Get back into a writing routine + publishing schedule
Want to get back into a regular writing routine? Today’s post is for you!
First, full disclosure: I’ll be taking my own advice here, particularly the tip about committing to a realistic, sustainable pace.
I’ve been publishing this newsletter every two weeks since 2016, with very few gaps. For years (nearly a decade!) I took pride in that consistency. No matter what was going on, I showed up and put something out the door, meeting my personal deadlines over and over again.
Until this year, when I just… couldn’t do it anymore.
The past year and a half has been personally challenging and required me to dig deep on so many levels, I’ve had to get picky about where and how I push myself. That means my intellectual juice has been reserved for my clients, and I’ve funnelled my energy towards things that restore me. I suppose when it comes to newsletter writing, I’ve simply needed a break.
That’s not to say I haven’t been writing. I’ve returned to poetry, and even joined a local poetry collective that is inspiring me and helping me grow as a writer. Writing in this purely creative way has felt deeply restorative, and fun!
I’m working on some big personal goals, so for the remaining months of this year, my capacity will remain a bit lower than normal. So, for now, this newsletter is shifting to a monthly schedule rather than every 2 weeks.
For anyone in a similar boat: Don’t be afraid to adjust your pace.
Something I’ve learned over the years, with both writing and life, is that you can still make progress as long as you’re taking even the tiniest steps forward.
If, like me, you’ve fallen off schedule with your writing, or you’re finding you’ve overcommitted — or maybe you’re waiting to get started in the first place — don’t be afraid to adjust your pace.
Make the commitment simpler and smaller if you need to.
You don’t have to write every single day, or even every week. It doesn’t have to be epic. It doesn’t have to be perfect. (It won’t be.) If you keep writing, in some shape or form, the words still add up.
(More about this in tip #2.)
With that in mind, here are some tips I compiled last year about getting back into a regular writing routine.
I think these are pretty solid, so sharing them with you again if you need the reminder.
**Get back into a writing routine: 5 Tips**
#1 Put yourself on the hook.
It’s nice to imagine doing a bunch of writing ahead of time, getting it all nice and polished, and then sending it out in a steady stream, all according to plan — and while this can definitely work for some projects, it tends not to work so well for ongoing communications, especially if the process is relatively new to you.
Most of the time, I believe the desire to pre-plan is in fact, a desire to dodge the discomfort of committing to the work, and the inherent vulnerability in that process.
So, my first piece of advice when it comes to establishing a routine for yourself is to put yourself on the hook in some way.
This might mean starting your own email newsletter or subscription-based communication, or it might mean teaming up with a friend or two to agree to share your work at appointed times.
Whatever you choose, tell the other people involved (whether they’re subscribers or accountability buddies) what you are going to do. Make sure they know what to expect from you. Then you’ll be far more likely to follow through.
#2 Commit to a realistic, sustainable pace
With all that said, while committing is important, it’s also wise to choose a reasonable pace for writing and publishing.
I’ve found that a lot of people — even great leaders who’ve succeeded at other massive goals — struggle to write and publish consistently.
Despite their good intentions, they find themselves unable to keep up the commitment they’ve made. A weekly e-newsletter turns into one every month... or three. A monthly newsletter turns into an apology for not writing regularly. Or a daily email turns into... radio silence.
It’s completely understandable. Writing can be challenging, and time consuming. And it’s not just the writing so much as it is the other stuff: Planning and thinking. Turning a first draft into a final draft. Formatting. Design. Marketing. And so on.
What’s more, it can be easy to exhaust your initial ideas. The more regularly you write, of course, the more frequently you need to come up with new content.
So while I encourage you to commit to something, make sure it’s something you can stick with.
A good rule of thumb here: Think about a cadence that’s probably sustainable… and then lower it. If you think you could write a newsletter every week, start with every two weeks. If you want to write every single day, maybe shoot for 5 days a week. There’s nothing wrong with monthly or even quarterly, either. Even if the pace is slower than you’d like, it still adds up.
#3 Book time for writing… when you are likely to actually WANT to write.
If it isn’t scheduled, it’s probably unlikely to happen.
While we might think of writing as something that happens when great flashes of insight are struck upon us from the writing gods, the truth is, writing is something you do. Not something that happens to you. And that means you need to make time for it.
(For all my fitness pros, I think you’ll get this: waiting to be inspired to write is like waiting to be motivated to go to the gym. It just doesn’t work that way.)
Having said that, you can help yourself out by choosing a time when you are least more likely to feel “more inspired.”
If your time is extremely limited and you know you’ll only have 30 minutes between meetings at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday, cool — I’ll take it. But you’ll likely get better results (and be less likely to bail on yourself… or spend your allocated time agonizing over what to write) if you can do it at a time when you typically feel more creative, or at least less bogged down by other stuff.
For many people, that’s the morning — but go with whatever works for you, your schedule, and your own brain.
#4 Stockpile ideas like a squirrel stockpiles nuts
You know how squirrels get extra, well squirrelly this time of year? They rush around trying to bury everything they can possibly get their little squirrel paws on so they’ll have enough food to get them through winter. (I even caught a squirrel stealing my neighbor’s patio lightbulbs and burying them in my flower pots!)
Writing and idea generation are in fact, two separate activities. If you haven’t thought about what to write about until you sit down to write, there’s a good chance you’ll be left staring at the blank page for a while.
That’s why I encourage making story stockpiling a habit. Be on the lookout for story ideas as you go about your day, and make a quick note of them when they arrive. I recommend putting them in one place: for my clients this is often via a private Slack channel where they “brian dump” ideas as they come in. Later, we organize and track them in a spreadsheet. But you can do this in any way that works for you — in an app on your phone, on a stack of Post-its, or through voice memos if you prefer to talk rather than write.
#5 For a super quick jumpstart, do a 5 minute brainstorm.
Quick, grab a sheet of paper or open a document or notes app in your phone.
Without thinking too much about it, list any or all topics you might want to write about now or at some point in the future.
Don’t overthink this — you can sort them out later and pick some, if any, to write about. If you toss them all out, that’s fine too. Just capture any ideas that come to you, no matter how random or silly.
The very act of starting to think about story ideas will help your brain start to get into “story collection mode”, so you can keep your eyes peeled for future ideas whenever and wherever they pop up.
Remember, if you want help with any of this, I’m here for you.
Need some accountability and support to write regularly? Want to take your thought leadership up a notch? Reach out. I’m always happy to explore how and if I can help.