Wouldn’t it be nice if you could consistently complete writing a blog in one or two hours? When I first started blogging in steemit about 41 days ago, it used to take me more than 5 hours to write a post.
Yes! More than 5 hours to write ONE post!! The longest time I took to write one post was almost 3 days! Crazy right? I became confused when I saw other fellow steemians post 3 contents in a day. Like, how do they do that??
Basically, there is no exact formula for how to write a blog post or precisely how long it should take to complete one blog post. This is because; different people have different styles of how they want to produce and complete a content for their blog.
However, wouldn’t it be a bonus if you could learn to work more efficiently? If only you could complete writing a blog in shorter time, like one or two hours, you will have more time to read other steemians’ posts and communicate with them and build connection with them.
One of the most interesting topics (for me personally) that has been covered during our Steemit Masterclass in KK is the “Mav’s 25-25-25 Method”. In this topic, it emphasized the importance of applying time/priority management as well as single-tasking while producing your blog post.
As mentioned earlier, I spent more than 5 hours to complete one blog post. While writing for one post, I had more than 5 tabs open and they were all for my research. At the same time, I had my Microsoft Words open, started to write, editing and formatting my content all at one time.
I thought by multitasking, I can complete my blog post faster but unfortunately I was wrong!
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According to the latest research studies, it is impossible for our brains to handle more than one task at a time. The more multitasking work you’re doing, the less likely you are to be as productive as possible.
In Mav’s 25-25-25 Method,
@maverickfoo suggested that you should practice Single-Tasking. That means, you should do one activity at a time with as few distractions as possible. Here’s how you should apply the method when creating your blog post:
| RESEARCH | 25 Minutes |
|---|
| BREAK/REST | 5 Minutes |
| WRITE | 25 Minutes |
| BREAK/REST | 5 Minutes |
| EDIT/FORMAT | 25 Minutes |
You are advised to take 5 minutes break in between each task because the common estimates of attention span of adult are range between 10 to 20 minutes. Taking a break in between helps you to get out of boredom, refocus and optimize productivity.
MAV'S 25-25-25 METHOD
So, when you start to draft your blog post, for the 1st 25 minutes, just focus on doing research. In this case, you can start with:
Identifying your interest: start asking yourself a series of questions. For eg; what are the things that you do during the weekends? Which country do you love to travel to? And come up with at least 10 areas of interest and come up with at least 10 topics each area.
Identify the purpose of writing the post: why should your readers read this post? What are you trying to achieve from writing this post.
Tips: Check out these web pages to get some ideas of what questions are people asking about your topics and what topics are trending at the moment. This will help you to create content that people need out of your topics.
www.answerthepublic.com
www.epictions.com/epicbeat
After taking your 5 minutes break, quickly get back to your desktop and start writing. In this phase, the key to writing is to keep writing and not to think. You have already done all your researches earlier on and now it’s time to put all of them into a complete story.
We all know that the most important part of any blog post is the title. Without a compelling title, your reader won’t even want to click on your blog post. Therefore, it is important to spend a little bit of your time working on your title. You can use the following web page:
www.coschedule.com/headline-analyzer
Just type your desired title and it will analyse whether your title can drive traffics to your page or whether your reader will share your post.
The first paragraph of your blog post is equally important. It may be your only chance to capture your reader’s eyes and attention. Without an introduction, your reader will be confused and feeling disoriented and ended up leaving your page without reading your post.
One way to practice your focus on writing is through this website:
www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com
This app is designed to shut down your inner editor and get you into a state of flow. If you stop typing for more than five seconds, all progress will be lost. After typing without interruption for the length of your session, you'll be able to save your work.
Once your 25 minutes of writing is up, go for a 5 minutes break.
Before submitting your post, it is important to proofread, check on the spelling and grammar, and organize your paragraphs. You can also add necessary tables or photos to make your blog post more interesting and easy to read. Editing is not just the icing on the cake; it is an essential part of the writing process.
Here’s some websites that you can use to do your editing and formatting:
grammarly
www.grammarly.com
typora
www.typora.io
canva
www.canva.com
Last but not least, before you post your content, copy all your content to the following webpage;
www.webpagefx.com/tools/read-able/
The Readability Test Tool provides a quick and easy way to test the readability of your work. It is the most flexible readability software for assessing readability formulas.
After completing all the three tasks (Research, Writing & Editing + Formatting). Your content is now ready to be submitted. Oh ya! Don't forget the Tags.. Make sure you choose relevant tags to your post. By tagging correctly, it will help your post to reach to your targeted readers.
Thank you for taking your time to read this post. I hope it will give guidelines for us, especially the new steemians on how to prioritize our task and manage our time accordingly. While I am still struggling to produce one blog post within 2 hours time frame, I have confidence that I am able to do it soon.. well people say, practice makes progress! So keep practicing and keep on posting!
By the way, feel free to read my previous posts on what I've learned from Steemit Masterclass by clicking the links below:
Till then...
Xoxo,
@connie1018
Good share Connie 👍
Thank you @davidngtv!
Wow...its a good refresher course @connie1018. It still took me almost 5 hours to write a post. Hehehe. Hope I can get it down to 3 hours. Hehehe
Haha.. you are not alone @papanog. But its okay.. with more practice, I believe we can get it down to 2 hours.. Never give up!
Same here! Im practising by following the 5 minute freewrite. Feel free to join. I write for 5 minutes with a timewatch. Once done all I did was just edit my grammar & spelling than I'm done. My way to exercise my daily writing. 😄
Good for you @kulasago.. keep it up!
wow..good write up @connie1018
Thank you @gnaa80780912.. i hope u find this post helpful 😉
Nice one connie. I really need a laptop to posting. Lol. Phone really super hard to do editing.
Thank you @bboyady! I feel you. I used to write and post using my phone and I thought it was easy. I started writing using my laptop during our masterclass and i tell you, it was much more easier!!! Hahaha.. now, go get a laptop! Lols..
Ya, working hard for the laptop now.
Thanks @connie1018 for sharing. Really needed these kind of tips and recommnded websites to improve on writing skills and focus on specific tasks instead of multi tasking 😁
Most welcome @annamocha. Glad to help.. together we improve our writing skills!
very well written given that now is still in Chinese New year Mood. Can help it but to follow you and upvote your post
Well done, keep it up
Haha.. thank you so much Sir!
That's a pretty detailed writeup :) helps us to remember what we learned better through re-writing the knowledge, isn't it? :) @connie1018
You are right @deborism.. thanks for taking ur time to read my post..
Great tips. Even an older Steemian like me benefits from this post. Thanks!
Thank you @coloringiship! Thank you for taking your time to read on my post and glad that it benefited all new and senior steemians..