How To Write a Weekly Blog Even When You Have Nothing To Write About – Part 1

Whenever I start talking with people about my blog, inevitably I get two questions:

How do you have time to write a new post every week? and

How do you come up with so many things to write about?

So my goal over the next two weeks is to address both of these issues in this two-part series. So let’s dive in!

Part 1 – Finding Time To Write

Like most adults, I’m busy.  

I have a business, projects, freelance assignments, and familial responsibilities. I also like to do things like eat, sleep, date, workout, and have fun. So if someone were to look at my already packed schedule, they would see that my time is just as limited as anyone else’s.  However, I write a blog post every week anyway because I have an unreasonable commitment to doing it.

I learned the term unreasonable commitment from a personal development course I took a while ago. In simplified terms, it means you’re either fully committed to keeping your word and commitments, or you’re not.  

I know that sounds harsh when it’s put into a binary container like that.  But in practice, it’s really not because we already do it. Whether we know it or not, most of us already have an unreasonable commitment to our jobs.  We just don’t recognize it.

We have all been conditioned that a contributing, adult member of society = someone who is employed.  To become that person aka “someone with a job,” we learn that we engage in a competitive process call interviewing whose sole purpose is to “choose the best person” for the job.  So if we are the lucky ones to get the job at the end of that process, we become obsessed with keeping it.

Thus we develop an unreasonable commitment to it. We go no matter what. We become like that old post office motto, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these employees from the swift completion of their jobs every day.“

However, when it comes to commitments for our own personal growth and development, we don’t make commitments. We make excuses.

I get it. I have broken commitments to myself more than a few times. However, somewhere between starting my first online business (no consistent blog posting) to this one (new blog post every week), something shifted. I decided to fully commit to the process no matter what.

I made an unreasonable commitment to myself, and I continue to make that choice every day.

My Unreasonable Commitment In Action 

Here’s what my unreasonable commitment to blogging looks like in practical terms.

1. Block Scheduling

I set time in my schedule to write every weekday. Now, that writing time isn’t always to create blog posts, but setting a specific time in my schedule to write helped me to create a writing habit. Because of that habit, writing has become much easier for me. I may complain every now and then, but for the most part, I just sit and do it.

2. Setting Time Limit

There is an often stated principle that whatever you do will fill the time you give it.  If you need to write a paper in a day, it will be done that day. Similarly, if you give yourself a week to do it, that same paper will take a week.  

So I set time limits for writing the first draft of my post so that I get it done within a specified timeframe. This encourages me just to write down all of my thoughts on a topic and not to go into editing/judging mode (which takes more time). 

3. Batching (Sometimes…But Not Always)

Blogging really does work best when you batch your posts.  That’s when you sit down to write a few blog posts in one sitting or one workday.  If you take the time to do it, you can generate enough content for a few weeks or months so that if life takes a turn and you cannot create something new that week, you already have a post ready to fill the gap.

I’ve tried batching and like it.  It’s just that I rarely do it for blog posts. It’s usually because my mind decides that it doesn’t want to write about the topics I have set for that batching day.  It’s interested in discussing something else.  Rather than beating myself up over it, I just remember my unreasonable commitment and trust that I will get my posts done anyway.

4. Doing It Anyway

Doing the job you set out to do isn’t always sexy or based on some cool productivity hack.  Sometimes you just have to sit and do it even if you are tired or rather be watching television. When it’s time to write, I sit down and do my work.  That simple concept has lead me to complete blog posts more than any other business strategy or tip.

Next week, I’ll talk about the strategies I use to find things to write about.  In the meantime, think about the unreasonable commitments you want to make in your own life.  What strategies will you use to make sure you stick to those commitments. Let me know all about them in the comments below.