How To Write Lightening-Fast Content In 9 Dead Simple Steps

How I write 15 articles a month with a demanding 9–5

Create more and you increase your odds of success.

But you don’t have enough time, do you? You can’t quit your job. Your kids won’t dress themselves. And you still want a social life right?

I’m not about to tell you to give up your life. But there are tactics you can use to speed up your writing. These have all worked for me. I work 9–5 but average 700 words a day.

Here’s my 9 favourite tips to maximise your writing productivity:

1. Have a strong ideas system

Your ideas shape your speed.

A great idea energizes your writing. But if the ideas dry up your writing grinds to a halt. Each word becomes agony. This is why building an ideas system is priceless.

It needs to be easy to maintain and take little time to use. Create what works for you. Rather than copying someone else’s.

Include these 3 things:

specific sessions when you source ideas
a way to capture and categorise ideas for future use
a routine of choosing ideas from your collection

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

Become an energised writer, with ideas 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. Then you’re ready.

Here’s a typical outline:

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

It’s surprising how much speed this adds.

You pick a section and write 200 words. This is easier than facing 1000 words. The heading tells you what to write. And kicks your brain in 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 your time. So be super careful. A series of links draws deeper into the black hole. 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 makes research 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 (and don’t stop)

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.

Write like an ideas-possessed maniac. Your brain will scream stop. And throw objections at you. Telling you to tweak that paragraph. Open up Google. Check Twitter. Anything be write.

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.

Do 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.

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 Grammarly.

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

Resist doing anymore.

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 is agonisingly slow. Batching does one task at a time on multiple articles:

write outlines for your next 4 articles
edit 2 articles

Focus 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.

I’ve gained 5000 followers in 6 months and earn $750/month. If you want my writing secrets. Join 1026 other writers and sign up for my free course: