How is your content creation routine going? Are you feeling overwhelmed or are you kicking ass? There’s no wrong answer here!
As someone who has spent most of my time waiting for that mystical motivation to strike, I think I’m starting to learn the hard truth that motivation doesn’t exist.
Which is why I used the dreaded “routine” word. Routine feels childish in a way—something you have to do during your schooling. Wake up, school, homework, bed (and pretend that you’re not doing anything else outside of that like surfing the World Wide Web). But the lame reality is that it works a treat for adults too.
- Why routines and content creation go hand in hand
- Systemise your workflow
- Schedule time for action
- Putting your content routine together
Why routines and content creation go hand in hand
Routines are what we want our new habits to turn into. Something that happens on autopilot rather than being a conscious, tedious effort.
On my tumultuous journey of realising that routine is, indeed, important, I came across a video from someone explaining how crucial routines are for them to reduce decision fatigue. And that pretty much redefined my own interpretation of them.
They’re not there to make you feel bad that you’re not sticking to them, they’re there to help you where you need it most: Taking care of yourself. Routines can be as simple as making sure you eat breakfast every morning and showering every night before bed.
It doesn’t need to follow those fake videos of tech bajillionaires that no one has heard of who wake up at 5AM to feast on the blood of innocents. Routines are what work for you specifically. And no one else can tell you how to make your own routine (unfortunately). Although I would advise against feasting on the blood of innocents.
So, however you may be feeling about routines and having one specifically for content creation, there is a way to save time and reduce your workload.
Systemise your workflow
Write that shit down! So many times we do something and think we’re great at it and will never need to learn something new ever again (oh sweet summer child), but inevitably there comes a time when our brains are too full and the process that seemed so easy is as tedious and impossible as pushing wet string. Especially when you feel like you are that wet string.
You don’t necessarily have to create all out SOPs and video walkthroughs of everything you do (unless you’d like to, I’m all about a good spreadsheet). But the next time you’re doing a task you do regularly—at least monthly—have a separate doc open and pop bullet points down as you go through the motions. Don’t think about how it looks, don’t edit as you go, just put down what you’re doing, hit enter, and then input the next action, etc.
💎 Top Tip: Include how you repurpose your content (existing and new) in your workflow. If you need some more inspiration on how to include content repurposing in your content creation workflow, I’ve got a few articles that go more in depth here.
Once you’re finished with the task, you can go back and edit or finesse how it reads, but this gives you an EXCELLENT starting point for the next time you need to do that thing. Especially with content creation where each step likely needs to link to some obscure document you created 3 years ago or a project management tool that still has some relevant notes that you haven’t yet moved across to a new tool you’re trialling.
Rather than sorting through your bookmarks or tracking down links in your emails, hyperlink all references to external tools, folders, websites, etc. so when you’re next creating content you can just follow each bullet point and have all you need to complete the task right there with you.
Some ideas of what you could link to include:
- Canva templates
- Google Doc templates or outlines
- A Google Drive folder with ready-to-use branding assets
- Tools you use like Tiny PNG or Ahrefs
Keep refining and tweaking your system list each time you do the task to make it better and better rather than trying to do all your SOPs at once because you’ll likely miss a step when you’re too far removed from the task itself.
Schedule time for action
It’s all well and good having a fancy checklist to follow and feel chuffed about having your workflows all neatly organised, but you can’t keep improving your workflow if you don’t take action on them regularly.
A lot of “ideal” routines are centred around mornings, but there’s nothing wrong with feeling inspired in the evenings and taking action then. But whatever time of day or day of the week you decide, add it to your schedule, calendar, to do list—whatever you use.
It’s easy to move things to the mystical “tomorrow” when it’s not prioritised as a non-negotiable activity in your schedule.
✍️ Extra Reading: Calendar management for habit growth
By regularly testing out different ways to take action, you’ll find a way that works for you and makes it easier to stick to your routine.
Keep in mind that the schedule you find that works for you now might not work for you in a couple months time. That’s perfectly okay and expected. Rather than trying to force yourself to stick to this schedule that worked previously, start your take-action experiment again.
Putting your content routine together
To recap (and help you take action) here are the 3 steps to implement your content creation routine:
- Rinse and repeat
- Document the process (and refine over time)
- Schedule time to ACTION your process
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