I write up to five blog posts every week. That may sound easy for some, but for me, it gets a little tough.
You see, I have two jobs.
I run the daily operations of a women’s apparel company that I started with my girlfriend and write full time on blogs like SocialQuant.
I dedicate 100% of my waking hours to both of these companies.
Since Leneys is still in bootstrapping mode, we do all the daily operations ourselves; from packing orders, sending them to the post office, ironing the clothes, conducting the photoshoot, photo editing, etc. You can imagine where most of my NON-online hours are for.
That is why time for writing is precious for me. I am still able to maintain writing regular blog posts and article contributions including lengthy 1,500+ words article to blogs like Social Media Examiner and Businesses Grow. Today, I’m writing for this blog.
Some have noticed this and said to me that they are seeing me everywhere – which is a good sign because it means that what I am doing is working.
The key is time management. I want to help you learn to write five blog posts a week and share my thoughts on doing expert interviews while maintaining my sanity.
1. Plan in advance
There is quote by Benjamin Franklin which I love. Franklin says that “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
I don’t wait for the words to come to me or wait for ideas. I always note down ideas when I can. I use a paid app called Write. I love to use this because of its minimal look and because it's connected to my Dropbox.
A free alternative option would be Evernote. In my notepad it would be something like this.
September:
Week One
- Title one
- Title two
- Title three
- Title four
- Title five
Week Two:
- Title one
- Title two
- Title three
- Title four
- Title five
I write down a month's worth of ideas in advance in one or two sittings. That means I already know what I’ll be writing about at the end of the month.
2. Get rid of distractions
Daniel Goleman said that ‘The way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.’
In the era of social media, well… that’s easier said than done! That is why I learned how to avoid distractions.
Here are my two tips:
- Tip #1: Get rid of your Facebook newsfeed. You probably spend most of your waking hours on this platform. When you get rid of your newsfeed, you’re only focused on getting your work done and not engage with your friends. If you want to engage with them, use a mobile app. A great chrome plugin I use is facebook news feed eradicator
- Tip #2: Know where you’re spending most of your time at. According to data by Vertical Response, people are spending too much time finding content to share on social media.
Tools like Post Planner will ease your work because of features to find top content, viral photos and status ideas where you have over 12,000 status to use. To get an idea about how it works I recommend you learn from Ms. Ileane’s post here.
Here’s an example of our viral photo feature.
3. Hire an editor
Drafting a crappy draft is easy! The editing part is what usually takes up a lot of time. Hiring an editor will speed up the process. This keeps you focused and helps you write consistently without worrying about editing.
You can start hiring your friends like what I did, or you can easily find amazing editors on platforms like Upwork. I love the quality of people they have on that site.
4. Outline your posts
An outline helps because it gives you the direction of what you should be writing. When I write down my ideas a month in advance, I’ll develop them by adding bullet points of 2-3 messages that I plan to cover in those articles.
For example, if I were to write a blog on writing the perfect Facebook status, my bullet points would be:
- Write personal post
- Use example by ____
- Use quotes in article
- Ask a question
5. Disconnect from the world
Sometimes disconnecting from the internet can be a savior. There are days where my mind just feels like it’s about to explode. When that happens, I’ll disconnect from the internet, take my laptop with me, sit on the couch with my dog and write offline.
Since I already listed down the ideas and bullet points on what I should be writing, I won’t need to be connected to the internet.
6. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Silly)
I like to keep my posts simple. That depends on how complex the topic is of course, but usually most of them are 700-800 words long.
If the post exceeds 1,000 words, but the topic is something simple that doesn't require a long blog post length, I simply break the post into two parts.
If a particular point in a lengthy blog post has a lot more to discuss, I’ll take that point out and create a brand new blog post out of it. This allows me to cover specific points which people might be searching for while keeping my original post simple.
I’m sure you have your own methods too. Some bloggers have shared with me that they use Coffitivity which gives a coffee shop ambience to their writing spot and that makes them more productive in their writing. I tried it and I loved it!
What’s your little secret for writing more blog posts?