How To Make Extra Time For Content Creation Without Extending Your Work Week
Creating consistent content for your brand is a fantastic goal to strive toward, but it can be challenging to execute. Today, we are going to chat about some ways to make extra time for content creation without extending your work week. You can fit in content creation time, and I am going to show you how!
Get Serious About What Is Possible
Let's get real for a second. We all have unrealistic expectations for what is possible in our day-to-day life. We'll start the day with a laundry list of ideas, but at the end of the day, we still have a ton of things to check off our to-do list. After our defeat, things have to be moved over, pushed back, and sometimes thrown away entirely. That's no way to live!
You’ve got to adjust your expectations. As much as I would love to say that I can do everything, I can’t. I have to know what’s possible at the end of the day. Are you expecting too much of yourself? Probably so! Adjust your thinking and get serious about what you can do in a day.
Do you have that much alone time to focus on writing that blog post today?
How long does it take you to brainstorm ideas?
Is that something you need to do today, or can it wait?
The act of finishing a to-do list you set for yourself is freeing. Don’t set yourself up for failure!
Find Your Productivity Trifecta
We all have something that makes us our most productive selves. Once you find what makes you most productive, you can do that thing consistently, so you get work done. Don't avoid the things that make you most productive. If you are avoiding those things, you have to come to terms with the fact that you don't honestly want to be as productive as you can be.
My productivity trifecta is a mixture of having a plan, utilizing the Pomodoro technique, and listening to music on a site called Brian.FM. When I do all of those things at once, I am an unstoppable force of productivity.
Create an environment that helps you perform at your best. What enables you to tune out the world so you can focus on what matters most?
Adjust Your Schedule
Working from home has its advantages for me. I am the controller of my schedule. I can create blocks of time, sit down, and accomplish as much as I would like. Most people working in a traditional 9-5 don't have that luxury, unfortunately.
Take a good look at your schedule. Are there ways for you to adjust it in any way? Do you need five meetings with your team each week? Can you cut that down or convince your boss to cut it down? What are your time sucks every week?
Sit down each day for a week straight and plot out your day. At the end of the week, determine things you can rotate, change, or get rid of altogether. Here are some more things to consider:
Can you move all your meetings to one day or a few days a week?
Are there ways for you to cut down on any task switching that you do throughout the day?
When you do sit down to write content, are you as focused as you could be? If not, are you writing at the right time of day?
Stop Trying To Find Big, Beautiful Chunks Of Time
I love time blocking, but sometimes, it’s just not possible. As much as big, beautiful chunks of time seem in theory, they are not always possible in practice. You’ve got to work with what you have. Do it when you can, don’t try to find those big chunks of time to devote to this.
Find all the shortcuts to content creation that you can:
Use voice typing on programs like Google Drive to write what you speak.
Create outlines for all of your new blog posts, so that you can type faster.
When you stop searching for big chunks of time, you can focus on using the time that you have. We only have so many hours in a day. We don't have time to wait to search for the perfect moment.
Don’t Be Afraid To Hire Things Out
You can’t do it all on your own. Whether you are at a small startup or a multi-million dollar company, you’re going to need some help eventually. I know that hiring a freelancer or a team of people can be scary, but you’ll thank yourself when you have more time to focus on other aspects of running your business.
Don’t know where to start? Here are a few resources from my blog.
Read my post featuring seven signs you are ready to hire a freelancer for more inspiration to leap into hiring out.
Utilize my article on creating a content style guide to prep a freelancer or agency to take over content creation for you.
Read my article on the things that go into freelance pricing to determine what you should pay your freelancer.
Conclusion
Making time for content creation doesn't have to be scary. It's simple to make time for content creation when you take the time to understand what makes you productive, get serious about what's possible, and stop waiting for the perfect moment. Stop reading this article right now and focus on your content creation plan for the week. This is the perfect time to start!