How To Balance Thinking Deeply While Shipping Daily

Ev Chapman
July 9, 2021

Writing every day can be tough.

Some days it can feel like groundhog day. Ideation, draft, write, publish. Every day. But what if an idea requires a little more deep thinking? How do you give each idea the time and thought it deserves while still shipping daily?

I let ideas marinate

Keep an ideas list. Anytime an idea strikes add it to the ideas list and do a quick brain dump. The act of writing it down makes it real and I find myself randomly thinking about it throughout the day. As I keep having thoughts, I keep adding to the note.

Create ideas out of your notes. When I read and engage with content I take notes in my own words (no highlighting for me). Those notes grow over time, they get connected together and before I know it, fully formed ideas and essays are being formed.

Work on multiple essays at one time. Each week on a Sunday I go through my essay ideas list and choose a few to add to my up next pile which I'll work on throughout the week. They are all in varying degrees of completion. Some are almost complete, others need more time to think and marinate.

Some days I'll just pick one, start writing and ship it. Other days I'll wander around a few adding bits and pieces until I feel ready to assemble one fully. I find doing it this way I feel like I can think deeply about essays without the pressure of having to publish one on a particular day if I'm not ready.

Take the pressure off yourself to publish an idea in one day. Let them sit and simmer and marinate while you're promoting other essays and ideas forward.

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