This post as I’m writing it is actually going to be my guide for the next 4 weeks. I’ve taken some time off work and now I’m treating this as a full time job, but I also have a hell of a lot on at the moment so some structure is needed if I’m going to absolutely make sure that all my tasks get finished.
I actually type a hell of a lot faster than I write, in fact I’m more than happy to say that I type a lot better and more fluid than using pen and paper, purely because the letters never come out backwards or even sometimes upside down, dyslexia should be an art form!
Anyway, I’m really comfortable writing a lot especially if I’m writing straight from my head as I’m doing right now. I had a rough idea of how many words I can write per hour consistently and it’s about 1,500 an hour. a typical 750 word post takes me about 30 minutes-ish to write.
So I’m breaking the following tasks down in order to make sure I get everything done and hopefully it’ll help you;
- Content
Content for this site runs on average between 6/700 words to around 1,500 words a day, depending on the amount of posts that get published. Looking at that as a maximum amount that is 2hrs of writing. Now focus on that 2hrs and block it out in your day. I realise I write and publish a lot of content so please adjust this to suit your needs, so if you post once a day, 5 times a week, once a week just block out some time so you can get it written.
So if you publish 5 new articles a week for your site, then you can do it two ways, do an hour a day (or how ever long you take to write an average article) or you can set down and batch write your weeks content in one day, either way setting aside some time where that is all you do without checking Twitter or Facebook.
- Books
This is the main reason I’m setting about this schedule really because it’s a massive feat to take on, but with some real time adjustments and focus I can get it done. I’ve been looking at some military style novels and it varies quite a bit but the length is averaging between 60-100,000 words which is a hell of a lot. Ultimately my novel will take as long as it takes to tell the story, but it’s good to have some sort of guideline because it inspired this schedule.
I’ve put 2hrs a day aside for the next 30 days in which I should be able to write a minimum of 2,000 words a day and a maximum of 4,000 words, so over the next 30 days I’ll be able to get my novel finished. The second novel ‘No Way Back’ is going to be written along side ‘Contact Right’ but I’ve not given myself a deadline till after the first novel is finished, but I am putting aside an hour every day to write this too.
Initially there was concern that both novels could cross contaminate, but even though the stories are similar in nature (both black ops super charged adrenaline novels) I know the stories inside out so I’m confident they won’t cross over.
Let’s re-cap for a second though, think about your day right now, how many hours do you spend writing for your site or your projects? 5-6hrs ever day? Could that be focused to increase your productivity? So far I’m up to 5hrs maximum every day.
Now the third book I’m putting together is ‘Motivated as Hell – The WorkBook’ which is going to be around 170 posts from this site which will be re-written and stitched together with added content, this because the content is largely already produced is taking on average an hour a day.
- Membership Boot Camp
The bootcamp is going to be launched very soon and will be a way of getting your site and business into gear by having me cracking the whip and working along side you to make sure you get your goals met and start achieving, a lot of very cool stuff included in this, but by and large the content and tools for this have already been produced.
There are some things need adding but this in total takes another hour a day.
So if you look back at the schedule 6hrs a day can allow you to write 6,000 words, but don’t worry I can almost sense the fear in some of your minds right now. That 6hrs doesn’t have to be done in one long go, you can break it down into three 2hr blocks or 6 1hr blocks, what ever suits your home/work life balance.
What I would say about breaking it into blocks of more manageable time periods is break it down in such a way that you keep each task together, once you get into your flow you don’t really want to be stopping and coming back to it.
Again 6,000 words a day may seem like a lot, but in most cases it would allow you to write a whole novel sized book a month, or an ebook every week or 5 guest posts a day. If you look at it in terms of this direction you could really start taking your website into a business and pushing things forward at a fantastic pace.
So there you have it, my plan and schedule to write 6,000 words or more a day, every day.
What does everyone think?
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James, yet another great plan from you to massacre this blogging gig! Great to see how you put plans into action.
.-= Mick Morris´s last blog ..Why I hate Tim Brownson! =-.
That’s the plan Mick, it’s a lot to do but I’m going for it
.-= theinfopreneur´s last blog ..8 Probloggers Answer The Ultimate Question =-.
As someone who spends his life writing, I suggest that you should aim for quality not quantity (as with most things).
I see freelance writers who, when asked to write, say, 3000 words, pad out their copy just to get the wordcount up – and it shows.
Far better to write as much as it required to convey your message – no more, no less.
So, one day, you may only write 1000 words, but they’re the most pertinent 1000 words you’ve ever written.
Cheers
Phil
Hi Phil,
Great to get some solid advice from a seasoned pro. I’ve not spent my life writing but I can relate to what you say. There are days when if I were to sit and write just because I really felt the site needed me to, the output would be rubbish. Other times I’ve got up in the middle of the night to write and it’s been poetry in motion.
Thanks Phil
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Give A Brick: Making the impossible, possible (but we’re gonna need your help) =-.
Yeah Phil absolutely right and I think I go over that in the post, this is kind of geared towards getting your writing done in a few different projects, content for site, ebooks, physical books, free reports etc etc.
Phil,
It’s interesting you should say this. Sometimes I write a post and look at the wordcount and it’s 346 (or whatever) and I think – “is that all?”. But if it’s all I have to say on the subject, what’s the point of making a meal out of it.
Too many bloggers (and writers I guess) make a big show of “I write 1500 word posts 3 times a week”, which sorts of sets an artifical benchmark.
However, most such posts are either self indulgent or poorly structured. I read fast on paper, but reading a post on my iPhone that involves a lot of scrolling is annoying.
Especially when the content can be summed up in a couple of para’s.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Video: customer service =-.
Great point Phil, and actually what I was going to comment on myself! Since you’ve (along with everyone else) already covered the quality over quantity issue I’ll just add that I’ve done it both ways.
What I’ve found while writing (not all my life, but approaching 8 years now conservatively) is that some days I’ll happily sit and fly through around 12,000 words. No exaggeration, it does happen. Sometimes they’re the best parts I’ve written, sometimes less so. I do notice that after those days I’ll not want to really write anything for the next week though… draining stuff if you charge off ahead like that.
Then you get the whole issue of looking back over what you’ve written and scoring out 3,000+ words because you changed your mind about where the story was going.
Or you get the other days where you struggle to write 50 words that make sense.
To boil it all down, I think overall it evens itself out so long as you stick to it long enough to finish it.
Phil,
I agree with you on this. I’m not a vastly experienced writer, more of a newbie blogger. Like Matthew says some days I struggle to write any great amount. There are times when I write something and when it’s finished I find myself asking, is that all there is? The truth is that’s all there is; on another day I may write twice as much with easy.
Regards
Paul
Ditto.
All of my comments from reading this post were already taken care of and not even half way down the page. I totally agree, content is better than wordcount. I always try to hit 300 words for a post but there are a couple that are shorter. I don’t want to ramble and fill my site with boring stuff. Sometimes I have sat down to write a short post and 1200 words later I am finished. it sounds like many people are just like me!
.-= Justin Matthews´s last blog ..Dreaming, what’s it all about? =-.
Yeah quality is key, just a way of breaking it up so that you can keep producing quality whilst in quantity
6000 a day would be a phenomenal achievement. Not so relevant to me at this stage, but it would be very interesting to follow this next month of yours as it may be very relevant to me in the future!
Question. Do you fit in much reading time in your schedule and do you plan to? I only ask because I find that if I’m not taking time out to sit away from the computer and read books, magazines, whatever, I tend to find inspiration running dry. For me creative juices flow most when I’ve got a constant stream of input.
.-= Mo “Mad Dog” Stoneskin´s last blog ..I always struggle to find a fifth element =-.
Hey Mo,
You know what the only stuff I read is online, I never read books or anything like that, partly because it drives me mad the amount the words and letters dance around the pages, but mainly because I don’t have time lol.
As I said most of my ideas come from experience and other stories so there already there in my head.
.-= theinfopreneur´s last blog ..OK Time To Get Into The Trenches ! =-.
So James, it looks like you’ve replaced one job with another!!!
At least this one you don’t need to leave your house for.
This is a phenomenal work rate and one to be applauded. I normally write my blog posts at 7am in draft form in my iPhone, then format and schedule in the evening.
Like you i’m in the process of writing an ‘e-book’ plus a couple of other projects, but too often I find myself doing ‘non productive’ stuff such as commenting or promoting, when the time should really be spent adding another chapter to the ebook.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Can you help Giveabrick.com? =-.
Hey Matthew,
Yeah I will be replacing one job with another but how do you ever put yourself in a position to work from home or pay the mortgage off without doing so? Is it even possible? Can you automate this kind of business really?
.-= theinfopreneur´s last blog ..OK Time To Get Into The Trenches ! =-.
Great article. It takes great effort and energy to write well on a consistent basis and churn out content. I work full-time and at different times a goal for myself to write 1000 words a day when I was working on in the book. I only had an hour or two each day to accomplish this and it really helped to narrow my focus.
I actually wrote a similar post on my blog titled “How can you write so much?” And I’d like to share the link if that’s okay with you:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1210_question-box-how-can-you-write-so-much/
.-= Nick Stewart´s last blog ..SEO News: Google incorporating site speed in search rankings =-.
Hey cool Nick off to check it out now, out of interest was it a physical book you wrote?
.-= theinfopreneur´s last blog ..8 Probloggers Answer The Ultimate Question =-.
I haven’t written a physical book yet but I would like to.
I mostly use Dragon speak to write short how-to e-books related to traffic generation. I’ve also written a few hundred articles on my blog with it and responded to thousands of comments.
In fact I’m using it to write this comment.
.-= Nick Stewart´s last blog ..SEO News: Google incorporating site speed in search rankings =-.
Nick that’s awesome, I need to look into it, does it need much editing?
Sounds like an insane schedule, James. But it seems perfect for you since you seem to know what you’re writing and you like it get it all out.
Looking forward to your content.
.-= Moon Hussain´s last blog ..Fun Friday Round-Up: Delicious Blog Chowder! =-.
Me too Moon, Me too!
A lot of points have already been covered here in the comments, so I won’t repeat them. But I will say two words:
Burn Out!
You’re pushing really fast and really hard and I fear that this may lead to burn out. Do you think you could keep this frantic pace up for 6 months? One year? Two? Just curious. I’d hate to see you lose steam when you realize that this is probably not an achievable task, or other things come up.
P.S. I was for some reason thinking this post would be 6000 words long… almost didn’t read it. Had to scroll down first. lol
Ha ha glad you did read it brother!
Yeah it’s funny the burn out question hasn’t been mentioned on this site for a few months but was spoken about a lot in the first month or two because of the amount of content that gets published here and on guest posts etc.
Erm…. burn out, tricky one really because I focus the way I work to stop that type of thing happening. I’ve actually got a post on it coming out tomorrow.
What do I think? Well, you know that I think you are a machine! It still amazes me how much energy and passion you have, James.
Now that you are on vacation, I can only imagine how prolific your output will be.
But, please remember to turn off the computer sometime and spend some quality time with your wife and son during your vacation days. It can’t always be about the site. Besides, we’re not going anywhere
Karen
.-= Karen´s last blog ..The Number One Shortcut To Be Successful In Life =-.
Ha ha yeah it’s absolutely allowed me more time to push harder. Don’t worry about spending quality time with the family it’s absolutely in the fore front of my mind and is being done.
Actually went on the hills then for a pub lunch and back to the trampoline in the garden today, now back writing! lol
When you break down your schedule like that and show the numbers broken down as well, it show just how much you can really accomplish now and over a period of time.
Awesome stuff!
.-= Eric´s last blog ..My Best Blogging Tip =-.
yeah brother, breaking it down is such a simpler way of attacking it. like planning a military strike, looking at a countrys weapons and military forces it looks difficult, but take out strategic points first then other little battles and it gets done a lot easier
Clearly you have a lot in your head just waiting to come out. Much of the time I spend is distilling vague thoughts into something that I can fashion into a post. The writing goes faster but then it changes, usually for the better, when I rewrite or at least revise. Your brain must work different from mine.
.-= Ralph´s last blog ..Wi-fi Coffee Shop workout =-.
I don’t actually have 2 hours per day to write articles and content, I do most of my blogging for the week on Sunday’s and write 10-12 articles on a Sunday to queue for my blogs for the week. Writing the articles is easy for me, I type 95 words per minute and can churn out a 500-700 word post in about 5 minutes if I get into a groove.
What really consumes time for me is when I want to do screencasts, video recording. I can easily lose about 2-3 hours converting a video and editing it to put on YouTube for a single post. This is where it slows down my productivity, but I hope the value of doing video presentations/screencasts makes up for lack of pure written articles.
Also finding images, resizing and embedding into posts takes me almost as much time as writing the articles. I think there are two models of producing content, either dedicate a big block of time once or twice a week for content creation, or do a little bit each night. I would prefer to write more content in advance so I can spend the one hour or so each night I have to responding to comments, visiting other blogs…etc.
There just isn’t enough hours in the day anymore my friend.
It took me about 120 seconds to write this comment which is as long if not longer than some posts I have done
.-= Dragon Blogger´s last blog ..DragonBlogger is now Listed on BuySellAds =-.
Andale James!
Sharing your “time chunking” technique is clearly creating value for the rest of us, even if for simple comparative reasons. I am juuuuust about overwhelmed however, with the many comments that are showcasing the amount of words you all crank out. Putting the obvious personal differences in speed and content aside, how do you handle the EDITING portion of this task?
Admittedly, I’m new to posting my thoughts as rapidly as they stream from my head – I’m a ‘printed’ author in newspapers, mags & books and am finding HUGE challenge in the fact that I’ve trained myself to spend more time editing my material that actually writing it. This mentality truly slows the blogging process. ARGH!
How do you suggest I get over it and pound out more content with less perfection? Does anyone really discount the intelligence of good content that bears a few grammatical or spelling blunders?
Hey Sandy, well I’m serverly dyslexic so if spell check doesn’t pick it up then it gets published, which means there are a hell of a lot of grammar mistakes, but it’s how I speak naturally so I think in that respect the site gets away with it and makes it slightly more personal
I saw a site designed to motivate writers. They called it the Book in a Week Club with the motto BIC HOK TAM. “Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly,” You join and report in daily on your progress. http://www.book-in-a-week.com/
.-= JadeDragon@innovativepassiveincome´s last blog ..Should You Work 9 to 5 For Someone Else or For Yourself Online? =-.
Hey Jade, yeah I checked it out. Not something I’m going to get involved in though, too much chat and not enough action for me lol
Luckily I don’t want to write any real books! If I had to spend 6hrs a day writing I think I would go crazy! LOL
.-= Keith´s last blog ..Blog Tip: Free E-Book Released =-.
Ha ha off to check out your new book
I am reading the Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz and you have definitely taken the philosophy and begun to live it.
I think it’s hard to post 3 times a week however I now realize that’s just an excuse. I know I have at least 3 science fiction novels in me and have always said there is no time.
I know after reading this inspirational post I am going to get my act together.
Great post great site great leadership.
Andrew Peel
.-= Andrew Peel´s last blog ..The best way to get leads is PPC – try telling Google! =-.
I tend to produce two or three articles and then run out of steam. I am conscious of the need to try and keep them interesting and unique and therefore spend quite a lot of time on each blog post. Boot camp sounds like it may be perfect for me.
I tend to produce two or three articles and then run out of steam. I am conscious of the need to try and keep them interesting and unique and therefore spend quite a lot of time on each blog post. Boot camp sounds like it may be perfect for me.
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It takes lots of time and dedication to write on Consistent basis, Thumbs up for your article
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