Busy Writers Can Slash Their Writing Time By 50% (9 Ways To Create More)

Write lightning-fast articles and expand your content

Write more and you’ll build a bigger audience.

But this takes more time, right? Wrong!

You don’t need to quit your job or give up your social life to create more content. I’ve discovered how to write more in less time.

I’ve written 100+ articles this year — about 80,000 words. Whilst working full-time. I’ve developed an approach to produce more without reducing quality. Some of these ideas have improved my writing.

Here’s how I write so much (with a 9–5):

1. Have a strong ideas system

Having a great idea energises your writing.

When ideas stop flowing your writing grinds to a halt. Each word becomes painful to produce. You need a system that keeps the ideas coming. This will help you write faster.

It needs to be easy to maintain and take little time. It’s best to create your own ideas system rather than copying someone else’s. You know what works for you.

But here are the 3 things you need to include:

• specific sessions when you source ideas (YouTube, reading, Twitter)
• an easy way to capture and categorise ideas for future use
• a routine of picking one from your collection to write about

If you don’t have a strong ideas system. Set one up.

So every time you write you feel energised by the idea pulsating through your veins.

2. Power up with an outline

The blank page is daunting.

It stops you from starting and slows down your writing. To write faster start with an outline. Decide on your structure. Name your subheadings. Draft a few lines for the intro.

Here’s a typical outline:

• the problem
• why it matters
• solution 1
• solution 2
• solution 3
• conclusion & CTA

It’s surprising how helpful this is.

To start writing. You pick a section and write 200 words. This is easier than facing 1000 words. The heading tells you what to write then your brain kicks into gear.

I don’t even write the sections in order. I scan my outline and go where the energy is.

3. Focus your research

Research is a dangerous black hole.

It loves to swallow up hours of your time. So you need to be super careful. It can become a series of links as Google draws you into endless possibilities. Never ‘do research’. Reframe your research as a question. This forces clarity of thinking.

For example, don’t research ‘time management’ pick a question:

• what are the top tactics that work?
• what challenges do writers face that are distinct?
• despite all the techniques why do people still struggle?

ChatGPT has made my research much more efficient:

• no adverts
• no links to trigger my curiousity
• forces you to have a specific prompt for great results

Research is essential to quality writing. But keep it focused.

4. Write your first draft without stopping

When I write my first draft I have one aim.

Write 1000 words. That’s it.

I don’t think about:

• making sense
• following writing rules
• keeping the reader’s attention

I get the words on the page.

When you write your 1st draft focus on getting the words down. Write like an ideas-possessed maniac. Your brain will scream at you to stop. Throw objections at you. Tell you to tweak that paragraph. Open up Google. Check Twitter.

Resist at all costs. And just write. Accept it’s going to be terrible. Who cares? No one will see it. Your only aim is the words. Get them all out.

Because you know the secret of a stunning article.

It’s not in the writing — it’s in the editing.

5. Edit with a checklist

Editing is the graveyard of efficient writing.

Endless time lost to drifting up and down your article. Tweaking it. Trying to improve it. Editing is faster and more effective with a crystal clear process. Write a checklist of editing tasks. And do them one at a time.

I’ve previously explained how to create an effective checklist. Here are some of the tasks I include:

• Spot ordinary words and make them stronger
• Delete unnecessary words & sentences
• Make my headline more specific
• Add links to my other content
• Run through AI tools

When you get to the end of your editing checklist. You are done.

Resist going back to your article.

6. Batch your writing

Replace a linear approach with batching to cut your writing time by 50%.

A linear approach is writing one article at a time:

• decide on the idea
• create outline
• write
• edit
• publish

Taking an article through this process one at a time is agonisingly slow.

Batching does one task at a time on multiple articles:

• write outlines for your next 4 articles
• edit 2 articles

Focusing on one type of task gets more done. Switching from outline to writing to editing in one session is exhausting. Think of your writing like a factory. Focus on one activity at a time.

This will make you a super-efficient writing machine.

7. Click publish sooner

This is the simplest way to save time.

Perfectionism and insecurity cause many writers to delay publishing. Time is wasted because of your internal issues. It takes as much work to raise your quality from 0–80% as 80–100%. The law of diminishing returns kills you. But two articles at 80% beat one article at 100%

Even if you don’t feel ready click publish.

Here’s the beauty of writing online. If it isn’t any good. There’s no one to mock because no one has seen it.

This isn’t to encourage poor quality work but good is good enough.

Less perfection more publishing.

8. Set input goals to create urgency

The freedom writers have is dangerous.

Write when you want. Write how much you want. But without a boss or project meeting to report to. We can lack the urgency to create. You can set an arbitrary deadline. Write this article by Friday. But this doesn’t work because there are no consequences.

The solution is to set input goals.

For example, write 10 articles/month. This creates urgency and gives context to your deadlines. Monitor your progress. Put the target somewhere you can see it.

The pressure will push you to write faster.

9. Boost your speed with some sprints

I wanted to run a faster 10k. And would try and up my pace but found it difficult to maintain. Without thinking I’d slow down. Then I discovered the sprinting technique. You run 8k on autopilot but run a faster 3–4k and 6–7k.

You can adopt the same trick for your writing. It is impossible to try and write faster all the time. But you can pick a few sessions to sprint and increase the intensity.

Put on fast music. Remove distractions. Switch off your wifi. Close all tabs. Set a timer and sprint for 45 minutes. Experiment with tasks for this. Try sprint editing or sprinting your 1st draft.

You’ll exhaust yourself if you try this all the time. But can boost your productivity with the occasional use. And add a little fun to your writing.

You don’t need to quit your job or sacrifice your relationships to write more. Gradually add these ideas to your routine and you’ll double your output.

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