Time Management for Article Writing - 5 Tips That Work

I've been writing a lot this year, mostly for my full time day job. Time management is essential to produce high quality content in a timely manner. Therefore a time management process is equally essential. I just finished a training manual with 17 chapters and some 39 thousand words. This project took two weeks to finish besides other projects and responsibilities. It dawned on me that the method I use to write manuals may be just what some of you need to write your articles more quickly. You can use any word processing, or slide deck program to organize your process.

I call this process my outline to output work flow. This is a 5 step process that can be used as a template to use over and over again. If you are publishing online and want to rank your article with search engines, make sure to target specific key words that readers are looking for.

The process goes like this:

1. Plan Ahead - Keep a topic journal just for your article writing. Any time you think of a topic write it down. some people like paper journals or notebooks. Others prefer electronic tools like Evernote or Springpad. The really important thing is that you have access to your ideas at any time. The other tips will be helpful on their own but this is really the most important step to me. There are so many times when I am working on a project and an idea for and article comes to mind. Or, I may realize that just a portion of a manual or piece of training content would make a great article. I use Evernote on my iPad or smart phone to capture ideas and subject matter for my writing. However you decide to capture your ideas it needs to be immediate so that your ideas don't disappear before you have a chance to develop them. I think you will find that this method will generate more topics than you will be able to keep up with.


2. Turn Your Ideas Into Outlines - It is so much easier to organize your thoughts into an outline format. I actually got this idea from Pat Flynn from The Smart Passive Income Blog. He explains on his blog how he writes his e-books by first creating an outline from a topic he wants to write about. I didn't realize that's what I've been doing for along time when I write training material. I like to use PowerPoint to create my outline because it makes it easy to use bullet points and numbering for my outlines.


3. Expand the Points From Your Outline - Once you have your main points arranged into the bullet points of an outline, it becomes simple to turn those points into sentences and paragraphs. Research your topic and take unique notes from your source material. Rearrange your notes to create interesting content. Remember to use key words that those looking for your topic will naturally use in their searches. If you find a source that inspires you, use quotes to add credibility to your own opinions. If your publisher allows it, link to these sources for great outgoing links.


4. Turn Your Outline Into An Article - This point is a great time management tip. All you need to do is turn your your outline bullet points into article headings or numbers tips that your readers can easily follow. How to articles that teach an object lesson are very valuable and will build your audience quickly.


5. Proof it and Read it Aloud - Most article submission sites have good quality standards in place to assure original content that readers will enjoy. Make sure to save time by proofing your work thoroughly. One of the most important time management principles is to remove actions that waste time. I have found that reading my work aloud helps me catch mistakes that I would otherwise miss. Another great way to proof your articles is to have someone act as editor.

I hope you have found this article helpful. I'm sure if you follow these simple tips your writing productivity will improve. Always partner with a quality article publisher like EzineArticles.

After you try these tips let our readers know how they worked. Come back and leave a comment with your suggestions for improvements.

For the Love of Words: Introducing Articles

Good gracious, the day has come for a deep spooky eyed, surgical strike at the depth of writing an article. Is it easy as some people make it or difficult like learning Italian over a week. It is time for me to take a little mystery out of article development and break it down into sections. Article writing is a learned skill and it must be polished over the course of the river that we know as time. Article writers will vary on their ability and style to developing the core elements to their topics. Is there a wrong way?

Article writing is an art that expands into other writing arenas. Most article writers may cover up the truth of the matter, that constantly developing unique articles is not a strain to the old muse. They would be further from the truth or less experienced in denying the fact that article writing is a ghost that plagues the creative soul sphere in all of us. Article writers that say it is an easy task to do are either using spinning software or outsourcing to a foreign team.

Can article writing be easier if you are prepared? Yes, like most skills in life that you have or are acquiring, your particular knowledge will help develop and nourish the infant. We can find mentors that can harbor the passions within us to overcome the difficulties of developing the content that we so desire for our websites and business use. Once we overcome the initial fear or destructive elements in our path to developing a successful article, we can embrace the warm cup of coffee and tea and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

Wait! Sit back and contemplate on the last time you had to write an article describing a particular endeavor in business marketing, product overview or creative lay into the unknown with a high-profile blog post of cross-corporate culture vs. social media downgrades of the small business growth on the mainstream scene. If you are a writer or writing firm like me, then it is almost a constant stress of developing the perfect balance of information and tone.

Is article writing a state of mind? To some degree, it is and to some degree, it is not. If you are constantly developing dozens of articles than yes it is, but the creative aspect is keeping you sane. If you only develop a few articles a month, then the answer is no. The mind is not always ready to find, search and trash information as you write the article for yourself or the client that is overseas. The cold truth of article writing lies within the writer itself and rather if they can push the envelope to challenge themselves in keeping in step with truth and de facto information.

If Editing Takes You Longer Than Writing Perhaps It's Time to Readjust Your Strategy?

Not long ago, I was talking to a fellow writer and they noted that their toughest job was editing. Well, as a very prolific online article writer I completely concur. In fact, when I'm using speech recognition software I can put out an article, one about every 5 minutes, especially if it is a topic that I'm very fluent in and have a lot of experience. However, the editing takes me at least that long or longer. If I do a quick read through and catch the obvious errors, I can do that with a 400 word article in about 4 to 5 minutes.

However, if I want to ensure it is perfect, that means I need to go and work on the grammar, change some wording, and next thing I know I'm into that article for 30 minutes. You see, what would have been very quick, is now taking a tremendous amount of time. My acquaintance noted that; "if your editing is taking you longer than the actual writing, then perhaps it's time that you readjust your strategy." Now then, if I'm not using speech recognition software and I am busy typing away, I will make fewer mistakes, and therefore spend less time on the "once-through editing" that is to say a simple read through catching the most obvious mistakes.

The challenge is editing your own work right after you've just done it. It's very easy to read right through something that you wrote, because you seem to be talking to yourself inside your head as you're reading it, and since you already know what it says, you read right through your own mistakes. However, if you put your writing down, and come back to it later, any blatant mistake will jump right out at you. Just as if you were reading someone else's work, you will find mistakes that they missed while rereading it.

Now then, taking my acquaintance's advice it surely makes sense to write perhaps 10 articles, and then come back and edit those 10, and then start on a new batch. This will increase your productivity, and prevent you from spending so much time editing without fixing all the mistakes. You will basically become a secondary person editing your own work, because it will no longer be fresh in your mind. It may take you a little longer to read through it, but you will catch all the mistakes, or at least 99% of them, and that's the important thing with online article writing. Please consider all this and think on it.

Time Management With Writing

It is important in our busy lives to schedule time in our day to write. Our blogs are a gateway for our visitors to come and interact with us on a daily or weekly basis. Time management for our writing is very important, some of us are retailers, service providers, suppliers, manufacturers or combination of industries. Why should use time management techniques for our writing exercises?

Our writing habits often take a back seat, when it comes to handling business operations. It suffers throughout the day, unless we have a day off to focus on catching up on our blogs, articles and editing. Most of us may take the completely off and relax with the family or hangout at a movie or bar. Therefore, our writing goes back on the back burner again; yet we know we need to develop our blogs and other material. Sometimes our time management skills may need a fine adjustment.

Some of us are workaholics and use every second of the day to accomplish something. Talk about premature burnout! We tend to push the limits for a variety of reasons and our writing may suffer from overzealous ambitions to "get things done". I have been this way, especially providing services for my friends but I have learned to relax and unwind. There is nothing wrong with taking a 30-minute break between projects. This style has helped me relax before doing any personal writing for my website or for a creative episode.

Is there a fine balance of managing business and writing? Yes and it can be a difficult journey at first, but once a routine is established, it becomes easier. Especially for writing blogs, articles, business proposals, editing, graphical work, SEO related material. Here are a few ideas to help build a routine:

- Set a time in the morning, afternoon, evening to write

- 1-2 hours every day to write

- Wait for 30 minutes to Edit

- Drop any issue from the day and focus

- Focus on research and developing the topic

- Develop a sound structure > Topic, supporting info.

- Experiment with point of view

- Save your work and come back tomorrow

It will take time to build up endurance for lengthy writing and distractions are always there to throw us off target. It is not your fault; everyone gets dazed by something else but try to focus on the subject and type. Editing takes place after the first draft, take some time to unwind and then come back to editing the content matter. A fresh mind will uncover errors faster than an overworked soul.

Are You More Productive With Your Article Writing During Daylight Savings Time?

The other day, I was talking to a fellow writer who happened to be working on her laptop at Starbucks. She looked intensively busy, for about 30 minutes straight, typing away. Then, she took a sip of her coffee, sat back and started gazing around the room. I told her I thought she might be working too hard. She laughed. She noted to me that she was a writer and was working on finishing up on a deadline. I explained to her that I was also a writer, and also self-employed, although in semi-retirement.

She asked me a very interesting question; "since we are now in daylight savings time, your productivity should increase, and you will have an hour extra per day to get work done." I thought this was funny, because quite frankly my production rate is fine, and I have something like 28,200 articles under my belt. Nevertheless, this was a rather intriguing line of conversation, and I wished to pursue it in case I might write an article about it; in fact, this is the article I wrote based on that conversation.

She explained to me that many creative writer types do their best work at night. When the sun goes down, things get quieter without all the distractions of the day. Daylight savings time means there's an extra hour of darkness during the nighttime hours when writers can be the most productive. This theory of hers made a lot of sense, and she said it was working for her, and always had. She noted that during the summertime and in the summer months she was not able to put out the volume she needed to, in order to really make ends meet.

Perhaps she is a starving writer, although she didn't say. I know for a fact that there are quite a few of those, and I guess it goes with the territory as the newspaper industry is cutting reporters, and there are more and more people trying to do freelance competing against each other. This drives the price down because of supply and demand; it's basically economics 101 you might say.

Interestingly enough, I did note that I was able to produce more content having more hours without daylight distraction. Along with this theory it would make sense that writers can produce more through the months of November, December, and January when there are the fewest hours of light because the days are shorter. That should work just fine unless you are working on solar electricity, because you wouldn't have enough time to charge the batteries to run your laptop to do the writing. Oh well, nothing in life is perfect.