Success Advice
How I Write 3-4 Articles Per Week, Every Week.
Many of you are amazed at how much content I publish every month. I wanted to take you behind the scenes as once you understand my strategy, you won’t be that amazed and you’ll probably be able to do the same yourself (and get better results than me).
Before we continue, I’m not a professional writer. I’m an amateur.
This means if I can do it, so can you.
Here’s how I write 3-4 articles per week:
I get into flow.
There are many books on the subject and I’ve found flow to be highly beneficial. My process of flow looks like this:
1. Go to the gym and workout hard so endorphins are released and I’m relaxed
2. Do five minutes of meditation before I start
3. Drink a black tea or coffee before I start
4. Warm up on some inspiring videos on YouTube that give me goosebumps
Once I have done these four things, I’m usually able to get into flow really quickly.
Time seems to stand still. Outside noises seem to disappear. Thoughts seem to come to mind easily and join together in a logical order. Writing words of inspiration seems to become easier. My hungry stomach seems to stop bugging me.
“Flow has allowed me to write twice as much and have the process feel easy. What becomes easy, becomes repeatable”
I warm up on other things.
What do I mean? I don’t just write blog posts. I practice by:
– Writing replies to comments on LinkedIn
– Responding to readers emails
– Sending emails to clients
– Replying to messages from my friends via text
– Reading one book a month (on average)
– Giving speeches at a Toastmasters club
Writing articles is not the only form of writing. There are lots of ways to prepare yourself for the sometimes-grueling task of writing 3-4 articles a week.
I use blogging as therapy.
The reason meditation has exploded? We’re more stressed, anxious and stuck in our heads than ever before. Journaling is okay but I prefer blogging. Blogging is the best therapy I know of.
It’s a great excuse to get your thoughts on paper instead of living a life of frustration because you didn’t deal with your emotional baggage.
Whenever you can chunk multiple benefits together in one task like writing articles, you get better results and additional motivation too.
Helping people gives you the motivation to keep going.
Speaking of motivation, writing 3-4 articles a week allows me to help others. By helping others, I get to go beyond myself which is what life is all about if you haven’t figured that out already.
When I open up those emails of gratitude because I’ve helped someone with something I’ve written, this fuels my motivation to keep writing. Helping others is addictive and that’s one of the ways I write 3-4 articles per week.
I take a holiday.
If you write 3-4 articles every week, for 52 weeks a year, you’ll burn out. I recommend two holidays a year of a fortnight each as a bare minimum.
What works for me is writing twice the amount of content for a few weeks leading up to my holiday, and then scheduling the publishing of the content for when I’m away.
This way, while I’m on holidays, my content keeps being published. I often find that once I return from holidays, the quality of my writing gets better because I’ve had time to synthesize my thoughts and get out of my own head.
This process makes my writing process cleaner and more productive. The vision I have for my blogging evolves slightly each time as well. I seem to be getting narrower with my focus and topics, and going much deeper.
Holidays create space that you can use to your advantage. Do. It.
I keep it simple.
Anything that becomes a complex process is challenging for most of us to keep doing – unless you are a rocket scientist and get your rocks off on that sort of thing. So, in order to write 3-4 articles a week I always do the following:
– Use Microsoft Word to write my articles
– Keep the formatting the same
– Use simple language
– Disconnect from the word count (number of words is not a badge for anything)
– Write on the same day every week (Saturday)
Now, a word on distractions.
Good luck trying to write 3-4 articles a week with notifications popping up on your computer and your phone next to you. You’ll never write sh*t.
The temptation of your phone has to be put to bed if you want output. What this looks like for me is to have my phone in another room. If it’s next to me, then procrastination takes over.
It’s so alluring to sit there and watch the little red notifications keep on coming through my different social media apps.
Kill this temptation and habit with a metaphorical knife through the heart.
I take a small break between each article.
All my articles are written in one single day being Saturday. Between each article, I take a very small break. This involves either a small healthy snack, another cup of black tea or reading a short Medium.com article for inspiration.
I write about what I love.
There was a time when I was doing interviews with entrepreneurs and then turning them into blog posts. I found the process exhausting and uninspiring. This made me quit and I haven’t done another entrepreneur interview since.
“I get asked all the time to write about different topics (often for someone else’s selfish benefit) and I always say no. The moment there is an agenda, I find it hard to write”
Sometimes I plan what I’m going to write and then I leave it to Saturday to decide what I feel like writing. Sometimes on Monday, I think that writing an article on fear would be cool. Then I get to Saturday and change my mind.
You have to write about what you’re enthusiastic about in the moment and this can often be based on your current circumstances or mood.
I edit later.
Never try and edit while you’re writing. You’ll never get your thoughts out of your head and into your writing software. You can perfect your writing later.
Everything you write feels great on the day you’ve written it but often when you go back later on, you see what can be removed from your work with a much clearer vision. I recommend using Grammarly if you are like me and are hopeless at grammar and spelling (p.s this is not some BS paid ad).
I send myself topic ideas during the week via email.
During the week, we all get moments of inspiration and ideas. This week I met the CEO of a billion-dollar property company who showed so much kindness that I was lost for words.
In short, he allowed homeless people to use the showers in his buildings because he felt it was the right thing to do.
When you get inspired like this, it’s great to send an email to yourself with a potential headline so you can write about it later if you feel like it. Many of my ideas come from day-to-day life and I email myself with potential headlines a lot.
Many of these headlines never get used – some do though, and they can often be the articles that go viral.
What’s funny is that because of this process, I probably get more emails from myself than is considered normal…LOL.
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That’s everything I can think of right now to help you write 3-4 articles per week. If you follow at least some of this advice, I’m sure that you can duplicate some of my success (and probably more) if you put your head down and do the work.
Go out there and get inspired, and then write about it.
Best of luck writing.