Writing anxiety
Applying product skills to overcome the fear of writing
Gordon here. I’m a Taiwanese Canadian working in the States for over 10 years. I’m ex-Meta, ex-Microsoft, and have been Head of Product at 2 startups. Learn more about me here.
The mental block
Writing anxiety is real. I have attempted but never truly built the habit of writing consistently. I always dreamed about sharing my professional knowledge with the world and co-creating new experiences along the way. Since writing is one of the best ways to scale that, my first step is to overcome this anxiety.
Writing anxiety is a term for the tension, worry, nervousness, and a wide variety of other negative feelings that may occur when faced with a writing task. (wiki)
Problem-solving framework
As a product manager, it’s important to problem-solve with a framework in mind. I came up with a framework to tackle writing anxiety, and I’m happy to share it with you all:
See what others are saying
Identify the source of my anxiety
Set guiding principles to think big and start small
Bootstrap a positive loop where I can’t back out
What others are saying online
It comforted me when I found out there are many people on the Internet sharing stories of similar mental blocks. Successful podcasters or Youtubers often refer to their first post as “cringy” or horrible (for example, MrBeast’s reaction to his first video).
Here are the top 5 tips that resonate with me:
Write drunk, edit sober 🍺
Seek benefits before seeking benefits 🐝
Quantity over quality 🐜
Get things done before making it perfect ✔️
You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great 👟
The source of my anxiety
I explored lateral thinking [a topic for another time] to draw parallels between writing and other areas where I excel, and identified these 3 sources:
Perfectionism
I often generate great content in 1:1s with direct reports, so why can't I replicate that in writing? It's because in those 1:1s, I'm not fixated on perfection. But with articles, they're online forever, which exposes my desire for perfection.
Boiling the ocean
As a product manager, I'm adept at connecting dots. However, in writing, I struggle to condense my thoughts. With so much to share, I tend to expand topics, resulting in lengthy and unfinished pieces.
Superiority or inferiority syndrome
I often compare myself to successful or up-and-coming writers (like this one), and feel like a failure if I don't measure up. Avoiding writing altogether spares me from feeling inadequate.
Guiding principles to rethink writing
Just as a product strategy may have guiding principles, here are mine on writing content online:
Expectations reset to must-haves
I clarify why I want to write and what I hope to achieve. In product management terms, it's about weeding out the must-haves and the nice-to-haves. This ties back to my personal mission statement [a topic for another time]. My main goal is to share what I love and what I'm good at, rather than seeking fame, or validation as a writer. It's okay if my writing isn't great in the first 10 posts, or ever. I’m not aiming for a Pulitzer.
Every post is a bite-sized story
Just like tailoring a resume for a job (as opposed to CVs [a topic for another time]), each post should focus on a specific story, making it easily consumable. A quick search online suggests that reading time should ideally be 2-5 minutes, with 3 minutes being most common.
Every post has versioning
Similar to software or games, my posts will have versions too. Content on a topic will be labeled as topic X.version.2024-03. This approach reduces pressure to achieve perfection and allows for the possibility of revisiting topics in the future.
Every stage of writing is time boxed
People often work better under pressure. While writing about something I love, it's essential to set time limits for each stage of the process. Feeling proud of completing writing tasks within a short time frame can alleviate concerns about quality.
Every post is part of a conversation
Conversations and brainstorming are non-linear, unlike writing/reading an article. To accommodate this, I'll use the “topic for another time” tag to branch out to other topics in the future. I value deep and interactive conversations with others because they spark interesting topics. It's okay if an article doesn't cover everything discussed in a conversation.
Bootstrap a positive loop where I can’t back out
I’ll share my “spec”, a pledge, and the plan to overcome writing anxiety that creates a win-win situation for the first 21 days. As a Product person, there’s an urge to measure success. So stay tuned for the next post :)
I hope you can find one or two things in this article that resonate with you, whether it helps with your writing, product management, or starting something you love.
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Thanks for sharing!