How I Write +5,000 Words Almost Every Day

And how you too, can build a writing routine that fits your needs

While Social Media has tons of negative aspects, it also has some great ones. For example, you can come across tools and products you might not have found without seeing it on the profile of an influencer or a friend.

Last week, when I was browsing through some Instagram stories, the video of a fellow writer caught my attention. She was talking about a writing challenge and that she’s trying to write 2,500 words every day. What was really interesting, though, was how she tracked the number of words per day: She was using a word counter app on her Mac. I’m not sure if that’s a common tool most digital writers know about anyway, but I never heard of it before, and I was thrilled.

During the past two years, I’ve written more than 300 blog posts and a book of 400 pages, so I wish I’d known about the tool earlier. I guess that’s one of the products you don’t think of before having, but once you have it, you don’t want to miss it.

Until I downloaded a word counter app, I had no idea what my average daily word count was. Yet, after a casual work week, I realized it’s around 5,000 words per day. This includes everything I write on my laptop: Articles, emails, copy for my business, Whatsapp messages, social media posts,…

And while I reach those 5,000 words per day effortlessly, I realized that this sounds like a lot to most people. We all know how it was back in school when we had to hand in papers and desperately tried to prolong our written pieces.

If you’re, however, writing because it’s your job, like in my case, it’s not about typing as much as possible, but rather about writing lots of useful and high-quality content.

The good news is that writing much doesn’t need to be hard or complicated. Instead, it can even be fun if you take care of a few basics and build a consistent writing routine that fits your needs.

Here’s what I did to build a consistent writing practice and how you too, can use these strategies:

Decide when and where you want to write

Even though writing means getting work done, it can be quite different from other tasks, such as client calls, brainstorming, or administrative to-do’s.

To write productively, you’ll need to be fully focused, that’s why most people prefer a specific time and place for their writing routines. Many writers whom I know prefer mornings and late evenings for their practice as they seem to be most creative and productive during these times of the day.

Besides the time of your writing routine, having a particular place dedicated to your writing might also make a difference. If you, for example, have a work desk to get all your other stuff done, focusing on your writing while sitting there might seem hard due to distractions. In that case, you might try writing from the kitchen table, from your balcony, from a café nearby or whatever environment best fits your needs.

What I do whenever I feel uninspired is sitting at our dining table, which is right across our bookshelf. By looking at hundreds of books, I remind myself that all these people managed to write entire books and that writing a blog post is not that hard. It might sound weird, but so far, this approach helped me to get my writing done during my most unproductive times.

Bottom line: Figure out when your most productive writing time is and where you feel most productive and inspired during your writing schedule.

These two aspects might sound like trivialities, but for me, they play a huge role. I’m a 10x faster writer late at night than during the afternoon. Thus, it makes sense to get administrative tasks done during the day and then write during the evening. Find what works best for you.

Set a minimum goal

One of the main reasons why most people fail to achieve their goals is because they have high expectations. We want big results, and we want them now, right?

Well, wanting is easy, doing the work is hard. And doing the work when you expect (too) much from yourself is even harder.

Me writing 5,000 words a day doesn’t mean that’s something you should pursue as well. I’m a digital entrepreneur, I work from home, I can work whenever I want, I don’t have kids, I don’t have any significant duties besides my work at all.

I bet your situation is totally different than mine, so your goals and routines also need to be different and, most importantly: They need to fit you. You are the only person who needs to feel comfortable with your practices.

Even though most of my days are filled with lots of writing, on some days, I barely type 500 words.

However, I have one critical rule that I followed every single day for the past five months: The minimum work I do is checking all my notifications (e.g., on Medium), and messages across various platforms and answering them, unless it’s a long, complex mail or message I need to answer.

By doing so, I ensure that I do at least something for my writing career. On some days, answering all messages and notifications takes as little as 15 minutes, but it energizes me and keeps me going. On other days, it takes up to one hour, but it’s still worth doing because it enables me to focus on the more important tasks the next day.

I gave my best to follow that rule every day during the past five months, but again: Your process might look totally different.

You could, for example, set the goal to write at least 500 words or to at least read a great piece. Just find what works best for you and stick to it.

Don’t switch tasks

The surest way to extend the time you need for writing a piece is by doing several tasks at once. Multitasking is a lie anyway, but trying to multitask while writing is even worse. If you write, just write.

Sometimes, it’s hard to get into a creative flow and write effortlessly. During these moments, we often tend to open new tabs, check notifications, or start answering emails instead of doing the writing.

However, sticking to your writing instead of switching tasks (even if it’s difficult) is a way more effective way to writer quicker and probably even better. By jumping from tab to tab, you not only exhaust your brain but also might harm the flow of your piece for your reader.

Here’s how I approach every new post I write:

• I decide on the main idea/concept of the article.
• I come up with a title and a subtitle that are already good, but that I might still change once I’m done with the piece.
• I choose the title picture. (That’s something most writers do at the end, but I feel as if browsing through pictures helps me to set the tone of a piece, so I do it at the beginning.)
• I roughly structure the piece by creating bullet points or subtitles.
• If needed, I do some research in advance and open the links I need on a second screen.
• Then, I write. And I only write unless I need to research particular statistics, numbers, quote, or something similar.
• Once the piece is done, I edit and check for mistakes at least two times.

Through this approach, I’m able to write most of my posts in around two hours.

Create a proper idea management system

I barely spend time thinking about what to write. To store and manage my ideas, I’m mainly using Trello, a simple, free to use project management tool. I have a Trello board with hundreds of article ideas and come up with new ideas every single day.

Whenever I sit down to write, I spend a maximum of five minutes deciding about the piece I want to write, and then I instantly get to the writing part.

Storing your ideas and thoughts in a structured way can be a great time-saver, particularly if writing is not your main job and if you’re switching tasks often.

In fact, you can set up any kind of idea management system. It can even be a physical notebook, there are no boundaries as long as it works for you.

For me, having tons of ideas on what to write is an essential part of my writing journey. Knowing that I’ll never run out of ideas just feels good and helps me to find more joy in the writing process.

Most writers start their writing journey full of enthusiasm and optimism but soon lose faith because they run out of writing ideas. That’s why having proper idea generation and management methods are so valuable.

Let go of perfectionism

Easier said than done, I know.

I don’t believe that perfect writing even exists. Everybody is different, everybody has a different style and a different taste. What might be a great book for me might be horrible for you. And the same is true for blog posts.

You can spend 10 hours editing your post, and someone will still not enjoy it.

Or as Dita Von Teese says:

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

I don’t say you shouldn’t take your writing seriously and give your best, but there’s a thin line between doing good work and being too perfectionist.

Give your best, check your spelling and grammar, if possible, ask someone for feedback on your piece, but don’t get lost in details. Make sure you can be proud of your piece but don’t ever try to create a perfect piece.

Instead, create more, learn more, and become a better writer through writing more.

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