How To Increase Your Writing Productivity

My best tips for efficient article writing

Writing productivity can be viewed quite differently from person to person. I am not here to tell you what being a productive writer means — maybe you want to write 1,000 words every day or maybe you want to block out 2 hours of your day just for writing.

Both of these examples are just fine and can classify you as a productive writer. Moreover, writing productivity doesn’t only have to be based on how many articles you can publish in a month. As long as you give your best to provide your readers with quality and value then that is all you need to be a good and productive writer.

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” — Albert Einstein

Brainstorming

One of the best and most overlooked methods to help you quickly write fantastic articles is the simple art of brainstorming.

Brainstorming is so important because it can lead you to specific points, subtopics, and/or writing angles that you would most likely overlook if skipping a brainstorming session.

My favorite ways to brainstorm are word association and going on my phone — yes, I really mean the thing most of us forget time while using.

Word association works because it’s simple; you write one word down on a page and from there, any other word that you associate with or that reminds you of the first word. This method of brainstorming is great if you already have a topic idea in mind but are unsure of subtopics to cover or angles to write your article from. If, however, you have no idea where to start then grab your phone and hop on any news or social media app.

The news is a great place to start if you are looking to write current and relevant articles. The news will provide you with loads of topic options and most will already have some credible sources to back their statements which you can use for further research.

If nothing sparked an interest for you but you are determined to find a current topic then the next best place to conduct your search will be from trending twitter hashtags — this will particularly help you if you like to advertise your articles on twitter as a big audience is already there for your chosen topic area.

Other popular social media platforms that can help your writer’s creativity flow are Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, though, any other social media platform can also help you.

Environment

Now that you have your main idea and some subtopics in mind you need to find your writing environment. This means finding yourself a time and place just for writing. If you can’t have a designated place then try and have a designated time or vice versa, as this will help your brain know when it’s time to write.

Another helpful tip for helping your brain get in the writing mode could be to have a writing playlist that you can listen to minutes before you want to start writing or maybe even a special tea you drink just when you want to write. Do whatever you find works for you, but having your own little writing “environment” can be tremendously helpful for your productivity.

Challenge yourself

It is no secret that as humans we like to win. Consequently, one of my favorite ways to get out of a writing rut is to challenge myself. I make myself a goal by setting a timer for 20 minutes and then start jotting down everything that comes to my mind, whether it makes sense or not. When the 20 minutes are over I start a 10 minutes timer and then I’ll go back and revise everything I wrote down.

I’ll repeat this cycle as many times as I need to until I have a good topic and creative rhythm flowing — usually, this process doesn’t take more than 2 cycles (1 hour) for me to get going.

Break it down

Lastly, my favorite way to take on a bigger goal, in this case, productive writing, is to break it down into smaller tasks. Whatever your idea of productivity may be — from writing a 3,000-word article to publishing 8 articles a month — it is vital to break it down into smaller tasks; this will allow you to maintain focus and motivated to achieve that goal, in turn making you a more productive writer.

For example, if I want to write a 3,000-word article and publish it 5 days from now this is how I would break it down.

• Day 1: figure out the title and main structure of the article — brainstorm.
• Day 2: write the first thousand words, review, and edit.
• Day 3: write the second thousand words, review, and edit.
• Day 4: write the third thousand words, review, and edit.
• Day 5: final review, add photo(s), double-check that sources are cited, touch up story settings (tags, SEO title, etc), and hit publish!

I hope these tips and techniques will help you become a more productive writer just like they help me. Happy writing!