Three of my best content process hacks
If you know me, you know I love a good process.
In fact, I think I love process as much as I love creation.
Ticking off a to-do list? Gives me butterflies.
Setting a deadline? Makes my toes curl with excitement.
Creating a RACI*? Cancel my Friday night plans, because I’m locking myself in with a spreadsheet.
Why do I love a process? Because it gets the things done. And the more the things are done, the quicker I can snap shut that computer, kick my shoes off, and pour that glass of wine.
Because that’s what we all want, right? Less time doing the doing, and more time enjoying the things that we love.
Here are my top 3 content hacks for creating MORE content, faster.
1. Use Asana (or something very like it)
Asana is a project management tool that allows you to organise your tasks and collaborate in one central space. There are, of course, a bunch of project management tools out there (such as Trello and Monday) but Asana is our tool of choice.
Here’s how we use it:
For every client, we have a list of content tasks.
Inside every task is the scope, the brief, the deadline, the draft, the feedback, and the final piece of content.
And it saves me minutes - if not hours - of time every single day.
This isn’t a promotional piece for Asana (although I should disclose that my brother heads up Asana for APAC. But other than being proud of my big brother’s career achievements, that’s where my relationship with Asana ends). This is a hand-on-heart admission that without Asana or something very near like it, I would be lost at sea.
See, my team and I are sometimes producing around fifty pieces of quality content a week. And I personally review and edit every single one of those pieces of content.
Can you imagine if I had to dig around in my email box every single time I had to review a document? If I had to faff around further in my emails to refer back to the brief to check that we’d covered everything? If I had to mine my emails even further for that piece of feedback that related to another blog from six months ago?
Seriously, I’d go insane.
So when I say Asana is my hack, it’s because it saves me more time than I can count. So we produce more content, at a higher quality, because we are spending less time digging and more time doing.
2. Just write.
I’m not gonna lie, writing content is hard. Even after 20 years of writing content, I still get anxiety staring at a blank screen before I have to write something new.
But my BIGGEST hack involves a timer and the phrase ‘JFDI’. Just effing do it.
Here’s how to do it:
Read the brief (or if you don’t have a brief, make a couple of bullet points of what you want the audience to know, feel and do).
Whether it’s a timer on your phone or using tomato timer, set a timer for 15 minutes.
Just start typing. Don’t stop. Even if it’s rubbish, even if it’s complete waffle (hint: it probably will be), just keep going. Even if you need to check something, or don’t know the word, don’t stop. Just write ‘XXXX’ (or Gosling, if you prefer) and keep going.
And when the timer is up, then go back and start editing, and researching, and fiddling.
Why? Because you need to get over your blank-screen anxiety, your imposter syndrome, your fear of being judged. And you need to get words on a page. The faster you can do that, the faster you can move onto editing, and getting your piece published.
It’s the oldest trick in the book, but it’s the most important.
3. Set mini-deadlines
One of the biggest barriers to producing content is the sense of overwhelm about how the heck we’re going to get it all done.
And we block out time in our diary - a half-day, hour, or even a whole day - where we are going to magically get everything done. Where we are going to sit down, and really get stuck into creating the content, finish it perfectly and deliver it wrapped in a tidy little ribbon.
But what happens to that magical block of time?
A client needs something urgently. POOF! A chunk of time disappears.
A colleague asks a question. KAZAM! Another wedge of time shimmers away.
Your kid needs to be picked up early from school, or your dog needs a walk. ALAKAZAM! Your magical block of time has vanished into thin air.
So instead of waiting for this magical unicorn of time - which frankly doesn’t exist - you need to carve out mini-chunks over a number of days. Here’s an example of how I might tackle a blog.
Chunk 1 - Read the brief (note - mind starts percolating) - 15 mins
Chunk 2 - If research required, do a bit of research - 30 mins
Chunk 3 - Just write (as above) - 15 minutes
Chunk 4 - Review and fill in the gaps - 15 minutes
Chunk 5 - Edit - 30 minutes
Chunk 6 - Proofread and send - 15 minutes
Now, for each of these chunks, these are booked into my calendar. And in between each chunk, there is a break to do something else.
The above timeline could be over the course of a day or two (in the case of an urgent deadline) - or it could be over a week. And the break could be doing another task or an actual break - say, lunch, or it could be a whole day and night. The actual timeline doesn’t matter. The point is that I’ve carved out the time - but in mini chunks.
That way, if a client or colleague (or kid or dog) needs something urgently, it’s much easier to finish your current task first if the chunk only lasts for 15 minutes. Anyone can wait for 15 minutes. You stay on track, and the urgent thing gets done. Everyone wins.
And if you get your chunks completed in shorter time? Well, bonus for you! Make yourself a cuppa (or pour that glass of wine!), or move onto your next task.
I hope this has been helpful. For more tips like these, sign up to our newsletter below.
*For those who have stepped out of the corporate game, a RACI is an accountability workflow and it means Responsible, Accountable, Consult and Informed. Thrilling, right?