Don’t forget to hit ‘publish’
I wrote over 14,000 words worth of posts, and didn’t publish any of them.
At the start of October, I got back into my daily writing habit of 1,000 words a day and it was great.
I really, really enjoyed it.
The problem was that I started to build up a backlog of posts that needed to be read through, edited and then published online.
The last three tasks actually take up quite a bit of time, and I don’t enjoy doing them.
Most people who create this much content every day have a team to help out with this part, but at the moment, I’m doing it all myself. (For example, some podcasts are run by a team of 8 full time staffers).
Anyway. I typically don’t edit as I write, and I also don’t like to mix the two modes in the same sitting, so what ends up happening, is that I need a second session dedicated solely to polish and nothing else.
I find this boring and inefficient, so I magically never find the time to do it.
Regardless of my preferences, I live in the real world – one where I care more about whether or not something is actually working or not, rather than some romantic idea of how things should be.
So, as of today we have a new rule: write, then edit and publish immediately.
On the same day, in the same sitting.
I typically allow myself a full hour to write 1,000 words, so this morning I’ve set up a timer for 45 minutes of writing, and then 15 minutes to edit and post.
Lesson:
If you’re not getting the results you want or something is not working, it is ALWAYS a mindset thing – even if it looks like it’s simply a systems or set up situ. Ask yourself why you are doing things the way you are, and then you’ll find the bit of the system that needs to be tweaked.
If you don’t ‘ship’ your work, it doesn’t count.