Don’t you hate it?
It’s hard to pump out enough high quality content in order to reach your goals.
There are two main reasons for this.
First of all, writing isn’t easy.
Creating great content that is worthy of being shared is even more difficult.
In order to create content of that level, writers often spend several hours on a single post.
In my experience, though, most bloggers could double or triple their writing speed by becoming more efficient.
The second main reason why producing enough content is difficult is because there are many distractions.
Even if writing is the only job you do, you still have to contend with distractions such as social media and email. When you’re not very motivated, it’s really easy to click over to Facebook and waste 20 minutes.
If you’re a small business owner, it’s even worse.
In addition to the same distractions that a writer might have, you can also get distracted by other parts of your business: product creation, content promotion, customer service, etc.
You put those two factors together, and it’s no wonder that it’s difficult for you to publish content on a consistent basis.
You and I both know that’s a problem.
Without consistent output, your results will be a fraction of what they could be.
But I have good news! It’s a problem that can be fixed if you’re willing to keep an open mind.
I’m going to show you six writing tactics that can turn you into a more focused and efficient writer. They have worked for me and other top notch writers.
You might not be interested in trying them all at first, but give one or two a try, and once you get good results, try others.
1. Don’t leave yourself an option to procrastinate by doing this…
Let’s deal with the most common form of procrastination first:
wasting time on the Internet.
Anyone can go to Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit and waste hours with the endless stream of content.
But when you have writing that needs to get done, you can’t afford to do this.
If this is something that you’re struggling with, you need a more robust solution than simply trying not to go to those sites.
My suggestion? Use a plugin to block your biggest time-wasters while you work.
If you physically can’t access the sites, you can’t waste time on them.
Here’s what you’ll need (options for Chrome and Firefox).
For Chrome – StayFocusd: Once you install this Google Chrome plugin, click the little blue-and-black clock icon beside your address bar.
It’ll show a little pop-up, where you can click on the tool’s settings:
This extension is incredibly well developed. Considering that it’s free, it’s pretty amazing.
The first things you’ll want to set up are your blocked and allowed sites.
You’ll only need to fill in one of these sections, depending on which options you’ll eventually go with.
But let’s look at both.
Make a list of the sites that you waste the most time on when you’re trying to be productive.
Then, remove the “http://” part of the URLs, and paste them all into the “blocked sites” section:
Finally, click the button below the text box.
The other option you’ll have is to block all websites except for the ones you specify in the allowed sites tab.
If you’d rather use this option, follow the same procedure as above, and paste in sites you’ll need (e.g., Wikipedia):
Here are your two main options: You can either schedule certain times to run the plugin, or choose the “nuclear option.”
First, let’s start with the “nuclear option” because it sounds cool.
If you were paying close attention, you probably saw the link to the nuclear option page on the original tiny pop-up (from the icon).
This option allows you to start the blocking immediately and specify how long it should last.Once it’s started, you can’t stop it.
First, you’ll pick which sites to block.
You could go with “all websites,” but that might be a problem if you need to do some research.
My preferred option would be to only block the sites on the “blocked sites list.” This way, you’ll stop yourself from using the most distracting sites.
Then, specify for how long to block the sites and when the blocking should start. Finally, click the button.
The second main option you have is to simply schedule when the plugin should be active.
There are two menu options—“active days” and “active hours”—that you use to control this.
For example, if you wanted to write every day from 9 until 11 in the morning, you would set those as the start and end times in active hours.
Choose whichever days you want to work as the active days.
There’s one final cool feature that might come in handy.
If you go to the “max time allowed” tab, you can set a simple counter to indicate how many minutes a day you allow yourself to browse your blocked sites.
The plugin counts how much time you’ve spent on the sites on your blocked list (in total), and if you exceed this max time, it will automatically block them for the rest of the day.
For Firefox – LeechBlock: The highest rated plugin of this sort for Firefox is LeechBlock.
It’s not quite as comprehensive as the Chrome option, but gets the basic job done.
After installing the extension, type in “about:addons” in your address bar, and click on the Extensions menu option:
Finally, click on LeechBlock’s options to bring up a popup.
With LeechBlock, the options are much more straightforward. Pick the sites you want to block, and pick when you want to block them.
First, enter the domain names of the sites you want to block:
Then, click the “when to block” tab, and enter the time in the military time format:
You can, of course, pick which days the extension should be active.
In the final tabs, there are a few advanced options where you can specify how the extension blocks the sites. You can set it so that there’s no way you can access the sites until the time is expired or leave it so you can disable the extension.
2. Develop a system and never stare at a blank page again
Many writers waste time “thinking.”
And what I mean by that is that they stare at their page wondering what they’re going to write about.
I’ll let you in on a secret: The most prolific bloggers don’t do this.
They all have their own personal system of writing, which maximizes the time spent creating content and minimizes the time trying to figure out their next step.
The input of writing a post is time and energy.
The output is ideally a great post.
But what you really need to focus on defining, if you want to create a system, is a solid process.
Why do you need a system?
A system—more specifically a process—is a set of instructions that explains how you do certain things, e.g., write a blog post.
The most important thing is that they are specific.
It’ll be much easier to understand with an example. Here’s what a system for writing a blog post might look like:
- Step #1 – Create headings for an outline
- Create the main heading
- Create subheadings for each section
- Outline each section with a few bullet points describing what it’s about
- Step #2 – Find supporting research and resources
- If there are any holes in your knowledge (needed for the post), learn about them
- Find 2-5 studies about the problem/solution
- Search for each section topic, and write down the URLs of any great resources
- Step #3 – Write each section, one by one
- Follow the outline
- Write the first thing that comes to mind (more on this later in the post)
- Step #4 – Create any necessary images for the post
- Step #5 – Add internal links and a lead magnet
- Add one internal link to a relevant post for every 200-400 words
- If a post-specific lead magnet is possible, create it now
- Step #6 – Edit and publish
- Remove any “fluff”
- Check for spelling and grammar issues
- Format for WordPress, and publish
You could develop an even more detailed process.
You basically want a set of instructions that you could hand off to any writer and say, “Write me a great post.”
Do you see why this will save you a ton of time? Instead of continually pausing and wondering,“What part of the post should I do now?—you already have the answer.
The better your system is, the less “thinking” time will be required. Most of it is upfront in the outlining and researching phases.
Your system will probably look different from that example, and that’s a good thing. Customize your system so that it reflects your working preferences.
2 other benefits of systems: Although the primary function of a system here is to minimize non-productive time, there are a few other smaller benefits.
First, the quality of your posts will be extremely consistent.
When you don’t have a system, sometimes you’ll be motivated to do extra research, make great pictures, and do a great editing job.
But other times, you might skip these steps.
This will result in some great posts and some okay posts.
With a system, you do the exact same things every single time. Remember the input/output diagram? Your output should be the same if your input and your process are the same.
The second benefit may or may not apply. If you write monster posts like I do (and that I recommend), you might have noticed that you get a little overwhelmed from time to time.
It’s hard starting a mammoth post when it seems like it’s going to take forever to put together, and it’s going to be difficult.
But when you have a system, you already know that if you follow the steps you laid out, you’ll get the output you want.
Instead of worrying about the final result, you can just follow each small step, one-by-one, knowing that you’ll finish it in a reasonable amount of time.
In essence, your system breaks up a giant task into bite-sized, and thus less intimidating, tasks.
3. Learn to get “in the zone”
If you’ve ever played a sport, at any level, you know the feeling of being “in the zone.”
Everything just melts away, and all your focus goes to the task at hand, whether it’s running or playing basketball.
Needless to say, this is how you get your best performances.
But getting in the zone isn’t just limited to physical activities.
You may have also experienced it when working or studying. One of the most common examples of being in the zone is when a programmer “plugs in” when they get engrossed in a challenge:
As far as I know, no one knows how to get “in the zone” at will. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to improve your focus, which will in turn improve your efficiency.
Here are a few effective strategies…
Strategy #1 – Efficiency and batching go hand in hand: Batching is a concept that is typically used in industrial settings.
Smart factory owners noticed that when they created large batches of their product at once, it was much cheaper and faster than creating products one at a time.
Imagine if people who delivered mail only took one letter at a time from the distribution center? It would take forever.
But taking mail in bulk, the delivery person can deliver the mail without having to go back and forth all the time.
That’s an extreme example, but it applies to every step along the way.
So, how can you use batching as a writer? It’s pretty simple. Stick to one task, and don’t switch to another one until you’re done.
- Coming up with blog post ideas? Come up with 50-100 at once, not just one per post as you need it.
- Need to outline a post? Outline the full post before you start writing, instead of outlining a single section, writing it, and then repeating the process.
- How about editing? Don’t edit as you go—do it all at once at the end.
Applying batching in these ways will save you a lot of time.
But possibly more importantly, it will help you focus better.
Our minds work best when we concentrate on one specific task. However, the typical writer is constantly jumping between outlining, writing, researching, and editing.
Sounds familiar?
There’s no way to get in the zone when you’re constantly shifting gears like that.
If you only apply this strategy, you’ll still have great improvements in your focus and efficiency.
Strategy #2 – Visualization is a powerful tool: The mind will try to find a distraction if it gets in an uncomfortable situation.
Sometimes, writing a post can become uncomfortable.
You start writing, but then you get to a particularly tricky or complex part of the post. All of your doubts about people not liking it, or thinking you’re an impostor, come to mind.
This is uncomfortable for any writer.
This, of course, causes them to get a little twitchy and think or do something else (like check Facebook).
Having a system will help reduce the chances of this occurring.
In addition, you can use visualization to quell these worries and get back on tra
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