Let's presume you receive a piece of feedback you can't argue with.

People are generally good at taking feedback, so the common reaction is to immediately go to work at fixing the identified problem. This is a mistake.

Problems are best solved in a certain order.

We might not be able to articulate what that order should be, but a quiet mind can judge the urgency appropriately.

Making Writing Clearer

Here's how my principle of taking feedback applies to my own writing:

My style is quite free-associative and abstract. I love writing this way, I think it makes it more interesting. It avoids the trappings of having a neatly structured style, at least when you're beginning. Too much clarity can be a "local maximum" — you may iterate and find initial improvements, but soon end up hitting a brick wall.

But occasionally people read my stuff and are like WTF.

Same in person: “bro, I’m not really following you.”

I’m sometimes tempted to spend a whole day just working on writing simpler sentences. But that prescriptive approach might create a energetic problem, and RN I'd prefer to keep my motivation to write at peak wattage.

Have a Bias For Action

A lot of life advice amounts to just doing something. This is because action is what you use to reveal errors that lay dormant in your thinking.

Keep going. The errors will sort themselves into their own order of priority. The biggest problem will beat a path to you. It will become the elephant in the room that can’t be ignored, and you’ll find yourself dealing with it automatically.

For any improvement you want to make in your writing or your life, avoid self-conflict by seeking the hidden organic approach.