How to blog without caffeine
I’ve been blogging since WordPress Beta 1.0 and Google’s Blogger first hit the web. In the beginning I would do a blog post once and week, and it took me that long to write it. Now I maintain 5 blogs and do about 20 posts a week. To go from 1 per week to 20 per week took learning some easy techniques to speed the process.
Over the last three to four months I made great efforts to document how I was cutting my blog writing time considerably by being more productive. In this blog post I’m going to explain how I achieved that.
1. Create a Daily Routine
This is a quite hard part, especially when you are just getting started with your blog. Getting into the habit of writing one blog post every day (or three times per week) is a challenged when you first try it.
But once you establish a daily writing routine it will get much easier because you just get used to it. You will still blog because you want to and because you like it, but you will grow the habit and force yourself to write no matter what.
2. Use a To-Do List
Or just a schedule. When you have a daily to-do list or a schedule you will be able to manage your time much better. You know what you need to do, when you need to do it and so on.
If you know you only have 30 minutes available, for example, you should skip working on a larger task and instead get rid of smaller things on your to-do list. The list itself, though, will be useful to make sure you spend your time as efficiently as possible.
3. Shut Down Distractions
Close down stuff like Thunderbird (e-mail client), Twitter client, Skype, Messenger and similar. If you don’t want to close Skype or Messenger, just set your status to “Message if important only” or simply just “Busy.” You just need to be able to set a point where you need to be very productive (while writing blog posts).
4. Take Notes When Something Important Comes to Your Mind
If you are in the middle of a task (for an example writing a blog post) have a notepad with you and write the idea there instead of doing it right now. If you jump from task to task you’ll lose focus and efficiency.
Just remember you need to finish whatever you are working on before you jump to the next task.
5. Outsource Stuff You Aren’t Good At
This is probably the best time-saver ever. You should always try to get help from people who are qualified on areas you are not. If you are not a good designer, for example, focus on writing content and outsource the design tasks on your blog to a designer. This will save you time and money in the long run.
Anthony Teshaveli
