Apr 5, 2021
How To Create Content Consistently as a Business Owner
It has nothing to do with motivation
As business owners in the digital space, one of the best ways to connect with our audience, our community, and our potential clients is through the art of content creation. However, most content creators face a rather huge stumbling block when it comes to creating content: Consistency.
They know that consistent content will help them; it will serve their readers, it will improve visibility for their work, and strengthen their writing muscle. But they lack the drive, motivation, or energy to create content on a regular rhythm.
But, here’s the thing. Consistency has nothing to do with willpower, strength, or inner motivation. As someone who creates content every single day (not all of it is necessarily published online), here are three important tips that I recommend which will guarantee that you create content without missing a beat.
Put Creation Time on the Calendar
Instead of waiting for motivation to write, how about trying this? Write at the same time every day.
Mornings work the best for me because it’s when my writing muscle is at peak performance after a well-rested night’s sleep. If I waited to write until later in the day, I’d put it off.
That doesn’t mean you have to write every morning. Find the circadian rhythm and the writing routine that works best for you, but mark it off on the calendar and guard it with ferocity.
The beauty is that it doesn’t have to be for a very long time either. Most people imagine that writing is an elaborate ritual that needs 2 to 3 hours to generate anything of value. You just need to write for 10 or 20 minutes a day.
For instance, a lot of writers in my circle are currently taking up this challenge: Write 21 in 21.
If a longer time frame suits you, go ahead and schedule a 50-minute writing session on Focusmate. This will help you show up, irrespective of how you feel and you’d find that writing flows naturally.
Don’t Worry About It Being Perfect
Srinivas Rao talks about how he ended up landing a 2-book deal, wrote 100’s of articles, and finished a 45,000 manuscript in 6 months by just following one rule.
He wrote 1000 words a day, every single day.
But the more important thing to remember is the fact that he didn’t worry about it being perfect. He just wrote it all out, every day. Even the most prolific writers and bestselling authors do not have the ability to create only high-quality content day after day.
Some of what you create won’t be great. It won’t hit the mark and it won’t convey what you want to say.
Guess what. That’s okay!
When you work on something day in and day out, you forego the idea of perfection and embrace the idea of showing up instead. Whether that’s a workout routine or a writing rhythm, the same rules apply.
And I always remember two of my favorite quotes, when I don’t feel like writing:
“Perfection is the enemy of progress.”~Winston Churchill
“Done is better than perfect.”~Sheryl Sandberg
Create More Than You Consume
Now, this is a tip that I started following a little over a year ago and two great outcomes manifested, as a result of it.
I started time blocking two separate slots of the day for two different tasks: Content creation and content consumption.
When we try to marry creation and consumption, we are tapping into two different sides of our brain at the same time and this conflict causes us to do neither task effectively. I also ensured that my ratio of consumption was lower than my ratio of creation.
Doug Neill explains why we should create more than we consume in this 7-minute video.
I didn’t hang around to see what people thought about a piece of writing that I’d published. After writing the content, I’d move on to other creative tasks. This helped release me from the weight of expectations that comes from social media validation.
The outcomes that happened were as follows:
- I could train my brain to focus on one thing at a time and create more consistently
- I could bring the practice of joyful productivity into the art of creation, a concept that my own coach George Kao practices to perfection
Main Takeaway
What these 3 tips help with is the idea that content creation is not a behemoth to be feared, but a gentle giant to be embraced. Creation is a wonderful, fulfilling process and there’s a bonus effect that happens when we create consistently.
We begin to remind ourselves of the value of the work that we do and the impact that it has on anyone that comes into contact with it.
So, are you ready to start creating content consistently? It all starts with just 10 minutes in your day.
Start creating.
