On July 6th I decided ‘It’s time…‘, and I (re)started this daily blog. Although I might have missed a day or two early on, it has become a daily routine for me. But that was during my summer holidays and I had time!
Like my healthy living goals, I knew that to make this stick, I need to make it work when I am busy. It’s never busier than September startup in schools. So, how am I adding this to my daily routine? I thought I’d share:
1. I have the WordPress App on the front page of my phone.
(I love the colour option:)
2. I use the app to add draft ideas any time of the day. It can be as simple as a title and a single sentence. I do this very quickly, unless I plan to write the whole post.
3. Set aside a bit of time to write. I usually write after dinner, before bed, or I wake up early if I don’t have a post scheduled the next day. I might write longer posts on weekends but I try to keep writing to 30-45 minutes mid week. I don’t watch TV, so I think of it as a writing ‘episode’, (without commercials😜). If I wake up early, I limit myself to 30 minutes. This isn’t a chore, it’s not work, it is a hobby I want to do. If I am tired, I rely on my drafts.
4. Find an image. I usually start with a search for a meme related to my post, and no matter what, I commit to finding something in less than 5 minutes.
5. Go to the app’s Post Settings and: Add 2-3 related blog tags, add the image, and change the message that gets auto-posted on Twitter, LinkedIn, and my Facebook page. (I usually make this message the post title, my #dailyink hashtag and one sentence about the post).
6. Schedule posts for the next morning. I’m playing with times between 6:45am and 8am. I have no idea what works best? I have a morning routine of meditation, exercise, and listening to an audio book, but sometimes I have time and I re-read and edit my post, or I dream up new draft ideas.
That’s it. Some days I’m spending 30 minutes ‘all-in’, this post has been a bit longer. If I needed more time this would have been popped into my drafts and I’d probably post something else tomorrow.
I’m writing, I’m putting it ‘out there’, and I’m enjoying the mental break from the day. I tried watching TV with my wife a couple days ago…
…I prefer to be creative and add some #dailyink on my blog.
Pingback: Rebirth of my daily blog – David Truss :: Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts
Thank you David for sharing your workflow.
Personally speaking, I use Trello to put together my posts. I am interested in using Indigenous, a micro-pub client, but do not like how it saves the draft to the app rather than WordPress itself. Every workflow has its limits I guess.
It is interesting to compare your ‘daily’ habit with Kathleen Morris’ approach to .
I’m just using the WordPress app. I mostly like it, but it can be slow to update (a scheduled post stays in the scheduled column even after posting). I had an issue last week where I edited an old post version on the app and had to go to the web version on my laptop to revert to the correct version. Still, it’s working for me.
I couldn’t use Kathleen’s schedule, I would think too much about the post over the week. However, with respect to ‘blogging in your mind’, when I was regularly blogging in my Pair-a-Dimes blog, I would often ‘think in blog posts’, creating full post ideas around a single educational idea. Now I like the idea of putting a title in my drafts and a few sentences to come back to. I’ve been using those drafts recently so I’m down to 8 of them right now, but at least 5 of those need to be weekend posts because they will take longer to write. The ‘2nd place’ idea I shared in the image above is a story that will probably take well over an hour to write.
Some evenings/mornings recently have been a struggle but I really like that I’ve been writing regularly and I’m feeling good about the quality of a few of the posts.
I’m going to follow the link you shared to Indigenous as soon as I post this comment, thanks Aaron!
I too was always frustrated with the way the WordPress app synced with WordPress. Indigenous involves a bit of setting up, however I think that micropubs offer an interesting future, however I still think that there is a way to go to create a smooth experience for all users.