less steaks, more tapas

Gee willikers, it’s been a while since blog posts.

Just why is that? Are they so hard to write? I’d like to be more prolific, why am I not?

Previous posts have taken me hours to put together. Most are lovingly drafted, written, re-written, sprinkled tenderly with images, polished, cuddled, handed a packed lunch and then released into the wild. Indulging my perfectionist streak is time consuming to say the least.

Blogging in this way seems like a chore to me and this is why I’m not motivated to do it.

I’m going to try something different to see if I can improve my output.

Timeboxing

I use timeboxing all of the time in my work life. I use it to avoid wasting time on a task that does not need to be spent. I use it to force myself to review where I’m at with the current task and whether or not I can stop.

I do this in order not to waste the parts of my time paid for by a client, I should also be worrying about the parts that are left to me. This requires bopping my inner perfectionist with the hammer of pragmatism from time to time.

I want a publishable blog post in one hour. I use pomodoro technique so it’s roughly equivalent to two of them, each being about twenty five minutes.

At the end of my first pomodoro I want a first draft. I want this draft to get at least 80% of the message across.

At the end of my second pomodoro I want something publishable. I’ll run through it again, polish it up and publish it. If I run out of time for images, there won’t be any images.

Stay on Target

I tend to ramble. Once I dig into a subject, I find myself wanting to say everything about it that comes to mind.

Although some things are relevant, this weighs down a post and retracts from the easily digestable nature of a blog post. I don’t like having to slog through a long post from other bloggers. Do unto others.

I’m going to blog less steaks and more tapas. This means keeping it lean and keeping it on target.

I’m going to drive a post with a single message. Things that pop into my head that aren’t directly related to this one message are going to be quickly deflected into potential new posts or dropped altogether.

Just Do it Already

Hopefully I’ll be able to increase my blogging output while maintaining a good level of quality.

A one hour action on my todo list looks a lot more inviting than a 2-4 hour one. I want to turn blogging from a chore into a habit.

A rough post out there is worth a million polished posts never written. Maybe I’ll take more of an iterative approach and decorate them with images later.

This was the first post I’ve written with this approach.

Tags: blogging, motivation, pomodoro, steak, tapas, timebox