Write To Understand Yourself

As someone who never really enjoyed writing in school, I avoided it to no end. I’d put it off and always crank out a paper at the last minute. I’m sure they had good intentions, but I never understood why we had to write those stupid papers. Why do either of us care about my thoughts as to why the egyptians built pyramids or how I changed when I entered middle school? Looking back on it now after highschool is over, I understand it a lot better.

Writing is important.

The ability to organize your thoughts is powerful. I, like many others, can tend to be scatterbrained. Writing down my thoughts forces me to organize them and convey them in a manner that is understandable by others.

Writing makes you understand.

How is that? Just sit down and write. Eventually you will realize it. Having writer’s block means that it isn’t clear in your mind yet.

Take a break and think; go for a walk, come back and write. You’re forced to understand yourself when you write, otherwise it just becomes a big mess. It is increasingly harder to do in our world of continuous information overload.

If you find it hard to follow  when writing emails, take a minute to make sure you know what you want to say. Try doing this and whittle yourself down to 3 or 4 sentences after a while. You’ll feel a sense of clarity. The readers will to.

Writing helps others to understand.

A while ago Jason Fried write a blog post on Signal vs Noise called The class I’d like to teach. Here’s a little excerpt:

It would be a writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.

The idea is struck me as absolutely brilliant. Focus on the important thoughts. Asking for an explanation from someone usually results in a 25 minute discussion that goes off topic 3 times and ends up talking in circles. Being able to condense your ideas is an exceptional skill that most people don’t have.

When you’re asked a question about a topic, you can be the expert.

You can share you writing. What you’ve written is now also organized in your mind. When someone asks you a question you can give them a short, straightforward answer. That, combined with being able to see the writing on your website quickly allows you to become an expert in their eyes. Being the expert brings a lot questions your way which can help to continue improving your knowledge of the topic as well.

Give it a shot. Don’t force yourself, but try to keep a pace. It’s worth it. I promise.