3 Simple Tips I Follow to Write Online Daily While Working Full Time
Putting on my 1-Man consultant’s hat to think
Give yourself a pat on the back.
You have a demanding day job. And you are trying to share your knowledge via words online. It is time-consuming.
Admit it. There are days you just want to pass out in bed.
But you pushed through.
You spat out 800 words.
Bravo!
Trust me when I say this. I understand. I am in the same boat as you do.
I work in a demanding 9–6, run my own 1-Man consulting practice, and try to write 1 online article per day. That’s right. 1 online article per day.
3 things popped into my head after grinding millions of words out for the past 2 years.
Feel free to steal and use them.
1. The Journey of the Alphabets Starts from A and Ends with Z
I overheard this conversation.
Someone was telling someone else to take things easy. It was a lesson on an arduous journey with a pre-defined destination at its end.
I could tell that the listener was stuck in a mental swamp based on his non-stop grousing. That is normal.
The advisor said this.
“Remember the alphabet in the English language? You are at A. You want to be at Z. You start rattling off the alphabet. You will eventually get there, right?”
I recalled thinking…
What a beautiful analogy!
And it fits into the journey of all online writers because,
- We will hit our goals so long as we continue moving.
- The next alphabet matters, not the final big Z.
- Did we forget? Got distracted? Start again.
Maybe you have counted to M, and you got pulled to vacuum the floor. You forgot where you were 30 minutes before.
No problem.
Start from A. Do it again.
So far as you keep on it, you will hit the Big Z.
I have no doubts in my mind that you will.
2. Map the Journey of the Alphabet to Articles You Write
These are my go-to online article types.
- How-to’s
- Why’s
- Self-learning
I tend to write such articles because it suits my line of thinking. I am a 1-Man consultant on the side. I am a technology consultant at my day job too.
Consultants must deliver clarity on complexity.
Showing how to get things done comes naturally to me.
However, that said, my de facto constraint is time.
How to write what I want to, given minimal time?
Let me return to the Alphabet journey. Let us assume that you are writing an article to teach your readers to go from A to Z.
This is your Reader’s Journey.
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
You have to cover plenty of ground to get from A to Z.
Writers who believe in writing The Ultimate List types do this. And here’s the thing.
No one says you must bring your readers from A to Z.
Why not work to bring your reader from A to C? There are many benefits when you focus on a shorter journey.
- You can delve deeper into the topic
- You can elaborate with real-life examples
- You can also explain the common mistakes people make and how to avoid them
Plus. Writing an article with conciseness allows us to go into deep flow. It is easier to peel the same onion, layer after layer, as compared to working on a new onion.
Elaborating on the same idea allows us to go Ai, Aii, Bi, Bii, Biii, and then C. Readers follow your idea-flow better.
Think about it.
Shorten your reader journey.
It will reduce your writing time.
And you do not sacrifice your writing quality.
3. The Longer Your Thinking Time, The Faster Your Typing Speed.
Thinking is real work. This is especially so for online writers.
I used to spend 80% of my time writing and 20% thinking. It produced dismal results. Plus, my writing feels piecemeal and unpolished.
Today, I flip that model.
This is what I do now.
- I spend time thinking about the topic
- I spend time thinking about the headlines
- I spend time thinking about the skeleton structure
- I spend time thinking about how to tie the conclusion to the introduction
And once I have all of that — I type.
I am 40% faster in completing my first draft once I have my thinking scribbled on paper. I relate this to filling in the blanks.
Popping in words on the empty line is exponentially faster than starting an essay from the top left corner of the Word Document.
I know this is counterintuitive. But it works.
Take time to think.
Once you have that skeleton structure in your head and how your article will flow, you can speed type.
Parting Keynotes
Writing takes time.
And that is one thing we do not have when we have a demanding day job, a young family, and a 1-Man consulting practice to run in the evening.
But that does not doom our online writing career.
In fact, there are many things we can do to write daily, given heavy time commitments.
I write using the following guideposts.
- The journey of the alphabet starts with A and ends with Z.
- Map the journey of the alphabet to articles you write.
- The longer your thinking time, the faster your typing speed.
I hope this approach makes sense to you.
All the best, fellow writers!
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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