Practical Tips for Writing 2x the Content in Half the Time

It takes more than four hours to create a blog post.

Orbit Media provides additional stats to support the data on the main challenges content marketers face. Specialists must overcome time constraints and create high-quality content.

Every day, content marketers work with tons of content:

They plan and brainstorm it. They create strategies for content promotion and analyze the results to improve those strategies. Marketers often need to create or edit content.

We have a problem because takes so much time to create one piece of content.

You want to achieve more in less time. There are many other tasks you need to complete. It can be frustrating, demoralizing, and discouraging. It seems like colleagues do it quicker, right?

Let’s look at how you can organize your writing process to increase efficiency. This article will show you how to organize content creation into multiple stages. It also includes practical tips for each stage.

Ready? Go!

Pre-Writing Stage:

Marketing professionals know that content creation does not just involve writing. It’s not possible to just write a 1,000-word article on a blank page.

Include it in your content strategy
Meet your marketing goals, and your audience’s search intention
Be data-driven, well written, and SEO-optimized
Use custom visuals to improve readability and visibility when searching engines.

A pre-writing program is essential: brainstorming, planning content, researching information, creating visuals, and outlining content assets. A content creator cannot do all of this in the same day. Otherwise, brain overload can occur, making it more difficult to create a piece of content.

You can write faster if you separate your pre-writing processes and have everything ready before you actually start writing the article. Here are some tips to make it easier:

A well-organized workspace

It is a fact that workspace organization can have a profound effect on our moods and productivity. You can organize your workspace for maximum motivation and inspiration.

Make sure you have a comfortable chair or table. You’ll be able to focus on your creative tasks more efficiently if you are supported and relaxed.
Good lighting is key to a happy home. The warm colors of desk lamps and soft wall colors can have a positive impact on your mood. Plants clean your air and influence your brain’s work. They also reduce stress which leads to calmness, inspiration and productivity.
Personalize it. You can add a few personal items such as a calendar, family photos, motivational quotes, and so on to personalize your workspace. You should consider everything that motivates you and inspires you, but don’t overcrowd the table. These personal items can become distractions and cause the opposite effect.

More productive and faster brainstorming

Content creation is a process that involves brainstorming ideas for writing that will fit your goals and marketing strategy. This is the moment you think of topics for future blog posts, sales collateral, and social media content.

Here are some ways to speed up the process

Hold brainstorming sessions once per week to create many content ideas immediately so that you don’t have to spend any more time on it. You can set aside a day and one hour to brainstorm individually. To save time and speed things up, you can do it in the lunch break at a cafe or while driving home.
Keep a notebook handy: You’ll need it later to analyze the ideas you have.
Use a Mind mapping technique to brainstorm. This allows you to visualize your ideas and connect them for additional content ideas.

More efficient research

It’s not too early to start writing once you have some content topics in place. It’s now time to research these topics and gather all the information that you will need for the content.

This is how you can do it quicker:

Research and outline several topics at once. It will save you time later.

Let’s suppose you spent an hour brainstorming content ideas for Friday. When you get back to work on Monday after the weekend, pick a few topics from your list and spend Monday researching them and outlining their implications.

You now have three to four outline ready for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. You’ll have several pieces ready to publish and distribute by the end of this week. It would be impossible without pre-writing.

It would take you a week to research and plan each piece of content, which could distract from the writing process. Topic research takes time and energy. If you overload your brain with it while writing, you will not be able complete a draft quickly.

Preparing visuals for references

Pre-writing also involves the preparation of visuals and references for your content. What will you do to support and prove your arguments? How will you support your arguments with images, videos and graphics?

Visuals take time. This is how you can spend less time working with visuals:

Make a list of resources that you can use to find original, royalty-free illustrations for articles.
Keep all relevant graphics and images in one folder.
Make sure to save all references: Industry surveys, expert reports, and scientific research in your field.

You won’t need to stop writing if you have all the information you need, and you don’t have to search for it. It won’t be easy to get distracted searching for visuals or quotes to mention. This will allow you write faster and more efficiently.

Writing Stage

Now, it’s time for you to start writing! Here are your tips to make it easier:

Use templates

Content marketers use many templates, including business plans, email pitches, and social media ads. Professionally designed templates can be customized easily, save time, and allow you to focus more on your creative work.

Templates for content writing are a great idea. Every type of content asset has a structure.

You should know that a list must have an intro, H2 items and descriptions and a conclusion. When you are working on a case study you need to write an introduction, background information, and a presentation of your findings, takeaways and references.

You can create a template for each content type and use it later to organize your text faster. To avoid writer block, prepare the list of linking words, glossaries, and power words.

Eliminate distractions

Two tips that you probably already know: Don’t use your phone or desktop notifications when you are writing. A well-organized workspace will help you eliminate distractions.

There’s another:

Make sure you are familiar with the content creator app that you are using. Some apps have an interface that is completely free of distractions ( Freedom, Calmly Scribe), while other have tools to modify it. You can hide the menu to make Google Docs completely free from distracting elements.

Track time and set deadlines

There are many management tools that can be used to motivate your brain to work faster. Time management tips can help you speed up your writing.

Timers are useful: Place an app or alarm clock on the table and set a timer for 20-30 minutes. Don’t stop writing after that time. This psychological trick allows your brain to work more quickly, so you will complete more text in this time.
You can force your brain to finish tasks on time by setting strict deadlines.

Do a few texts at a time

Some content writers find it difficult to create content step-by-step, beginning with an introduction and moving on to the conclusion. If you are one of these writers, you might want to work on several texts simultaneously. It will make it easier to complete multiple texts quickly.

Here’s how:

Write what parts of a text are most interesting to you: You don’t have to start with an intro. Instead, you can write a few body paragraphs, then move on to a conclusion tomorrow. Then, you can end with an introduction later.
You can work on several texts at once: Start with an introduction for one piece of content before lunch, and then move onto a paragraph for another after dinner. By the end of the week, you’ll have many articles.
You can use two computers to view This will reduce the time spent switching between tabs when writing.

Post-Writing Stage:

Editing and proofreading your text can take more time than writing. It’s worth investing in tools such as Grammarly or ProWritingAid. These tools are not meant to be used as editors. While they can identify grammar and stylistic errors, each tool has its limitations and cannot guarantee flawless work.

Spelling is a particular example of this truth:

We all know those catches with “you/you’re,” “their/they’re/there,” “than/then,” and so on. It is a good idea to proofread your content once more, even if you have used a few editing tools.

Here are some tips:

To first notice typos and slips in the pen, zoom in on the draft.

The second is proofreading. It’s not about editing. Read your draft in separate sentences starting at the text end. This helps you to avoid scanning and makes it easier to see weak words clearly.

Third, read your content out loud. Although it seems slower, you will be able to “catch” any mistakes that you might have missed while scanning. You can also check the readability and clarity of your content this way.

Another way is to print your draft and use a pencil to review it. This change of perspective is always a good idea!

Ask a colleague to review your content. You can ask a colleague to read it. This will give them a fresh perspective and allow them to spot any glaring errors.

Takeaway

Your organizational skills and small tricks to increase productivity can help you skyrocket writing efforts and make content marketing more efficient. Separate pre-writing from actual writing, eliminate distractions, and use the corresponding tools to your advantage.

Practical Tips for Writing 2x more Content in Less time appeared first on Scoop.it Blog.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://onlinemarketingagencies.net/?p=4279