Your Laptop Is Killing Your Word Count

Concetta Cucchiarelli
November 15, 2024 | 3 min read

You’re at your desk trying to write a masterpiece, but you keep staring at the blank page and that glaring word count: 0.

Do you start commiserating about how you’re not disciplined enough, you’re a procrastinator, that you'll never be a writer?

If so, stop right now. Take a deep breath.

The problem is not you. It’s the laptop.

Yes, you read that right.

When we are not focused or productive, we immediately blame our brain. But it's usually more about our external factors — like our digital devices.

Let's explore how our tools can affect our productivity.

The Mental Toll of Decisions

Picture this: You have to buy milk, so you enter a small shop that only sells milk.

It's easy; you can’t buy anything other than milk, and there is no stress, no decisions to make, and no distractions.

Now, suppose the shop expands to sell milk and bread. You go there, and you definitely don't forget about buying milk, but you have to navigate to the milk section and decide whether to ignore bread as you walk past it — or maybe you actually do need some bread after all. It seems simple, but you now have an additional layer of decision-making.

Now, imagine you step into a giant supermarket where they sell everything you can imagine.

You don't just have to remember to buy milk, you have to decide what to do with everything in that store (even if unconsciously) and filter out what is not needed.

This choice becomes even more difficult if every product is designed to grab your attention: appealing packaging, captivating colors, good prices, or attractive offers.

Think about it: How often have you left the supermarket with everything in your cart but what you needed?

And even if you remember to buy what you need, you often leave with way more than that — including a lot more stress and exhaustion.

It’s not you.

Focusing only on what you need while the rest of the world pushes and pulls you in all directions is demanding and requires a lot of mental effort (as explained in our previous posts).

Guess what? Writing on your laptop means constantly shopping in a huge supermarket that sells everything. Email, social media, games, Photoshop — it’s all there in one place and your brain knows it.

What can we do to combat this?

Having a clear "shopping list" (or to-do list) that reminds us what we are doing is paramount.

But we can do more.

Single-Purpose Devices

The most powerful way to alleviate the burden of distraction — or the potential for distraction — on your brain is to intentionally choose what you want to be exposed to.

One easy way is to not write on your laptop. With email, calendars, social media, all your apps, your laptop is a portal to the entire world. And that automatically produces the temptation to do something else — or to multitask, which we already established does not work.

Avoiding the distractions inherent on a multi-purpose device forces our brains to stay on one task and bypass the spontaneous multitasking naturally induced by a laptop.

The most powerful way to alleviate the burden of distraction — or the potential for distraction — on your brain is to intentionally choose what you want to be exposed to.

Instead, leave the laptop for those things that can’t be done elsewhere. When you need to write — to compose, invent, or imagine — use a different method.

Maybe you say, "But I can block apps and put on focus mode." Turns out even the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity and works as a constant distraction. Even just looking at the icons makes us feel distracted!

Turns out even the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity and works as a constant distraction.

For this reason, many people choose to write by hand. But converting our handwritten work to the digital form needed for most modern publishing and business purposes is time-consuming. This is why many people choose digital single-purpose devices like Freewrite.

Making fewer decisions means saving cognitive energy for your writing and massively increasing productivity and creativity.

So, if you are still staring at a paltry word count:

  • write down your personal "shopping list" or use a prompt to guide your creativity and focus, and
  • use distraction-free tools.

This is the simple but perfect system to supercharge your word count.

[BACK TO “WHY FOCUS IS DYING”]

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March 22, 2025 4 min read

I’ve spent years writing while secretly fearing that a single misplaced word would expose me — not just as a bad writer, but as a fraud.

My background is originally in photography, and I see it there, too. A photographer I know recently posted a before-and-after comparison of their editing from 2018 versus now, asking if we also saw changes in our own work over the years.

Naturally, we should. If our work is the same, years apart, have we really grown as artists?

So why is that the growing, the process of it, the daily grind of it, is so painful?

So why is that the growing, the process of it, the daily grind of it, is so painful?

The Haunting

Hitting “publish” on an essay or a blog always stirs up insecurity — the overthinking, the over-editing. The fear that someone will call me out for not being a real writer.

I initially hesitated to make writing part of my freelance work. My background is in photography and design. Writing was something I gravitated toward, but I had no degree to validate it. No official stamp of approval.

Like many writers, I started with zero confidence in my voice — agonizing over edits, drowning in research, second-guessing every word.

I even created a shield for myself: ghostwriting.

I even created a shield for myself: ghostwriting.

If my words weren’t my own, they couldn’t be wrong. Ghostwriting meant safety — no risk, no vulnerability, just words without ownership.

I still remember the feeling of scrolling to the bottom of an article I had written and seeing someone else’s name, their face beside words that had once been mine.

The truth is, I always wanted to write. As a kid, I imagined it. Yet, I found myself handing over my work, letting someone else own it.

I told myself it didn’t matter. It was work. Getting paid to write should be enough.

But here’s the thing: I wasn’t just playing it safe — I was slowly erasing myself. Word by word. Edit by edit. And finally, in the by-line.

I wasn’t just playing it safe — I was slowly erasing myself. Word by word. Edit by edit. And finally, in the by-line.

The Disappearing Act

This was true when I was writing under my own name, too. The more I worried about getting it right, the less I sounded like me.

I worried. I worried about how long an essay was (“people will be bored”), finding endless examples as proof of my research (“no way my own opinion is valid on its own”), the title I gave a piece (“it has to be a hook”), or editing out personal touches (“better to be safe than be seen”).

I built a guardrail around my writing, adjusting, tweaking, over-correcting. Advice meant to help only locked me in. It created a sentence rewritten to sound smarter, an opinion softened to sound safer, a paragraph reshaped to sound acceptable.

I built a guardrail around my writing, adjusting, tweaking, over-correcting.

But playing it safe makes the work dull. Writing loses its edge.

It took deliberate effort to break this habit. I’m not perfect, but here’s what I know after a year of intentionally letting my writing sound like me:

My work is clearer. It moves with my own rhythm. It’s less shaped by external influence, by fear, by the constant need to smooth it into something more polished, more likable.

But playing it safe makes the work dull. Writing loses its edge.

The Resurrection

The drive for acceptance is a slippery slope — one we don’t always realize we’re sliding down. It’s present in the small choices that pull us away from artistic integrity: checking how others did it first, tweaking our work to fit a mold, hesitating before saying what we actually mean.

And let’s be honest — this isn’t just about writing. It bleeds into everything.

It’s there when we stay silent in the face of wrongdoing, when we hold back our true way of being, when we choose work that feels “respectable,” whatever that means. It’s in every “yes” we say when we really want to say “no.”

If your self-expression is rooted in a need for acceptance, are you creating for yourself — or for others? Does your work help you explore your thoughts, your life? Does it add depth, energy, and meaning?

My work is clearer. It moves with my own rhythm. It’s less shaped by external influence, by fear, by the constant need to smooth it into something more polished, more likable.

I get it. We’re social creatures. Isolation isn’t the answer. Ignoring societal norms won’t make us better writers. Often, the most meaningful work is born from responding to or resisting those norms.

But knowing yourself well enough to recognize when acceptance is shaping your work brings clarity.

Am I doing this to be part of a community, to build connections, to learn and grow?

Or am I doing this to meet someone else’s expectations, dulling my voice just to fit in?

The Revival

Here’s what I know as I look back at my writing: I’m grateful for the years spent learning, for the times I sought acceptance with curiosity. But I’m in a different phase now.

I know who I am, and those who connect with my work reflect that back at me — in the messages they send, in the conversations we share.

I know who I am, and those who connect with my work reflect that back at me — in the messages they send, in the conversations we share.

It’s our differences that drive growth. I want to nurture these connections, to be challenged by difference, to keep writing in a way that feels like me. The me who isn’t afraid to show what I think and care about.

So, I ask you, as I ask myself now:

If no one was watching, if no one could judge, what would you write?

If no one was watching, if no one could judge, what would you write?

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