How To Schedule Your Blogging Time Like A Professional Writer

Whether you think of yourself as a professional writer or not, if you have a blog (or two, or three, or four, or more!), it's a sure thing that you'll find yourself writing pretty much every day, and after a while you'll start to wonder:

How could I be organizing my time in such a way as to get the most creativity and productivity out of my blogging time?

I found myself in that situation last year, and I discovered that the difference between being able to post 3 times a week (or less) on one blog and being able to post twice a day on multiple blogs was all determined in how I scheduled my writing time.

What Bloggers Can Learn From Professional Writers

Professional writers are the black belts of the writing world. Think about it--they do large amounts of writing, on a variety of topics, on deadline, pretty much every day of their lives for a living. It stands to reason that somewhere along the way they've figured out a system that works for them where they can accomplish the most in the least amount of time.

Of course it's true that what works for one writer doesn't necessarily work for another, but I was blown away by what I learned in this article at Study Hacks How to Schedule Your Writing Like a Professional Writer. They compiled interviews with several masters of non-fiction, examined their writing habits and extracted a profile of how each writer schedules his or her writing time.

The results were remarkably similar across the board. Most of the writers started working early in the morning, before 8:30am. They would work for a 2-3 hour stretch and then quit. A little ritual would proceed their writing time, which was done in as isolated place as possible.

See if you can apply these professional writing habits to your blog writing (or any writing at all) with these steps:

1. Spread out work on an assignment over several days. Coming at it fresh increases its quality.
2. During these days, get up early. Probably earlier than you are used to. Say, around 7 or 8 am. (This means these days will be weekdays, probably early in the week so you can avoid temptations to party the night before).
3. Have a mini-ritual to jump start the day. It should probably involve coffee. Breakfast. Maybe the morning paper. Don’t take too long.
4. Go to the most isolated place possible.
5. To get your mind ready to think, review the last pages you wrote.
6. Work for two or three hours. Then stop.
7. Follow this habit regularly. Don’t write during other times. Don’t write in public places. Don’t start writing the day before.

Interestingly, last year when my blogging and other writing responsibilities were increasing (and before I even read this article) I found myself using many of these tactics. I would wake up early, have some tea, and then sit down to write for 2 hours or so. I would get all of my writing for the day finished within that time, then I would close things down, exercise, come back to my office and complete the rest of my non-writing work. This schedule has been working wonderfully.

Please share your wisdom--Do you have any scheduling tricks for your blogging time?

Comments

[Kevin Lee]

Hello Sharon,

Nice piece. Sometimes I like to write in near total silence, especially very early in the morning. Other times I like some music going, the kind that doesn't compete for my attention, but rather adds to the energy from which I draw from.

Sometimes I will take a topic and leave it on a sticky note next to my desk for a few days before I begin to write on it. I find that this helps me to mature into the subject better, instead of letting that happen during the initial writing phase.

Lately I have started keeping a post in draft mode and use it to simply list several topics that are swirling around within me. That way, I've got them saved to draw upon, and to expand on in the draft file if I'm moved to do so. If a topic begins to ripen, I copy it out of my draft file and paste it in a new post of its own.

Cheers!I'll be back!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey Kevin,

Thanks so much for chiming in and sharing your writing habits and tricks.

That's an excellent tip about putting a post in draft mode and letting it ripen.

Yes, most of the time I find that I need to write in total or near total silence too, but other times I do like some non-distracting music going too.

I just took a look at your blog, and your About page is very moving. I'll be back too :-)

[Gavin Heaton]

I also keep many topics on the go at the same time. I have drafts online and off ... Sometimes these are a single line and a link or they are a few paragraphs -- and when I can't think of something to write, I go back to them and finish them off.

Never waste a good idea!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey Gavin,

I do like that idea about keeping the ideas in hibernation mode--it helps when we're stumped and need some inspiration!