I love a boxset binge!
When you discover a series on Netflix and will happily sit there, watching episode after episode, until your eyelids droop, you’ve tipped popcorn into your lap and dribbled tea down your onesy*!
*(I don’t actually have a onesy – just setting the scene, creative licence and all that!)
When you’re in the mood for something, it’s the easiest thing in the world to just keep going.
Going With The Flow
Sometimes, I’m all or nothing.
I’ll get really into something, do it to death, then walk away for months, even years afterwards.
When I wrote the Sheridan and Blake books, I wrote fiction every weeknight for the best part of three years to get all four books written and published.
That was my life.
Yet now, I just can’t muster the enthusiasm to write long fiction.
I will write fiction again, when I have another project to get passionate about, I know I will – I just don’t know when!
Peaks and Troughs
When it comes to writing shorter form blog content, I also have peaks and troughs of enthusiasm, motivation and inspiration.
When I’m in the flow I’ll go for it and can bash out four or five draft blogs in a few hours – a blogging binge!
Other days, I sit there, glaring at the blinking cursor, not a clue what to write, and suddenly emptying the dishwasher is a high priority job!
Make The Most Of It
When you have those moments where it all comes together, make the most of it!
Embrace the binge, there are tools to accommodate…
My mind was blown when I discovered the WordPress Scheduling tool…
Here it is…
On my set up, when I’m drafting a blog, it’s on the right hand side of the screen.
Click ‘edit’ choose a date to publish on and hit ‘schedule’.
Boom!
Mind Blown!
I know, right? (Also – Neil DeGrasse Tyson, what a legend!)
This is amazing for 4 reasons
1) Distribute Your Blogs Evenly
It means when I’m in a creative peak, and write lots of content, I can spread it out over time. I can publish consistently, instead if publishing three blogs in a few days then nothing for weeks!
2) Publish When Appropriate
I have a theme for my marketing every month.
Some months my focus is on blogging support, others it’s all about books, or ideas. It aligns with my business goals throughout the year and allows me to group elements of my business into sensible and related chunks.
However, just because, for example #LoveToLearn is my theme for February, doesn’t mean that all I’m thinking about in February is ‘learning’!
I may have a blog idea that fits much better into my March theme of #FreshThinking or December’s #Thriftmas theme.
I’ll write what inspires me, when it inspires me, then schedule it to fit in with my business plans.
By using the scheduling tool, I can also publish blogs when people are actually likely to want them – and not at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon when I happen to have a good idea and the time to sit and do it!
3) Build Up A Bank Of Drafts
When I am in a creative binge, I rarely craft publishable content. It’s raw, it’s full of errors and is probably several ideas lumped together.
In the creative mindset, it’s important to just get the ideas out of your head and onto the screen, then worry about the quality of the writing later.
It’s in those creative troughs, when my analytical brain is heightened, that’s when I’ll revisit those draft blogs, edit and tidy them up. I can then schedule them in as appropriate, instead of interrupting my creative time with analytical tasks.
4) Get Ahead Of Yourself
The reality of self-employment is that some months you will be really busy, hardly able to catch your breath between appointments and events.
Other months, the only thing you see on the horizon is tumbleweed.
By making the most of your creative peaks and using the scheduling tools when you’re in analytical mode, you can have several weeks/months (a whole year, even) of blogs already scheduled in to automatically publish at the appropriate time.
No need to panic that you’ve not written a blog this month because you ran out of time!
Get ahead. Learn how to create a content calendar and plan your creative content around your creative rhythms.
Book a FREE 30-minute Inspiration Call with me and I’ll help you rediscover your creative side.
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