How to get in the habit of writing content that will be read.

Hopefully, after reading the last 2 editions of my newsletter, you will:

• Have a fair idea of why you are writing.

• Who is your audience?

• The difference between long-form content (e.g.: blogs, newsletters) and short-form content (e.g. tweets, posts).

• Some ideas that you could write about.

In this edition, I will be talking about

• setting yourself up with habits that will keep you writing even when you feel under the weather and

• writing frameworks that will make implementing your writing habit easier.

I’m not sure if you’ve read the book Atomic Habits (highly recommend it if you haven’t). 90% of my writing habits (well, and every other good habit) are built on actioning the principles from that book.

Essentially, you want to set a time, and place to commit yourself to implementing the desired habit, and eliminate any procrastination from the equation, through a principle called habit stacking.

Example: At 6 am, after I’ve made my morning coffee, I will take it to my desk and write an article/post about [xyz].

Note, you’ve designated the time, place, the action, and stacked it on top of another habit ‘drinking morning coffee.’

That way, over time, your brain associates your morning coffee with writing and it is established as a habit.

Surely, it may take a few attempts to get it right, but trust me, it's worth it. Once you have the habit drilled and wired into your brain, you'll be unstoppable. You'll be able to power through it like a freight train, even on the days when you'd rather be binge-watching Netflix.

I can tell you that on the days I’ve chosen to give it a miss because I thought I didn’t feel like it, I regretted it big time. Once you start writing, it becomes more than just an income stream or a way to build your authority online, it becomes a way to vent, gain clarity in life, gain perspective and put momentum and motivation in your days.

Ok, enough fluff Katrina, how can I fit this into my 9-5 schedule? Don’t you get it, the real problem is TIME.

Yes, I get that!

I’m afraid you’re going to have to sacrifice one hour of your morning FB/LinkedIn doom scrolling, or one hour of your evening Netflix binging. If I were you, I would choose the former.

There is something special about morning solitude - you are less likely to have someone sabotage your time, and you’ll get more done in one morning hour than you will in three evening hours - no distractions, clearer brain, no end-of-day overwhelm, the list goes on….

Here is my writing routine:

• Ideation (capturing ideas):

  • A doc/app that captures any topics that interest me during the day.

  • At least 2×15min slots/day of introspection & deep reflection out in nature.

• Planning

  • The night before - I write my topic with a vague outline and a headline. This stops me from fluffing around and staring at a blank screen.

  • I create my posts in 2-week chunks and write them in one morning.

• Writing:

  • 6 am-7 am with my cuppa and background music (music increases my creative capacity!).

  • I do a brain dump of everything that comes to mind about that topic. Most of it is based on my experience (this is why it helps to write for people a bit behind you in your journey!).

  • Don’t edit.

    Good writers never write and edit at the same time.

    The mindset required for editing is not there when you are writing.

  • I allow 15mins in the morning to edit the article/posts I wrote the day before.

Writing Frameworks that will elevate your content

We’ve covered long-form and short-form content in the last edition. I suggest you start by writing short-form content:

• It is easier to ideate

• Less time-consuming

• Tells you what content resonates with your audience (then you can turn what resonates into long-form content)
  

  (The following is a suggestion only, you can adapt it however you like)

Even if you are just sharing insights or learnings from a podcast or research, it is good to put it in this framework. Structured posts allow for better flow and readership.

Long-form content is more elaborate to cover but follows a similar structure to the above

I hope I have injected you with a motivational boost to plant the seed of your writing hobby and some idea on how to put your ideas into frameworks that will get eyes on them online.

Next time, in our final edition, I will share my writing tech tools that make my writing gig easier, and what side hustles you can build with writing.

Until then, tag me in some posts 😃 

To your writing success

Katrina

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