Incident Record Concerning Draft Opening Avoidance
Incident documentation of a draft file that was thought about repeatedly and opened once, on day eleven.
Incident Summary
A draft document was created on day one. The document contained a title, one paragraph of working notes, and a subject line reading "first pass." No further edits were recorded until day eleven.
During the intervening ten days, the file was thought about a minimum of six times, as reconstructed from related calendar notes, browser search history, and one Slack message reading "going to write that today."
Timeline
Days 1-3: Draft created. Author described the work as "basically started." No edits.
Days 4-5: Author reported needing to "get into the right headspace." Playlist assembled. New note created titled "pre-draft thoughts." Pre-draft thoughts document not opened after day 5.
Days 6-7: Draft folder reorganized. File renamed for clarity. No text added.
Days 8-9: Author opened file, read title, added one sentence, deleted it, and closed the file.
Day 10: Author described the draft as "almost ready to actually write."
Day 11: Draft opened and completed in forty minutes.
Contributing Factors
Draft opening avoidance must be repeated whenever the uncertainty it once reduced appears again. The new step claims to make starting easier, yet starting is the one thing the step postpones. Someone made one minor adjustment for draft opening avoidance. The adjustment became part of the expected sequence and added time to every repeat.
Status
Closed. The draft was submitted. A new draft has since been created. It has been open for four days. The pre-draft thoughts document was created this morning.