Wow. Two weeks now since my last post. I woke up this morning and wondered how I was going to find the time to put one together. I actually have a few ideas swirling in my mind — but then I also have a few projects that need finishing today as well.
It occurred to me that this is probably a common affliction. Not necessarily just with blog posting, but with all of our writing. Is there a way to squeeze extra minutes out the day, or make better use of the minutes we are given? (In case you’re wondering, there are exactly 1440 minutes per day, except for one day in the fall when there are 1500, and one day in the spring when there are 1380.)
I’ve come up with a couple of ideas here:
Focus/Write Faster
Jim Estill posted the other day on Copyblogger that it takes him 20 minutes to write a blog post. Okay, he fudged the numbers a bit — that 20 minutes does not include “incubation” time and warm-up writing. I suspect it also doesn’t include formatting and finding that perfect image to go with your blog post.
But hey, point taken. One of the best bits of advice I ever got was to write faster, and that’s something I’m attempting with this post as well. I don’t think I’ll match Jim’s speed yet (I’m at minute 13 already…) but it’s not a bad goal to shoot for.
Get Up Earlier/Stay Later
Let’s assume that you can write 500 words in 20 minutes. That means if you set the alarm for 7:10 am instead of 7:30 am, you’ll get 500 extra words in per day.
On the flip side, if you decide to skip watching The Simpsons every day at 5pm and write, you’ll get an extra 750 words down. (If you happen to watch them on CBC, this won’t be a huge sacrifice — they’ve gone back to Season 1 again. Do you really need to watch those blocky episodes for the 37th time…?)
Get Organized
This is related to the first point, but it bears a separate mention. I find that the more organized I am, the faster I am able to work. Often, when I’m trying to decide what I’m going to do next, I don’t just sit there and think about it. I surf, read emails, catch up on some blogs… perhaps you know the drill too.
Long-time readers of this blog know about my love affair with the Post-It Note (just bought some new pads the other day — colour-coded!)
I’ve found that writing out the day’s tasks and sticking them to my monitor helps keep me focused. Once one project is done (or done for the day…) I give it a satisfying strike-out and move on to the next item up for bid. It certainly helps to put everything in order of importance if possible, but the main thing is to get everything down.
A Last Word
We all have a thousand things tugging at our shirtsleeves — sometimes literally. Kids, bills to be paid, mowing the lawn, the damn dishwasher, replacing that loose board in the walkway so that nobody trips and sues you… it never ends.
And that means we need to make the most of our writing time when we have it.
What tricks do you have to squeeze those precious minutes of time? Please let me know by leaving a comment below — I need all the help I can get!
~Graham
(BTW, total writing time not including recovering from a crashed database and adding an image: 29 minutes. Not bad.)
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Cath Lawson (19 comments.) says:
Hi Graham - I wondered where you’d gone. I’m probably not the best person to ask, as I suck at time management. Recently, I tried writing a lot of my posts a week ahead. Trouble is, I noticed some blogs were posting twice a day. I decided to do that too and wound up spending more time - instead of saving it.
One time saver is finishing a post instead of putting it in drafts for later. I have over 90 posts in drafts. It was a real time waster beginning them, as I usually go off the idea when it’s sat there a few days.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Blog Express, Zen & Millionaire Mommies
Graham Strong says:
Hi Cath — that’s an excellent point. I don’t have 90 posts (wow, are you ever prolific!) sitting in the draft box, but I do have quite a few that have been abandoned for one reason or another. I thought it was just me, so I’m glad to hear others have that problem too.
But maybe this is a time-saver in itself. I think I’ll go back and take a look at those drafts — perhaps there is new life in the ones that have been sitting there long enough. And with them half-written, I’m bound to save some time!
Thanks Cath!
~Graham
Kelly@SHE-POWER (2 comments.) says:
Hi Graham
29 minutes is very good. I squeeze creative writing into my life by staying up that little bit later than my hubby, even if it’s just 30 minutes. I am a night owl anyway. I also do things like find images for blog posts and do formatting and answer basic emails while my son is eating breakfast and lunch or watching a few morning cartoons. If I am near him at these times he’s happy and I don’t need quiet for these tasks anyway.
But I also think it is important to prioritize where your blog fits in your life. Blogging is quite addictive, but if it’s a hobby and you have a full and demanding life then sometimes I think it’s natural for it to suffer. That’s just it being lower on the priority scale. This has happened to me before and I posted very little but I told my readers what was happening and they all stuck around. Now I don’t stress myself out about it. I post when I can.
Kelly 
Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..Kickstart Your Brain With 21 TRUE Trivia Tidbits
Kelly (31 comments.) says:
Graham,
When I read Jim’s post I couldn’t believe it. But then, when he said it didn’t include this that and the other thing, I realized well yes, I may write the actual post in that time, too. But, there’s a lot that goes into writing the post that means I almost never get one thought up, written up, formatted, and published in under an hour. Almost never.
Like Cath, I have a huge backlog of drafts (over 200, as we speak). They range from three-sentence ideas to one tweak away from finished.
Basically I have days when 15 ideas rush out at me, and I capture them all happily, then I may have a few days when I can’t think of a thing, and I dip back into my drafts. I was sick recently and dipped into everything that was nearly done, so I wouldn’t have to think too hard, did quick edits, and made it through a week of ugh without anybody blinking.
That’s my biggest timesaver. Catch the ideas when they’re free-flowing, then I almost never sit around with writer’s block.
Another timesaver: a lot of folks go through their old posts looking for a sentence or a paragraph to develop into a whole post. I go through my search engine queries. Seeing what gets people to the blog gives me some great ideas for posts… they sometimes come at things from an angle I never imagined!
I try to follow Kelly@SHE-POWER’s advice—don’t stress. Nothing kills my ability to work quickly (writing or other work) like worrying about it. The more I stress out, the less I get done.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..How You Can Save Your Small Business
Graham Strong says:
@Kelly Rigby - Yes, if blogging is a hobby then you definitely have to watch how much time you spend at it — it can be addicting, can’t it? But if you are doing it as part of your marketing plan, not only do you have to watch your time but you have to track it too, I think. At the same time, I feel like if I’m going to commit to having a blog, then I have to commit to actually writing something for that blog from time to time. Speed writing is a great way to do that (as long as the quality doesn’t suffer). We’ll see how it goes!
@Kelly Erickson - Ha! Exactly right. If you don’t count the time my fingers are hovering over the keys while I think my next thought, then my writing time is around 40 wpm or 12 minutes per post… Actually, when I was writing this post, the connection to my database crashed for some reason. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to cut and paste my post to that point into Notepad before I lost it all. But I didn’t include the time it took to investigate the problem (and wait until it fixed itself) in my writing time either.
On the flip side of fudging, it certainly has a positive impact. You feel better about writing a 20-minute post than a 1 hour post — I do, anyway. It’s a great motivator, and keeps you from fretting away your time if you get stuck on something silly like a crashed database. On the other hand though, it is still time out of your day. Ugh, it’s so confusing…!
Great tip on the search engine queries! Mine tend to be things like “strong words” and the like — maybe I can craft a post using those keywords…
Thanks!
~Graham
Writer Dad (4 comments.) says:
Twenty-nine minutes; you’ve got me beat. I don’t start my post until my children are sleeping and I’m exhausted. They take me at least an hour, and that’s before formatting, image, and quote. I must get faster.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..Olly Olly Oxen Free
Graham Strong says:
Hey Writer Dad,
It’s likely a record for me, at least for a “real” post. But then I concentrated on it. It’s kind of like reading: I can read a lot faster if I concentrate on skimming, but if I’m reading a novel, why not sit back and enjoy it?
However, it’s all part of my blog experiments, trying to find the most efficient ways to maintain a blog for business purposes. In that case, fast does equal better!
~Graham
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