Obviously I’ve really stepped up the publishing schedule of the site. As with any blog the main struggle weekly is figuring out what exactly to write, and of course to make sure it’s not terrible. This week I came across (hat tip Freelancing Weekly) a vid with 8 tips for writing good content quickly.
The first point that stuck out to me is that good content does not mean the article is long. A good article can be short and sweet. I’ve wondered off and on if I’m actually writing long enough articles. I even check word count and time reading (in iAWriter), really I should care more about what makes a good article.
One thing I’m not so sure about for most of my content is the long term editorial calendar. Much of the stuff I write come directly from thoughts on relevant articles for the week. I’m not sure how I can plan that and I fear that I would just be looking for articles to fit what was in the calendar even if they suck. I could do it for the longer form articles I write though.
The final tip is another one that we need to all remember for any task. It goes something like:
Work will fill the time allotted to it.
We’ve all heard it. Give yourself a bunch of time to answer email and you can be sure that it will take all of that time. The solution is to give yourself a clearly defined chunk of time to write your content, or check your email.
4 responses to “Learning To Write Well, Fast”
That last tip is 100% true. If you don’t set clear timeframes and deadlines, before you know, you can lose a whole day to tasks that shouldn’t even take a quarter of the time that they did.
I’ve been moving myself to 2 Pomodoro’s (25 minute blocks). One in the morning and one in the afternoon. That at least lets me sort it all. I do end up coming back to some emails as they apply to a specific project but don’t deal with any other items that may have come in.
Do you go pomodoro for your whole work day? I tried that for a while and it was as if my motivation rebelled against my attempts to manage my time. I think I need to mix things up somehow every now and again.
Certainly in the mornings when I often find it harder to focus. I’ll use it in the afternoon if focus is a problem but it’s not an all day all the time thing for me.