Change it Up Before You Become a Writing Zombie

I’m sure we all have days when hours of writing gets absolutely boring. I know I have them. It’s not that the work is boring. It’s more of staring the same white screen and the same black letters for hours after hours. If you’re like me, you get pretty unproductive during times like that. I start looking for things to break the monotony - and they’re always things that have absolutely nothing to do with finishing the project, like browsing the internet or checking email.

Here are some things I do to change it up, without losing focus or momentum.

Change the font.

Change the font color.

Change the background color.

I’ve never counted, but I’m guessing Microsoft Word has at least 75 fonts, maybe more. Switching to a new font, color, or document background brings newness to the screen and helps get me through at least a few more articles. When I get bored with one setting, I just change to another.

Get familiar with your document processor so it doesn’t take you too much time to change the settings and make sure you change everything back to the format that your client expects. Sending your document in magenta Comic Sans might not go over too well.

What do you do to break up the monotony of document processing?