How I Wrote 20 Articles a Month (With a Full-time Job)
It helped me quit my job.
I wanted to write full time.
It just looked so much better than what I was doing — slogging to earn tiny annual appraisals, doing work I don’t enjoy, and not finding sense in why I have to work 8–10 hours every day.
And in India, hierarchy plays a big role.
I was the junior most.
The rest, you can guess.
I had to write 20 articles a month to make my dream come true. The dream was simple — freedom. Whatever it may mean to you. To me, owning my time felt like the ultimate meaning of wealth.
And that dream came true.
Here’s Why I Wrote 20 Articles a Month
To make it ‘big’ on the platform you’re reading on, I had to write a lot. But more than that, to become a better writer and be more consistent, I had to write.
The formula to becoming better is simple — practice.
And so I wrote 20 articles a month during a full-time job till those 20 articles a month could be the reason I quit.
“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” — Stephen King
Have an Idea Bank
I had a full-time job and a daily routine, which included my workouts and social life. Some of you are even parents or caretakers. Imagine leaving your ideas to ‘inspiration’… yeah, it doesn’t work that way.
I wrote 10 ideas every day.
It’s James Altucher’s method to unleash your creativity and become an idea machine. He says the only way to get better ideas is by flexing your creativity muscle every day.
So I took out time to write ten ideas a day and I’ll be honest, on some days I missed it and on some I got lazy. Still, each month there were hundreds of ideas coming to play.
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” ― W. Somerset Maugham
Preparation
Or outlining, as we writers call it.
At the time of writing this article, it’s a Monday and I sat for 30 minutes to outline 6 articles for this week.
I know now that I’m a solopreneur I can take out that kind of time on a Monday.
With a full-time job, I used to outline either a few on weekends or sometimes a single article one day before writing. Because the next day, an article was already out there waiting to be typed.
You can create systems to make life easier. Most people don’t do that and hence the overwhelm and burnout.
Write After Work
With the outline ready, writing takes under 45 minutes. Again, speed gets better with time though I doubt mine will. My typing is horrible with only 2 fingers being used per hand and my wrists up in the air.
Did you just imagine a zombie? Me too.
So I’d write an article after work because the writing felt (and still feels) like my break from everything else. An activity I wholeheartedly enjoy and now even when it’s my ‘work’, it doesn’t feel like work.
Playtime after work — not bad, right?
Edit in the Morning
When you keep seeing the same thing again and again, it's easy to overlook your mistakes.
That's what happens with your words, too.
Do this — write anything, doesn’t need to be a long essay. See it a day later, and you’d be able to spot so many mistakes that you overlooked earlier.
Similar to the times when you analyse after an argument about all the things you could’ve said. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?
The same goes for writing. Edit with your fresh mind and it’ll be easier to edit better, increasing your readability and viewership.
Mornings before work worked well for me.
Mindset
I tell my course students — your first 50 articles will be shit.
Right now you’d be upset about not getting enough views or claps, but 50 articles later you’d be glad you didn’t. You’ll cringe at your own writing and feel happy that nobody read it.
150 articles later, you’ll think that way about your first 100 articles.
It’s not your fault, it’s just what growth looks like.
Other mindsets that help you during online writing are:
- Pareto principle: 80% of your consequences will only come from 20% of occurrences. But you still have to keep showing up for that to happen.
- Focussing on what’s in your control: how many people read your stuff isn’t in your control, but writing frequently is.
- Consistency: the only way to get better at writing is by writing, and writing a lot.
- Joy: it gets easier when you make it fun for yourself.
- Abundance: all these things will open up a world full of opportunities.
The Rest is History
If you told me that putting this work for 2 hours a day would change my life forever and get me to 4-hour workdays, I wouldn’t believe it.
But like the last point in the previous section, a bit of writing every day really does open a world full of opportunities.
It all started by getting freelance clients, creating my flagship writing course, launching digital products, growing on LinkedIn and becoming LinkedIn Top Voice, and even launching a LinkedIn course.
All this has been one hell of a journey.
All because I wrote 20 articles a day during my job hoping it’ll pay me back someday and with one dream — freedom.
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. “ Walt Disney