Life As a Writer – How Routines Save the Day

By Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Many of you reading this article are likely writing content. Content, we are told, is king and without it we may fall into obscurity!

Who wants to be obscure when you can get social credibility by just writing a few blog posts or perhaps using other people’s posts on your own site. Writing is easy for some and very difficult if you do not know how to do it easily.

Let’s get back to content.

Content takes many forms: opinions (like mine), words from experts (if you love something and really get into the details, you are definitely an expert), business marketing materials, hype (yes, people actually put content together that is hype to entice you to buy), rants (sometimes backed by facts and most often not), eBooks showing off expertise, books, posts, articles, and the list goes on. You could spend your day just writing!

Here are some tricks for writing that may help (this is from me, the professional writer with books, articles, and much more on the go):

1. Monitor your day and see where the time goes – do this for several days to find out what is routine and what is not.
2. Write down the steps for the items that are routine. For me, I look at my Google Alerts each morning, skim through to find anything that is noteworthy, copy the links to my research pages in OneNote, delete the message from my inbox.
3. Monitor your social media pages – all of them and make note of the activities you are engaged in, other than just surfing around. For me, I monitor AuthorsSuccessGuild on Facebook and add comments where needed, then go to LinkedIn and check for updates or connection requests, go to Twitter and skim through the tweets, add my own and then move on to Pinterest to check for any additions for my field of interest (which happens to be writing). I also look through my dashboards for any other important issues.
4. Spend a bit of time adding planning to your daily routine – at least 5 minutes will do – this way you know where you are headed for the day.
5. Add reading to your list of routines, even if it 5 minutes a day. Speaking of reading, what books have you read lately that add to your knowledge as a writer? By knowledge I mean, adding to your expertise, adding to your ability to write, and adding to your business acumen. It is all important.
6. Manage your time with these routine items so you can get to the work of writing!
7. One more note: make time to get up and move around, exercise plays an important part in the writing process. My daily goal is 10,000 steps a day, what is your routine activity goal?

So you may be asking what content should I concentrate on? If you add a peek at Google Trends on a daily basis, you will be able to pinpoint issues or items that will spark interest for your own readers. Looking at Alerts and Trends is certainly a good practice, even if you only do it once a week. Get your ideas from your own research and reading.

At the end of the day or week, you will find that you have more time for writing by just putting simply routines in place. My day starts at 7:30 am and by 9 am I have completed almost all of my routine work and am ready to start on my writing. Are you ready to set up routines and increase your writing flow?

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. is a speaker, author (over 170 books, articles, and publications), and consultant. She has provided marketing, sales, business development and training expertise for companies such as Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Varian Medical Systems, Accenture, Avaya, Cisco Systems to name a few. Dr. Daoust has also done extensive work withauthors in developing their recognition and marketing strategies.

You may contact Dr. Daoust at http://AuthorsSuccessGuild.com. Her passion is in helping others succeed.

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