Best Sprint Timer Setting for Writers

Some of you might know that I've become a Vtuber streaming my writing and sprinting. I get asked what kind of sprint timing I use to determine my productivity and this is my answer.

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Today I will cover several sprint intervals and my thoughts about them in terms of productivity and how to decide on your optimal interval. I've tried 15m, 20m and 25m sprint intervals and here are my thoughts about them.

#1: [The Quickie] 15 min sprints

Some people think that this is a terrible interval to sprint because as soon as you begin to get into the mood of writing continuously, you have to stop. However, for me, this is a good interval for rushed chapters and a kickstarter on a day when I don't have coffee to propel me through immense concentration.

A good trick to use here in 15 min sprints is to set a word goal and do all researches beforehand. I like to set my 15 min word goal target at 500 words per sprint. It's an achievable speed for me at about 33wpm and my chapters normally span 1,500 words. I normally use 15 min sprints if I'm in a hurry and wish to complete a chapter in under an hour.

Think of this as a sprint quickie when you only have an hour for lunch break but still want to be productive.

#2: [The Regular] 20 min sprints

For sprinters using the Writer Bot on discord, this is your favourite setting. It's fast, efficient and does the job. I am guilty of hating this whenever I want quickies but I need to admit, the advantage of 20 min sprints using the writer bot on discord is the peer pressure from other writer sprinters. In addition, there's that incentive of earning XP points from every successfully completed sprint participated in.

I like to use the challenge function on this bot because it gives me goal completion XP as well as a motivation to complete my word target within a sprint if there's nobody else joining me. The level of XP I earned and levels I've grown using this bot can be used as flex material so I am a regular with 20min sprints.

My current target is to hit a consistent 40wpm speed during these 20 min sprints but it can be hard to do so with the number of distractions from confused writers asking for opinions, research brainstorming and time check commands on my open discord. Not to mention, I have many DM sliders during sprints and I cannot mute my discord because I need the sound notification.

#3: [Pomodoro] 25 min sprints 5 min break feat. Abao in Tokyo

I think I mentioned this wonderful productive channel somewhere before. It's a favourite now after I stumbled upon it thanks to Youtube Recommendations. I love their lo-fi music and alarm sound so I normally turn this on when I have a whole day of uninterrupted writing time.

Abao does his shortest session at 2 hours and longest at 4 hours. I love using it when I'm not streaming because I don't need to set the timer bot on discord, face interruptions from private messages or run errands when I'm doing this. Youtube does everything for me for the next 4 hours and it's amazing how much progress I can make in that time when I'm not tracking my progress.

Unfortunately, life hates me so I seldom do this. As a freelancer, business can call at any moment's notice. That's why I'm looking forward to next year when I can lighten my current 7-day work schedule to 5 days instead.

If you can afford a whole afternoon to writing, I would recommend subscribing to Abao's channel and favouriting some of his streams for your writing marathon. I managed to do 6 chapters when I had the time as my highest record using this method. I don't know how I did it but I will claim it was magic.

Conclusion...

Depending on how much time you have to write and what you want to achieve out of the sprint session, different sprints for different writers. If you have more questions, don't be shy and leave comments. I will reply to them here if you don't have discord.