Day 962 - Focusing better when I’m dictating

I am getting started on my dictation a little late in the day today, because I had to go pick up the vegetables from the co-op. In hindsight, I should have done the dictation first, and then gone to pick up the vegetables afterward, and then I could have done the cleanup editing after that. But I'm so used to picking up the co-op vegetables at a certain time, that I simply didn't think of it. I'll have to try to remember this for next week.

Also, I don't know why this is, but before, when I tried to write via typing, if I hadn't yet picked up the vegetables, the thought of that would nag at me while I was writing. I think because I was afraid that I would forget. It's a little bit easier to simply go pick up the vegetables as soon as the alarm sounds on my phone.

I'm not sure if the reminder to pick up the vegetables would still nag at me if I were walking and dictating, but I suspect it would not simply because I am outside, and I also have found that I tend to be much more focused when I'm dictating.

Last night, I thought about this phenomenon of hyperfocusing during my dictation. I'm not entirely certain, but I think it might be because dictation is harder for me than sitting down to type. I already knew this from my last experiment trying to do dictation. It would be easier for me to sit down at the computer and type rather than setting up my equipment to dictate. I noticed that it required a bit more mental energy to dictate because I needed to concentrate on a new, unfamiliar method of output (my mouth versus my fingers), and since I can't see what I just wrote, I also have to pay closer attention so that I remember what I've written. When typing, I don't really have to concentrate that hard since I don't need to exercise my memory.

So, since dictation is a little more difficult for me mentally, I think that's why I tend to be more hyper focused when I do it. When I was reading the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, and the author talked about flow state, it was mentioned that the task had to be challenging, although not impossible. If the task was too easy, a person's focus would be more likely to wander. So maybe that's why I have that deeper focus when I'm dictating.

I am not complaining, because it is much more efficient if I can focus and do the dictation for an hour or an hour and half at a time. When typing, I would usually take a break every 30 to 60 minutes since I was sitting for the entire time, and while there have been times when I had deeper focus for an hour or so, it was not the norm. Most of the time I would take a break every half hour or so because I would get distracted.

I think because the dictation requires me to walk around, and because I am more focused while dictating, I am less likely to fall prey to distractions. In contrast to when I write via typing, usually able to enter into deep focus when dictating quite easily. It happens almost every time I start a dictation session.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm actually entering into flow state when I dictate. Maybe it's simply the fact that I am away from my computer, and that's why I'm able to focus better. I only tend to be very easily distracted by visual stimuli, so actually, that would make sense. Even though I have notifications turned off on my computer, I rarely have the Internet turned off when I'm writing because I like to write within 4thewords.com, but if I turned off the Internet and wrote only in Scrivener, I'm guessing that would work similarly to an Alphasmart. Would I still be as easily distracted? I'm not certain. I suppose I will need to try that the next time I decide to type and write. For now, I am enjoying the dictation much more because I can write a lot of words in a short amount of time, and then clean up the writing later when I don't need to be as focused.

Most of the time, I am breaking out of that focus only when I have physical discomfort, such as IBS or needing to go to the bathroom, or because the scene is completed. Most of the time I can dictate an entire scene in one sitting without losing focus. That always feels very satisfying to me.

(On a random side note, I had also read somewhere that the Siri dictation in Mac Pages is much better than the Siri dictation in other applications on the Mac. I had tried Siri dictation in Scrivener, and it was quite poor. So it might be worth it to try Siri dictation in Pages, just to see.)


Today, I went out walking to start dictating, but my IBS began to flare up. It was also getting extremely cold, and I found that holding the voice recorder was getting to be very uncomfortable, so I decided to cut my walk short and come home so that I could take medication and finish dictating where it was warmer.

It was a little harder to get myself to start my writing dictation in the house—when I go out walking, I usually can start dictation right away—but it helped that I was pacing in my office, because I started thinking more about the next scene and how to fix a plot problem I had in it, and then I started dictating. I kept dictating until the entire scene was completed, which took a little over an hour.

Since today is Thursday, my writing schedule says that I was actually supposed to only do a little writing today and spend most of the time on marketing work, but I still ended up finishing the chapter. Also, I did a lot of marketing work earlier when my IBS was acting up a lot and it was easier to do marketing than to write, so there isn’t anything pressing for me to do. At the moment, I’m taking Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ads Challenge to learn how to do Amazon ads for my books, so I’ve been spending time watching the videos and doing the lessons. That’s considered marketing work, right?

Anyway, I was surprised to find that my dictation speed was almost 2600 words an hour, a marked improvement over the last few days. I’m not sure why it was so much faster, although it was an action scene that I was writing, and I think I tend to write those faster. My cleanup editing took about the same amount of time, so my final writing speed was about 1200 words an hour, which is a little faster than when I type.

Writing streak: 441 days

Dictation streak: 17 days

My takeaway for today: Next week Thursday, dictate first and then pick up the vegetables from the co-op.

My second takeaway for today: I think I’m able to focus better when dictating because it’s so much harder for me to do than writing via typing.

My third takeaway for today: Try dictation using Siri in Pages at some point to see if the dictation is better than when I tried using it in Scrivener.

My fourth takeaway for today: Pacing in my office seemed to help a lot to get me to start my dictation session, although I don’t start work as quickly as when I go out for a walk.