3 quick writing exercises you can try in 2026
10-15 minute exercises you can squeeze into your calendar.
Becoming a better writer takes practice. But there are few opportunities to do that at work.
Part of the issue is time, of course. Meetings conquered our calendars.
The other issue is that our main types of writing — briefs, presentations, reports, emails, messages — feel either too formal or too informal for us to practice.
To help, here are 3 exercises you can do to practice your writing skills during a busy day.
Please note: These are not meant to shared with anyone. You can. But that’s not the point.
1. ‘Dear Work Diary’
This is an easy one to do. We’re all familiar with journaling.
You may feel silly doing it, but there are two main benefits to this exercise:
Journaling improves your memory.
Writing about your own experience can be easier than writing about the analytical or abstract work we do each day.
Instructions: Take 10 or 15 minutes at the end of the work day to just write out what happened that day that was notable. It can be about anything — an awkward joke someone made at the beginning of a virtual call or some project you’re working on. It doesn’t have to be about the specifics of the work itself. You can write about how you feel about the work or your coworkers.
Here are some questions to spark your thinking:
What surprised you? What delighted you? What frustrated you?
2. Presentation Letterboxd
Another short exercise is to review a presentation like a movie on Letterboxd1.
If you’re not familiar with Letterboxd, it’s a site where you write a little review of movies you’ve watched.
Instructions: Write a review of a presentation you listened to that day. Give it a star rating and then write a review. Keep it brief. One or two paragraphs max. Give your experience of the content and the form. Was it convincing? Was it too long? Did the presenter do a good job?
You may feel uncomfortable reviewing your coworkers this way. Relax. It’s just for you. These aren’t a part of the official meeting minutes that will be circulated to the group afterwards.
This can help you sharpen your own taste. You can highlight things you like or don’t like about the presentation and then you can incorporate that into your style.
3. Letter to the Editor
You may not read physical newspapers, but you may be familiar with letters to the editor.
They are readers’ responses to a publication about an article. Readers share their own experience of the topic or they disagree with the writer’s stance in the article.
For the purposes of this exercise, we will do the latter. It’s more fun to disagree, anyway.
We all have those moments when you hear a CEO or head of a department espouse some strategy the company is pursuing that you find baffling.
“Huh? That’s our focus?”
The exercise is to write a response to any topic that you hear a senior leader discuss.
Instructions: Write one or two paragraphs stating what you understood his or her argument to be. Then, write your opposing argument in a form of a letter. Note: don’t hit send!
This can be a fun way to unleash those private “oh, hell no” thoughts out. Just don’t be inflammatory.
These exercises are meant to be done in short bursts. You do not have to worry about revising them. They are meant to get you writing.
Want more practice?
Take 10 or 15 minutes to do some free writing. Unlike the exercises above, freewriting can have less guidelines. You can write whatever you like, however you like.
What star rating would you give to the last presentation you heard?
This is not a sponsored post, I promise.
You know I’m in on a Letterboxd-adjacent exercise!