The Secret To Writing 1–3 Articles Every Day
It’s easy once you get your routine set up properly
When I started writing I had days where I could write a few articles one after the other. That could be followed by a week when I didn’t write anything at all. I just wasn’t in the right mood.
It always used to wonder how other writers consistently churned out articles day after day. Maybe they were real writers but I wasn’t.
I decided to investigate to see if I could figure out what was different between my good and bad writing days. It took a while, but I started to see patterns. Once I spotted something that help me write, I tried to implement it into my master plan.
Reason #1
The first aha moment was when I realized that on the days I wrote a few articles I always felt energized. This was primarily because I’d had a good night’s sleep the previous night.
On days I didn’t feel like writing it was often because I felt tired. That meant I’d stayed up too late the night before and wasn’t rested enough.
After that, I decided to make sleep a priority. Good sleep is essential for good health, and also essential for having a clear head and being able to focus for extended periods.
Reason #2
Another reason I felt tired on some days was due to what I was eating. I usually eat fairly healthy food but have days where I drift into eating more unhealthily. This might be times I’m traveling when it’s difficult to find decent food.
Airports, train stations, motorway service areas, and similar places tend to sell nothing but junk food. Nowadays I try to plan ahead and take some healthy snacks with me.
Reason #3
There were days when I’d eaten well and slept well, but still didn’t write. I wanted to but wasted hours thinking about what I could write about.
The obvious solution was to prepare a list of articles in advance. I now write down articles ideas as soon as I have them. This is usually on my phone, tablet, or notepad. I then transfer all the notes to a Word document.
I currently have a list of around 40–50 article ideas. When I want to write I just look at the list and chose one of the ideas. That way I can get started right away.
As well as that, I often get article ideas from questions people ask me. That is the case with this article. Someone on Reddit just asked me how I write so many articles. I decided to write this as a reply to their question. If that person wants to know the answer, I’m sure others do as well. So instead of just replying to the Reddit guy, why not write a fuller reply that others can also benefit from.
I recently wrote an ecommerce quick start guide because I was getting fed up with so many people asking me the same questions. I can now direct them to that post instead of answering them individually.
Reason #4
I don’t try to be perfect. I write articles to share ideas, opinions, advice, etc. The objective is to get my point across so that I add value for the readers. It doesn’t matter if the article isn’t perfect.
I’d love to be able to write as well as the top writers, but I’m fairly new to Medium, so that will take time. It’s better that I write 30–45 articles a month that are imperfect than write only 10–25 because I’m wasting time trying to make them perfect.
If I show someone how to make $500 a month, they don’t care if the writing’s not perfect. They only care about having the information they need to be able to make that $500. I’m writing to share ideas, not writing for the sake of writing. I’m not interested in winning a top writing award, although I did recently become a Top Writer in writing.
Reason #5
I keep my articles fairly short. Most are around 500–600 words. I write a few posts every month that are short-form, meaning they’re 150 words maximum. I do write a few longer posts, such as the ecommerce guide mentioned above. This article is also one of the longer ones.
Reason #6
This is somewhat related to #5 above. As my articles I fairly short I don’t need to plan them out. I just write from start to finish. I write whatever comes to mind.
Reason #7
The final reason is that I only write about topics that I enjoy writing about. If I was writing for a client I might have to put in the time to research and plan out the article. I don’t have to do that when I write on here. I already know the topics I am writing about. I rarely have to put in any research. That saves a huge amount of time
I hope this helps you to write more articles. I’d also be interested to hear some tips from others that also manage to write 1–3 articles per day consistently. I’m always looking for ways to improve.
