Coaching practices for My Drafts Balloon Because Everything Feels Worth Including and I Can't Tell Which Lines Are Actually Carrying the Argument Versus Which Ones Are Just Interesting and True So I Keep Everything and Bury the Parts That Matter
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For My Drafts Balloon Because Everything Feels Worth Including and I Can't Tell Which Lines Are Actually Carrying the Argument Versus Which Ones Are Just Interesting and True So I Keep Everything and Bury the Parts That Matter, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My drafts balloon because everything feels worth including, and I can’t tell which lines are actually carrying the argument versus which ones are just interesting and true
- There’s one idea I fell in love with early and now everything else gets measured against it and found wanting
- I rewrite the same opening sentence ten times and an hour disappears with nothing to show
- I keep planning this thing in my head where it all seems to work perfectly, but the second I try to actually make it I realize I had no idea what I really wanted
- Every time I try to brainstorm, the critic and the dreamer are talking over each other
Practices that may help
- Apply the "so what?" test to every supporting point
Each supporting point should directly and uniquely answer the question above it in the pyramid.
The Minto Pyramid Principle - Kill your darlings deliberately
Identify the idea you’re most attached to, then set it aside first.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Timed drafting sprints
Write for a fixed, short window — speed forces your inner editor offline.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Prototype to think, not to finish
Build or sketch something rough specifically to learn what you actually want.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Separate divergence from convergence sessions
Keep idea generation and idea selection in separate sittings — never mix the modes.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Capture what resonates — not everything
Save notes, highlights, and ideas only when they genuinely spark something — not out of obligation.
Building a Second Brain (BASB), Made Practical - Set a volume quota before judging
Commit to a minimum number of drafts or ideas before allowing yourself to evaluate any.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Migrate tasks deliberately at the end of each month
At the month’s end, rewrite unfinished tasks by hand — only those worth the effort of rewriting survive.
The Bullet Journal Method, Made Practical - Write all 25 goals without editing
Brain-dump every goal, aspiration, and project you’re holding — professional and personal — uncensored.
Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy - First-draft permission: produce something deliberately bad on purpose
Commit to writing, sketching, or making the worst version you can imagine — terrible on purpose removes the evaluative stake.
The Beginner’s Mind in Creative Practice
Related concerns
- Multiple Drafts
Yes — the consistent research finding is that people who produce the most ideas also tend to produce the best ones. Quality is partly a function of quantity: you cannot reliably pick your best work in advance, so generating more output raises the ceiling. The mechanism is well supported in creativity studies, though the exact magnitude depends heavily on domain and task.
- First Draft Bad On Purpose
Commit to writing, sketching, or making the worst version you can imagine — terrible on purpose removes the evaluative stake.
First-draft permission: produce something deliberately bad on purpose
- How More Drafts Produce Better Work
Yes — the consistent research finding is that people who produce the most ideas also tend to produce the best ones. Quality is partly a function of quantity: you cannot reliably pick your best work in advance, so generating more output raises the ceiling. The mechanism is well supported in creativity studies, though the exact magnitude depends heavily on domain and task.
- Shitty First Draft Creativity
Commit to writing, sketching, or making the worst version you can imagine — terrible on purpose removes the evaluative stake.
- How To Stop Overthinking Drafts
Ship a rough version fast to learn what the problem actually is rather than theorizing indefinitely.
Bias toward action over deliberation
- Quantity Over Quality How More Drafts Produce Better Work During Conflict
Yes — the consistent research finding is that people who produce the most ideas also tend to produce the best ones. Quality is partly a function of quantity: you cannot reliably pick your best work in advance, so generating more output raises the ceiling. The mechanism is well supported in creativity studies, though the exact magnitude depends heavily on domain and task.
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