Writing Faster Without Sacrificing Quality

Most writing slowness isn't typing speed — it's switching between writing and editing in the same pass. Trying to get a sentence perfect before moving to the next one means you're doing two different mental tasks at once, and both suffer.

Separate drafting from editing into two distinct passes. Write the whole thing badly first, all the way through, without stopping to fix anything. Then go back and edit with fresh eyes. This alone tends to cut drafting time significantly.

Templates aren't a shortcut that makes writing worse — for recurring formats (status updates, outreach emails, meeting notes) they remove the part of the task that was never creative to begin with, so your attention goes to the parts that actually need it.

Set a rough word or time budget before you start. Unbounded writing tasks expand to fill however much time you give them; a loose constraint focuses effort on what matters most in the piece.