It's a disease, and it needs to be cured.

symptom (of an illness)

Every spring semester, there are always a few people who are annoyed.

Others sunshine friends, he left a message saying unpleasant words; you see him suddenly presumptuous, enlighten and comfort him, but was argued and even scolded a pass; a little thing, can provoke the anger in his chest, shouting and even do not hesitate to tear the face ......

It's not actually a sign of a rabies attack—— He's probably writing. Thesis What about.

He was late in putting pen to paper because he was procrastinating.

He was anxious because the deadline was approaching.

He was annoyed because of anxiety.

Because he was annoyed, he couldn't cave in and write, so he continued to procrastinate.

It's called... vicious circle。

This pit.， Thousands of people fall in every year。 Thesis， Tens of thousands of words at most（ bachelor's degree） or more than 100,000 words（ PhD）， Fewer than a few thousand words（ undergraduate (adjective)）， Why students choose to procrastinate？

indeed， It's not a problem exclusive to graduates。 Some professional writers， Also often delayed manuscripts， The editor is chasing him to his room。

Why is it so difficult to write long articles? Why do people delay again and again?

surrounds

For most people, creating long articles is a way to be surrounds sensations。

military history， The elite forces were killed by being surrounds And the war stories that collapsed， too numerous mention individually or individually。

BCE (before the Common Era)215 year， Hannibal, with an inferior force of 50,000 men, cleverly surrounds The Roman Army。 The total strength of the Roman army was nearly 90,000 men.， Nearly 70,000 of them were killed or captured in battle。 The Consul and80 Members of the Senate killed in action。

A more visual example is in Game of Thrones”battle of bastards” episode。 The brave and steadfastJon Snow Surrounded and immobilized.。

If Littlefinger hadn't come to the rescue with the Vale cavalry, I guess Jon Snow would have had to be resurrect Once more.

why? surrounds The warfare effect is so outstanding？

Because once people are surrounded, they are immediately torn between two mindsets.

One is a sense of fear。 lit. on all sides, the songs of Chu， without a retreat route。 Effective military organization crash， come apart at the seams。 So the duel immediately turned into a massacre.。

The second is a sense of powerlessness. How much you can do, and you need room to play. What encircling warfare compresses is your room to play. Jon Snow was squeezed in the middle like this, with no room to perform his martial arts until he was squeezed alive.

Creating a long article is a complex and difficult The task. Faced with such a task, one feels the same as being surrounded.

You will be afraid. Deadlines are approaching day by day, so you can't calmly follow your daily writing schedule, but rather watch in horror as time passes and imagine the dire consequences to come.

You feel powerless. Even the best writers must have plenty of time to complete the reading, researching, thinking, creating, and revising process. Deadline goes from next year to next month, from next week to tomorrow ...... The literary genius Cao Zhi still needs to take seven steps before he can recite the phrase "Boiling beans and burning beanstalks". Tens of thousands of words for a paper, and you're going to do it in one night?

If we can really guarantee quality and quantity， That's what I call a no-brainer.。

Let's say your original plan was to run 4 laps around the playground every day for a month. This plan is accomplishable. Turns out you didn't run a step for 29 days. To ensure that the total number of tasks is completed, day 30 becomes a marathon.

What a tragedy!

However, there are people who write long articles and without delay。

It's done with ease. Thesis persons， Probably loves sports as much as you do.、 window-shop， And spend a lot of time watching American shows。

Famous writers who have written a lot of books may not have lived a miserable life of being repeatedly rushed by editors. He may live an easy, dashing, even rippling life.

They write so many words， What makes it so pleasant?？

Because they have secret book or collection of books。

secret book or collection of books

A first-rate writer can write a masterpiece. But we'll hear about their painful experiences while writing.

Superb writers can cheerfully Write the best。 So they are more likely to develop their own hobbies， Live happier。

Vladimir Nabokov It's such a superb writer.。

You've never heard of him.？ His writings《 Lolita (dance)》(Lolita) You haven't heard of it either.？

《20 Top 100 English-language novels of the century》(Modern Library 100 Best Novels) the charts (of best-sellers)， The book was ranked fourth。

Nabokov is not only an excellent writer, but also an accomplished entomologist. He often followed his wife - who couldn't drive herself - into the wilderness to chase butterflies for a dozen miles or so. In January 2011, the Royal Society announced that Nabokov's research had made a significant contribution to the refinement of the grey butterfly classification system.

Both are writers, and people are time rich enough to chase butterflies.

Same entomologist, people are idle enough to write novels that affect the world.

Where did the gap come from?

When confronted by journalists, Nabokov revealed more than once the secret of his pleasant and efficient creation - the cards.

He never faced a frantic rush to work on an entire manuscript, but wrote down various words and graphics on cards with panache. He says the cards are like the corners of a puzzle, he just records the ideas on them and then uses them to put together a whole puzzle.

You get the picture?？ tricky Nabokov Not being long article creation surrounds and crush， It's because he took the initiative to implement contrary surrounds Strategy.

The key to counter-encirclement will be familiar to us - divide and conquer, concentrate superior forces on individual attacks and destroy the enemy's living forces ......

Only, instead of a brigade battalion, "General Nabokov" chose to divide the unit, but a card.

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? The principle behind it is real science.

Human intelligence is not designed to deal with grand and complex matters. The strengths that evolution has given us are quick reflexes - you can spot an approaching beast creeping up behind the grass based on clues, and then run (if you can).

counterpart， In the structure of our minds， Working memory can only process7±2 block(chunks)， And it only lasts a few seconds.。

Who said only rats put their paws down and forget?

Physiological structures determine our cognitive habits.

If the task is too big， And we feel mentally overloaded.， So psychologically inclined to strike；
Each group block packs in more， We'll be able to handle more content at the same time。 It's a pity that active memory， We tend to tend to cut content into too-small units（ For example, the letters、 words、 phrase）。

The cards cleverly help us solve both of these problems.

Card capacity is limited. We only have to write down very little. And so the task became simple. When faced with a simple task, the bully will immediately have the positive action mentality of "you can't help it if you meet a wimp".

Each card forms a group block。 You can combine them at the card level， that isNabokov stated“ jigsaw puzzle”。 A combination of a few cards is a vignette， Several subsections may form a chapter…… Until the entire work is completed。

Increased efficiency and reduced stress. Do you want to try such a great tool right away?

And slowly.

tools

Analyzing the principle of card recording, it becomes clear that the cards themselves, as the vehicle, are not really important. Easy to put together a group of blocks to facilitate the final "puzzle", and we're done.

If you use traditional paper cards and write in pencil, the post-transcription work may still drive you crazy.

Nabokov used cards with ease because his wife Véra acted as his "secretary, typist, editor, proofreader, translator, bibliographer, broker, sales manager, lawyer, driver, research assistant, teaching assistant".

Can these people fit in one room?

Don't worry about it. The point is, do you have these support staff?

If not.， It doesn't matter.。 Modern technology can help us do much of the above， Improving efficiency。

The following sections are divided into three parts: "Input", "Record" and "Organization".

importation

You can try voice input. The good thing is that it is convenient and quick, especially for lazy people like me who don't want to carry a pen and paper around.

Even with the highest accuracy rate of Chinese speech available today importation law， there are also3% An error rate of around。 For the long article， This makes post-proofreading very difficult。 But if your writing goal is just a card， Proofreading is much easier。

Recently Xunfei Voice Input Method in iPhone can be called directly from within the app instead of jumping around between programs. This improvement has skyrocketed the user experience.

record

We recommend using Evernote to record a "card".

You can code properly, or take pictures, record, doodle ...... Or even just capture a certain page in and scribble on it at random as your own card.

The venerable note-taking app Evernote ensures that everything you work on is kept safe and synced across devices on different platforms. It can even offer high-tech features like in-image text recognition when a particular card needs to be retrieved.

For those interested， Read more about my work《 How to choose a note taking app？》。

organization

The final manuscript organization is all about putting the puzzle together. The recommended writing app is Ulysses.

Remember the list of the Top 100 English-language Novels of the 20th Century we showed earlier?

What is the name of the novel that topped the list？

Yes, it's Ulysses.

from this, it seems that...， This app was sharp from the time it was named、 full of ambition。

There are many Markdown editors out there, and Ulysses is known for being conservative.

people can preview images in real time, which it does not provide.

People upload images to third-party image beds with one click， It does not support；

People convert WeChat public format with one click, and it doesn't ......

However, in the community of authors who use Markdown to create long articles, Ulysses' place is undeniable. Users will whisper their grievances and suggest improvements or additions to the software developer, but few actually dare to "jump ship" to another editor.

Because Ulysses' design embodies the essence of the card creation method.

Every single one of its contributions， All can be seen as a card。

Ulysses isn't as versatile as Evernote, but it can quickly retrieve that card you need in the library.

You can manually arrange and combine as many times as you like, and preview and publish across manuscripts. The kind of joy that long text creators have in piecing together cards that anyone who uses them will know.

discussions

By reading this, I believe you have the following key points.

Why do you get anxious and procrastinate writing long articles?
How to use the card method for easy long article creation?
which ones? tools It can assist you in improving your efficiency？

If you have a knack for writing long articles， Feel free to leave a comment and share it with everyone。 Together we discussions and communication。

Happy yardwork!

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