How To Save Time Writing For Your Blog

How To Save Time Writing For Your Blog You cant invent time. No matter how appealing it sounds, it just isnt going to happen. But what if you could at least make a big dent in your efficiency and productivity? What if you really could save time writing for your blog? The number one thing that I hear over and over again from writers, bloggers, and marketers is that they simply  dont have enough time to write and create their content. Just take a look at this comment from blog reader Chuck Reynolds. He doesnt have the time either. See, youre not alone.   The question were all asking is how do I save time writing? I may not be the foremost expert, but here are a few of the strategies that I use to save time and write more content. There Are Only Three Ways To Save Time Not long ago, I hypothesized that there were only three ways to make a team more productive. Even now, I still believe that these are the only three ways to solve most productivity problems. They are: Add more tools (or in some cases people). Put in more time (or use it better). Eliminate something, and hone in on what matters. You can approach each of these differently, but they really are the only options at hand. Heres how you can apply them to your writing. Heres how to invent time and write more content. #contentmarketingOption 1: Add Better Tools One of the first places that we look for productivity improvements is in tools and talent. These are the tangible options with tangible solutions. With more people in seats, you can easily get more things done. The same goes for tools. It is easy to see why more efficient tools would help your productivity. If you can save a few minutes here and there, you can make more time available for writing, and creating the content that you want to be sharing on your blog. Here are five tools that might help your productivity right now: #1 – Evernote One of my all time favorite writing tools is most definitely Evernote. I use it to keep track of all of my blog post ideas and regularly add notes and outlines to my documents as I come up with new ideas or details for posts. With Evernote, I can easily take my blogging brain on the go, so time and location are never a limitation to my writing process. Heres this blog post in Evernote before it was a real thing. The beautiful thing about a notes application like Evernote (or OneNote, which  writer Julie prefers) is that there is nothing formal about them. They are the perfect place to literally dump your ideas on the page without making anything too final. This makes a good digital notes application the perfect option, as long as you have a system for managing these notes. Another option that you may want to consider is WordPress own SimpleNote. #2 – makes it easy to catalog and organize your blog post ideas. Using the drafts menu on the right side of the page, you can easily view blog posts that are currently in draft mode and unscheduled on the calendar. With an integrated search and filter option, post ideas are right at your fingertips. You can easily store and access your draft blogs posts with . *shameless plug, yes* At our office, we use drafts as the second level of idea cataloging. At least once each month we all get into the conference room and share our post ideas that weve created with the team. The good ones get added to the calendar or placed in the draft menu for another time. #3.  StayFocusd StayFocused is a free  Chrome extension that will help you to stay more focused on your writing by restricting the amount of time you spend on distracting websites. For exampleFacebook. You can decide to limit the amount of time that you spend on the site to 15 minutes per day. Once youve used your time up on the site, youre done for the day and have no excuses to not get back to work. How productive is that?   #4   Omm Writer OmmWriter is a desktop (Mac, Windows, or iPad) application that promises to give you your own private writing room where you can close the door behind you to focus on your writing in peace. Basically, it is an application that consumes the entire screen in an effort to block out the normal distractions that crop up in when youre writing. It provides a very pleasing experience, and can even be set to exclude sound on a desktop-based notifications. *Dont forget about WordPresss own full-screen option for writing you blog content. Its free, and even closer to home. #5 Draft Draft is another full-screen writing tools similar to Omm that works directly in your browser. It is worth mentioning because it almost combines the power of both Evernote and Omm together in one package, making it a simple place to store ideas and even write out entire posts. Save Time While Writing With These 5 Productivity-Boosting Tools Beware! New Tools Arent Always Productive It is important to keep in mind that not all tools will make you more productive. In some cases, they can even add more work, more process, and occasionally more down time. In our own office, we once added a new productivity tool to our office that felt more productive, but over time it slowly faded away because managing it was simply too cumbersome. It could do everything, and was unnecessarily complex. Sometimes, simpler tools are better tools. Option 2: Put In More Time The most basic and reliable method for  getting more done is to simply put in more time. This works, sure, but it may not always be sustainable. Most of us are struggling with time management in the first place, and putting in more time can even lead to writer burnout. The alternative is to make your time more efficient by improving your overall writing process, making your use of time much better. Here are few things you can do. #1 – Change When You Write I like to write first thing in the morning, but I didnt always know that these were some of my best hours for creativity.  For years I wrote most of my content during peak office hours, or even in the evening. I had no idea that I was missing out on some of my most creative thinking periods. By switching my normal writing time to the morning, I avoid common distractions and get things done  before the chaos of the day beings. Try experimenting with your own writing schedule. You might be surprised at what a difference a few small changes can make. #2 – Change How You Prepare To Write A while back when I was writing a new blog post every day, I started the habit of reviewing my post topic before I drove into the office. I would simply grab my iPad and open Evernote with my notes for the post that I was scheduled to write for the day. I ended up adding or  clarifying  a few things in my notes before  committing  the topic idea to  memory. Do everything you can to eliminate inefficiency from your writing process. This simple act would set off a chain reaction in my mind. I would spend the entire drive to work  reviewing  the post idea and coming up with new approaches or  additional  content, making double use of that drive time. The result was an efficient use of time, and a much faster writing process when it finally came time to begin writing.   #3 – Adjust Your Writing Process In the beginning, I used to sit down and write everything as if I was crafting the final draft. I would write (and then re-write) each sentence before finally moving on to my next point. This method was slow, and overly cumbersome, costing me precious time. I finally adjusted my writing workflow and began by creating an extremely rough version of post in a matter of a few minutes. This method allowed me to make progress quickly and get a big picture look at the post before I added final edits. As content creators, we can easily get ourselves in a rut where we follow the process without ever evaluating how we are getting there. By simply stepping back for a wider view, we might be able to eliminate inefficiency and save time writing for our blog. Your Writing Process Itself Is Preventing You From Saving Time While WritingOption 3: Hone In On What Matters The most difficult (and probably the most effective) method for saving time is to simply eliminate some things that you are doing. With less stuff to do, there is more time available for the things that matter. By making tough decisions now and cutting out activities or projects that might be otherwise good projects, you are better able to focus more closely on a few key goals and excel at them.