Busy? How to Keep Writing

It’s early in 2012 and things are already off to a crazy pace. You’re making plans to make this your best year yet and that means events, new classes and education, site improvements and more.

Busy happens. But regular posts are a big part of keeping the SEO crawlers coming back to your site. So if you’re in charge of a company blog, how do you find the time to make it happen each week?

As a professional organizer, I see many people struggle to manage time. So here are some tips for making it happen. Now, I just need to follow my own advice!

• Schedule the time. Write blog posts the same day each week, preferably at the same time. This will help you develop a habit of writing at that time. Your mind and your typing fingers will get used to this habit. Soon, you’ll be a Pavlovian experiment, creative juices (no drool, please) flowing right on schedule.

• Just say, “no.” The trick is to treat this like any other meeting. It’s an appointment and you must stick to it. Don’t schedule other things during that time. You may prefer not to schedule a specific time, but just a day. For me, it’s enough to write organizing blog posts on Wednesdays. That’s the day I do it. Always. But if 5 p.m. arrives and it’s not done, guess what I’m doing at 5:05? So some might find it helpful to choose a time slot.

• Speaking of which, choose a time slot that works for your natural rhythms. A full restaurant lunch followed by the resulting food coma will make 1 p.m. a tough time to focus. Or maybe you need two cups of coffee before the synapses fire, which makes 9 a.m. a bad time.

• Get inspired. You’ll be much more excited to write if you have something to write about. Carry a little notebook around with your, or use a notetaking app on your phone. Either way, be sure to wear your thinking cap at all times. What around you would make a good blog post? How can you help your clients? (Get more ideas in last week’s post, “How to Create a Brilliant 2012 Writing Plan.“)

• Plan ahead. Feeling especially creative? If you’ve got the time, write up two more blog posts that day and schedule them for the following weeks. The stress of knowing your words must be posted within a few hours can jam your creativity. Plus, you’ll be creating a buffer in case you have an off-week.

What strategies do you use to accomplish your writing?