You hear about prevalent writers scribbling down thousands, even tens of thousands, of words in a single day. It seems impossible, especially if you’re only just getting started with your business blog.
Anyone who has tried to write a blog post that is equal parts entertaining, topical, educational and relevant knows just how difficult it is to hit all those targets on a deadline.
But it is possible, and I’m going to show you how you can write an effective, 400-word blog post in just 15 minutes.
The trick
The easiest way to write one blog in 15 minutes is to plan four blogs in an hour.
Confused? Here’s what I mean:
People often make the mistake of researching one blog, writing it, proofing it, publishing it, and then moving onto the next one. They plan, write and edit all in one session.
This is highly inefficient.
The mental processes required for planning a blog vs writing one vs proofing one are completely different. Switching between them requires you to completely switch your focus and re-orient your brain every single time.
The mental processes required for planning a blog vs writing one vs proofing one are completely different.
Planning a blog, for example, involves broad scope, lots of research and skim reading: you’re gathering intelligence and understanding it, then putting it in a logical order.
Writing a blog, on the other hand, is very specific. You are trying to convert what you’ve learned into actual understandable words.
So trying to go from one to the other and back again is like trying to walk, then run, then walk, then run, then walk, and expecting it to be just as efficient as doing one or the other all at once: you never let yourself get into the groove!
The magic of task batching
What has this got to do with planning multiple blogs, then? How does spending a whole hour planning four blogs translate into writing one in 15 minutes?
Let me introduce you to the power of task batching.
Task batching occurs when you do a lot of the same repetitive task in one big block, rather than splitting it up over the course of a period of time.
So, instead of planning one blog, then writing it, then planning another one, then writing it, and so on, you are planning all four at once and then writing all four at once.
What this does is it focuses your brain on the processes associated with planning when it’s most relevant and useful. You ‘get into the groove’ of planning, and smash it out far faster than you would had you need to swap your focus each time.
Task batching occurs when you do a lot of the same repetitive task in one big block, rather than splitting it up over the course of a period of time.
The same goes for writing: once you’ve written one blog, you immediately jump to the next, keeping your “write brain” activated and crushing that word count.
This method makes it easy to write 400 words in 15 minutes. But better than that, it lets you write 4 blogs in only an hour: a whole month’s worth of content.
Okay, call it two hours, including the planning time. But that still means you can create four weeks of blog content before lunch!
An example
Here’s what I do, and feel free to use it as a template for your writing:
9.00am
Sit down at my desk with a cup of tea and load up my content calendar. I check what content I’ve come up with, and I pick 3 to 4 that I’d like to write up.
9.15am
I open a Google Doc and slap in the headline, along with a few bulletpoints outlining the general structure I’d like to follow: step 1, 2, 3, etc for a how-to guide, an item list for a listicle, or a series of discussion points for a general article.
I do this for each and every blog.
9.30am
I begin researching blog 1, finding some useful sources and noting what I think is relevant for them under the appropriate section.
9.45am
I do the same for blog 2.
10.00am
And blog 3.
10.15am
And blog 4.
10.30am
I make another cup of tea. Refreshing! I open up blogs 1 to 4, re-orient my thinking, and start writing.
11.30am
I finish writing, having completed first drafts of each blog. These will be rough, probably far too long and riddled with typos, but they are 80 per cent completed. In just one hour, I’ve written up to 2,000 words, and completed the majority of my writing work for that particular blog before lunchtime on Monday.
I rest my fingers, and reward myself with an early lunch. Maybe sushi today?
After lunch
Time for edits!
Scaling this method
One of the best things about task batching is that it is scaleable. You can batch as much as you like; sometimes I’ll batch out 7 or 8 blogs, and spend a whole day just planning, or I’ll plan out 2 to 3 long blogs—the same method applies.
Whether you’re a CEO or a junior copywriter, this is the way to get articles written quickly and effectively.
My personal record using this method is writing 5,000 words in a day, all of it well-researched, well-structured and well-worded because I made sure I was in the right frame of mind to create good content; not constantly switching from research brain to write brain.
And that’s not just because I’m a professional writer. Anyone can use this method. Whether you’re a CEO or a junior copywriter, this is the way to get articles written quickly and effectively.
Summary
Task batching is nothing new. I didn’t come up with it, as much as I wish I had. You can use it for anything, from data entry, to designing images, to manual labour—and, as I’ve demonstrated, even something like writing blogs.
Blogs don’t have to suck up all your time. Even if your business doesn’t have an internal copywriter, all it takes is 2 to 3 hours a month to create enough content for a weekly blog post.
Of course, that’s assuming you’re doing the absolute bare minimum of business blogging. One 400 word blog a week is a good start, but if you want to really compete, it’s absolutely necessary to step up your writing both in terms of quantity and quality.
That’s why I have a job as a content writer, after all—anyone can use this method to write quickly, but if you want more than the bare basics of blogging, I’d recommend getting a professional in.
I hope you’ve found this useful in getting your business blog started (or restarted). To put your best foot forward, get in touch with me here for a consultation, or to discuss some ongoing content work.
Good luck!
UGLYdraft 