3) In writing a first draft where a flow state is key, I will skip adding in references or specific statistics. If I know I have the data/ref, I will just write something like “the signal to noise ratio was xx” or “as shown by xx et al.” It also makes it easy to CTRL-F for “xx” while revising.

4) Saw someone else in the thread recommend making the ppt first. I think this is especially great advice for grad students, who at least in my field/institution have made a LOT more ppts than papers. It’s a familiar way of storytelling and also helps you work out how to weave in your data/figures.