3 Key Steps to Saving Time and Being Dangerous with Your Work

Hate spinning your wheels? I’ve got an idea.  

The amount of time I’ve spent looking at a blinking cursor is painful to recall. Surprisingly, I’ve wasted time in that way much less in the last few years. 

This article is number 3921 for this website and how I got to this point is worth sharing as I think it is a helpful skill beyond blog writing. The same writing discipline can also be valuable for anyone interested in learning how to self-publish a book on Amazon, from developing a consistent writing routine to preparing and sharing a finished manuscript with readers.

Any work, especially creative work, can be impeded by mindlessly jumping in to task completion mode. Let yourself sit, be quiet (..maybe even bored?), and organize a plan of attack. 

This article (and the four articles before it) got written quickly because I did three less steps that I think you should steal:

1. STOP. Don’t just start doing things without knowing what exactly you’re going to do. Failing to do this step has led to many hours staring at a blinking curser, which isn’t particularly helpful to creating meaningful writing. 
2. THINK. I’ll be honest, I straight up was day dreaming looking out the window. Slowly I wrote down five ideas for articles on a piece of paper as they came to me. With a plan written down, executing is dramatically specific and simple. 
3. ACT. Writing the articles on my list felt much less like figuring out what to write and more like putting what I already knew down and checking a box. Speed kills and this went FAST! 

The quote that is says this in its own way is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln reads:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” 

Get organized first and make your work time count!