It's a trap!

I think that if I grew up a generation or two later than I did, I would have been diagnosed with ADD. I was not a hyper kid but I sure was a dreamer and easily distracted by lots of stuff.

I can recall my 2nd grade teacher getting frustrated with me because my attention would drift from her teachings to the puffy white clouds floating through the blue sky.

As an adult I have learned how to focus. I can easily sit on the computer and pound away on the keyboard, the kids running around the house screaming like banshees and I don't even notice them. April does not know how I do it. Sometimes I can't tell if she's bemused or caustic about it.

But It Still Gets Me Sometimes

My ADD surfaces in a different way. When I'm writing content for my website, I'm often thinking about what I'm going to write next.

IT'S A TRAP!

I find myself jumping around from point to point on my posts at times. But I've found a way to avoid this. This slows my writing process and I've found it often leads to a less than stellar quality post. But I've found a way to mitigate it.

When I decide what I'm going to write about, the very first thing that I do is write out all of the headings for the post. They may change. I may add to them as I get inspiration in the writing process or I may decide that one heading does not fit and either tweak it or remove it all together.

This allows me to have a laser focus on the subtopic of the overall subject. If I have my scaffolding laid out before me, I find it far easier to stay on target and my posts wind up coming out better.

Also, to ensure quality, I never publish a post as soon as I'm finished writing it. I almost always re-read it right away for proof and flow. I then close it, walk away for an hour or two and come back to it and re-read it with fresh eyes.

I'm not saying that I don't occasionally post a dude. Sometimes when I go back and read an older post my first thought is, "What was I smoking when I wrote this?" But the beauty of this is that I can change it and it winds up becoming a stronger post.

Do you have some tips for better writing or avoiding my dreaded ADD? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.