important, watch out — your end result will be AS IF it was written by someone about 10% dumber. Not a good look.

Here’s how some companies around the world minimise distractions. Some rely on setting up guidelines and getting agreement in advance (including agreeing not to use the method 10 hours a day!).

Technology

• Turn off phones; let callers leave messages. Explain in your voicemail message that you’ll get back to them by X time.
• Turn off email, or at least the audible and visible notifications of new emails. (To do that, do the opposite of what you read here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP052428161033.aspx)
• Set up an email autoresponder that reassures senders you got their email, and will respond by X time.

People

• Give all staff a sign they can display when they don’t want to be interrupted (e.g. “Please don’t disturb”), or a red “thinking” cap that, if worn, shows they’re trying to focus.
• Tell team members they’re not to interrupt anyone wearing earphones (e.g. iPods).
• Ask your team not to interrupt you for a certain period every day, say, from 8-9 a.m.
• Go into work early, stay late, or work from home or a café.

You

• Unclutter your desk so you’re not tempted to start multitasking.
• Close distracting apps, like Facebook and Twitter.
• Set mini goals and rewards, e.g. to write at least a page before stopping for a coffee.

More?

What works for you? Please share your wisdom with the rest of us in the comments below. We’d love to be distracted by it…

• Close distracting apps, like Facebook and Twitter.

Write or Die

Are you putting off your writing task?

Then this is just the ticket! Consider it your virtual writing coach, standing over you, MAKING you hammer out the words:

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

The site explains how it works, but you’ll probably learn more by just playing with it. Type in your word and time goal, and click “Write!”

When finished, just copy/paste your text into your text editor. And say hello to productivity!

(If procrastination’s a problem for you, see also Procrastinator Terminator.)