blogging – Small Business Odyssey

February 15, 2012

How to Overcome Writer’s Block to Improve Your Productivity

Writer’s block is the curse of all writers, whether writing online or offline. Even the great novelists report that at times they experienced writer’s block.

In an earlier blog post, I offered suggestions on how to achieve your daily blogging goal. That blog post on daily blogging focused mainly on creating productive habits and establishing a routine. But what happens if, despite your routine, you are lost for words on a particular day when you want to write? What if, despite your best efforts, no ideas come to mind?

Well, there are a couple of strategies that I use that you might find useful to help you overcome writer’s block and improve your productivity.

[Photo credit: Writer’s Block by orijinal]

Strategies to Overcome Writer’s Block

I have developed these strategies over time while writing both technical and popular articles and blog posts. They have really helped me overcome writer’s block.

1. Talk to the computer

This sounds a bit strange but it is a valuable technique. I learned this approach from a colleague when we were doing an Australia-wide research project on action learning. Whenever we got stuck for writing, he would go to the keyboard and start typing questions like:

What do I want to say here?
Who am I saying this to?
What’s the key message that I want to get across?
Why would I bother to write this?
What can the reader learn from what I am writing?

He would then progressively start to answer these questions as if they were questions asked of him by the computer. Invariably, we would have no trouble progressing once we responded to his questions on the computer.

2. Record yourself – create a podcast

Sometimes the act of writing is itself an impediment to what you want to say – you can’t find the right words to start. What I have done to overcome this particular writer’s block is to use an audio recorder, my smartphone or a program like Audacity or AudioBoo to record what I want to say. When you move to the auditory channel, your natural instincts to edit are turned off, so a natural speaking flow can occur. You can then type from the audio and play around with the grammar and structure. You could use the questions mentioned in (1) to get started. It is amazing how using a different communication channel can free up your ideas (and overcome innate fears that can cause writer’s block).

3. Speed writing

This is a real challenge to the perfectionist who may suffer from fear of failure or fear of success. It is a similar idea to the previous one but here you stick with writing as the primary task. However, instead of concerning yourself with structure, grammar, spelling or complete sentences, you just write any idea that comes into your head about the topic that is the focus of your attention. What you will find is that one idea will lead to another and you will find new ways to develop ideas mentioned earlier in your speed writing. It takes a bit of work to edit the writing, but at least you will have captured the ideas and linkages – you just need to structure them and edit your expression.

Speed writing can really free up writer’s block because it enables you to overcome your lifetime conditioning – having to proceed in a logical way and write perfect sentences. The speed writing approach stresses lateral thinking and randomness, and activates the right brain. Eventually, you need to activate your left brain to impose some order on what you have written. The speed writing process can really help you overcome writer’s block by tapping into a part of your brain (the right side) that you may not use on a regular basis (depending on your type of work).

4. Record a reflection

Yesterday I was lost for a topic, so I reflected on what helped me to become productive with my blogging. This led to my extended post on the how you can use focus to improve productivity. That blog post started out as some random ideas that I thought I could write 200 words on and it ended up as a 7 point article of more than 1,200 words. So even if you are slow to start writing, the very act of starting can loosen up your mind and capture the connections that are already resident there. In the case of the focus blog post, I ended up jotting down some key points that turned into the 7 reasons why focus helps to improve productivity.

This current post came about because I was experiencing writer’s block and was reflecting on how I had overcome it in the past – hence the focus of the article.

5. Don’t try for perfection every time

It’s better to write something, however short, rather than nothing. The more you write, the easier it gets. Not every blog post is going to be a ‘pillar article’. So it’s worth persisting and settling for something that may be good but not great. Action generates ideas and ideas build on each other.

If you want to be productive with your blogging, you need to explore strategies to overcome writer’s block – hopefully, my strategies will prove fruitful for you too.

February 14, 2012February 22, 2012

7 Ways Focus Improves Your Productivity

I’ve been reflecting on how focus has helped me to improve productivity with respect to blogging. Over the last 3 months, I have written 80 blog posts for my Small Business Odyssey blog (from 400 to 1000+ words each), while in the previous three months I wrote only one blog post. This improved productivity is the result of focus.

One of my early posts on this blog was about the benefits of focus for small business marketing. In this current blog post, I want to discuss how focus improves productivity – as it has obviously done for me with regard to blogging.

[Photo credit: Close Focus Lens by SqueakyMarmot]

7 ways to improve productivity through focus

There is no doubt in my mind that focus was one of the key means that helped me to improve productivity. In reflecting on this, I identified 7 key ways focus contributed to my productivity improvement:

1. Focus builds momentum

Early definitions of ‘momentum’ described it as ‘the power residing in a moving object’. You know yourself that once you get a heavy object moving, it gains momentum and is a lot easier to push (e.g. trying to push a broken-down car). For me, momentum is the key benefit of focus. Once I decided that I would focus on writing a blog about small business marketing, I began to overcome the resistances (the heavy objects) that were residing in me – the barriers to productivity. Once I started writing blog posts with my new-found focus, I began to gain momentum – writing blog posts became easier and I looked forward to writing them.

2. Focus is motivational

Once you become focused, you start to achieve things that seemed impossible before. You become more disciplined, avoid distractions and build sound habits that help to improve productivity. The sense of achievement you gain is motivational – it provides the intrinsic reward, a sense of satisfaction, that keeps you going. Extrinsic rewards, in the form of increased traffic and revenue usually follow, but it is the inner sense of achieving a worthwhile goal that provides the initial impetus. Focus enables you to gain this sense of achievement and the resultant motivation that leads to improved productivity.

3. Focus channels energy

Focus brings an alignment of your energies (mental, physical, emotional) so that you are able to pursue a single goal or direction with increasing energy. You know yourself that a lack of focus dissipates energy – you are ‘all over the place’. Focus, on the other hand, results in harnessing energy towards a single goal. I think of the analogy of using a magnifying glass to focus the energy of the sun’s rays to burn a hole in a piece of paper (as we used to do as kids). The sun’s energy is there all the time, but it is unfocused unless you capture it with a magnifying glass (or nowadays with solar panels to produce electricity). It is the focus (or the focusing instrument) that channels and concentrates energy. This channelled energy helps you, in turn, to improve productivity.

4. Focus creates a new significance

Lou Tice, famous organizational psychologist, used to talk about the power of organization vision to ‘create a new significance’ – visioning is about focusing on a desired future state that you want to work towards achieving. He explained that the process of visioning, focusing of some desired future, activates a part of the brain called the RAS (reticular activating system) which is responsible for arousal and activating the conscious mind. So, for example, you may be driving to work in a ‘mindless state’, almost on remote control. Then suddenly you see the rear lights of the car in front of you turn read (the brake light). It is the RAS that tells your body to take evasive action (your brain has recognised the significance of the red light – you are going to crash if you don’t stop or swerve away). TheRAS brings you back to a heightened state of consciousness. And so it is with focus in any arena of life, especially in small business marketing. The consequence is that you start to see things you did not notice before, new resources come to your attention, and you recognise new resource people – your brain has created a new significance around your focus and this new consciousness helps you to improve your productivity because you become better resourced and informed.

5. Focus attracts productive people to you

Other people value focus because it demonstrates commitment and achievement – a goal that many people aspire to but cannot achieve. People who have achieved in life are attracted to other productive people and recognise their expertise. Here’s a simple example from my own experience. I decided a few years ago to spend a year acquiring expertise in Squidoo and eventually attained the level of Giant Squid100 (100 excellent Squidoo lenses determined by Squidoo itself). This enabled me to write many blog posts about Squidoo and create an e-book on Squidoo Marketing Strategies which I sold via Paypal. As my expertise developed I came to the attention of Mari Smith, Facebook expert, who asked me to run a webinar for her on Squidoo for her Social Media Certification Course. This gave me increased exposure and access to resources and contributed substantially to my visibility, branding, motivation and productivity. Mari is a great example of how focus attracts others, builds expertise and increases personal productivity.

6. Focus improves efficiency

Efficiency is about achieving more in less time – the hallmark of productive people. With focus you are able to avoid distractions and use your time better. You can overcome information overload because your focus gives you the basis for ignoring, or attending to, the endless bits of information that you are bombarded with. You can sift through information quickly and attend to only those things that further your goal (your primary focus). As you become more time efficient through your focus, you improve your productivity in terms of achieving your goal.

7. Focus taps emotional energy

It is very difficult to sustain a focus unless there is some emotional attachment to the goal underlying your focus. So in my case, the focus on small business marketing contributes to two key goals of mine – the promotion of my own HR consultancy business and the development of a future stream of revenue when I wind down from running workshops. I have a very strong, emotional commitment to both these goals which are interrelated and intertwined. This enables me to tap into the emotional energy involved in my focus and to improve my productivity. The positive emotional energy sustains me when the going gets hard – writer’s block, downtime on my computer, the pressures of my offline business and illness. A key lesson here is to align your focus with a goal you find emotionally energizing and your focus will help you to sustain and improve your productivity.

For further information on ways to enjoy the benefits of focus and learn to improve productivity in your small business marketing, subscribe to my free e-course on how to be productive.

February 9, 2012

Sometimes You Have to Stop to Move Forward: A Montville Break

Over the weekend, I spent two days in a cabin in Montville, a mountain village on the Blackall Range in Queensland, Australia. It was great to take in the mountain air and the glorious vistas and to stroll through Montville village, an arts and craft centre that I featured in one of my Squidoo lenses.

I had deliberately left my laptop behind on this trip and took a real break from computers, the Internet and work generally. There are times when you need to stop to move forward – to slow the momentum of your body and your mind.

Improve your blogging productivity with a rest

Without rest and relaxation, you can become stale in what you are doing whether it is article writing, social media marketing or writing blog posts.

With a break, you can return to your daily blogging with renewed energy, insight and enthusiasm. A break can also improve your productivity through the energy renewal and new perspectives you gain. Often you will find that the solution to your current issue or problem lies in front of you – you just need time out to see it.

This is particularly true when you are engaged in running a small business offline. The daily demands can mean that you are constantly ‘chasing your tail’. Eventually, you can’t ‘see the wood for the trees’ – you are blind to the bigger picture because of reacting to small things.

Stepping back, taking time out, is essential to develop a new perspective. You could take a weekend away to refresh your mind. The beauty of a place like Montville can be really invigorating.

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Time seems to stand still when you stop – minutes turn into hours and hours become days. This is in stark contrast to when you are busy chasing deadlines.

I was able to take heaps of photos on my Samsung Galaxy S11 Camera (8 Megapixels) on my Montville break and now I have these available for blog posts (see images in this post) and for creating videos via Animoto.

I was also able to identify ways that I could add more content to my personal productivity membership site:

Re-purpose articles I have written for Ezinearticles.com
Create a series on MP3’s on productivity and energy levels
Expand productivity tips from some of my Squidoo lenses
Develop a series of promotional videos for the membership site.

By taking a two day rest at Montville, I am now able to resume my blogging with improved productivity through an increase in energy, resources and ideas.

February 7, 2012February 9, 2012

The Challenge of Daily Blogging and the Need for Improved Personal Productivity

There are many things that work against you when you attempt to achieve daily blogging.

However, the effort to maintain a daily blogging schedule is well worth it. I noticed that since I have missed a few days of publishing Small Business Odyssey, the Alexa ranking has changed from 860,000 to 1,100,000 – in other words, my web traffic has dropped.

Daily blogging enables you to build momentum both with your writing and your blog traffic.

Photo Credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Creating a related blog – How to be productive

Sometimes you may need an infusion of new ideas or a new perspective on your blogging. This can come through creating a related blog and using a drip-feed automated process.

Over the past week I’ve been building another WordPress blog, a productivity membership site:

http://www.how-to-be-productive.com

Whilst the membership site was pre-built in terms of its drip-feed content, I decided to develop audio content for the first 9 lessons via Audacity. Again, once I gained momentum in creating these recordings, I found the task easy and enjoyable. I was able to produce the audios (MP3’s) for the membership site on personal productivity in two sittings – one involving three recordings, the other six.

The associated task of inserting the audios into blog posts was made so easy by the very clever, free software, podPress, discussed in an earlier post.

So while I was not writing and publishing on my Small Business Odyssey blog, I was developing and refining my productivity membership site hosted on a WordPress blog.

Personal productivity and daily blogging

While the creation of the new productivity site may seem like a diversion from this blog, I believe that it actually reinforces the Small Business Odyssey blog. Personal productivity underpins much of what I am writing about on Small Business Odyssey. Fundamentally, if you can’t improve your personal productivity as a small business owner, you will have real difficulty engaging in any form of small business marketing. Worse still, you may end up doing the wrong kind of work (e.g. wasting hours on Twitter, reading and writing Tweets).

One of the core challenges involved in daily blogging is, in fact, finding ways to improve your productivity. To make the time to achieve a daily, published blog post (a minimum of two hours taking into account locating images and editing), you need to find ways to improve your use of time.

There are numerous things that can distract you or consume your time as a small business owner and it is easy to fall into old habits ( e.g. reading emails for hours) – with the net result that you do not make time for blogging.

Over the past three weeks, for example, I have been engaged with others in creating four tender submissions for our human resource consulting business. a mind-numbing task but essential for business survival and growth in the current economic and political climate.

It would have been very easy to give up daily blogging but I had to find a way to schedule my blog writing at a time when my productivity and creativity were at their best – early in the morning.

To engage in daily blogging, takes a huge commitment but it is rewarding both intrinsically (personal satisfaction and sense of achievement) and extrinsically (increased web traffic and income).

December 22, 2011

Leverage Your Blogging: Create a Small Business Ezine

One of the easiest ways to leverage your blogging, is to create your own small business ezine. An ezine is basically an email newsletter where you share articles, news and blog posts with members of your mailing list (customer list). This approach to small business marketing serves multiple purposes and achieves leverage on a number of levels.

Your regular small business ezine enables you to maintain contact with your customers, educate them about your products and services and offer free information and advice. Most email service providers offer ways to further leverage your ezine via RSS feeds and automatic posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

If you are blogging regularly, you are creating the content for your ezine. If you blog daily, you will be able to provide a small business ezine of considerable substance.

How to use your blogging in your small business ezine

If you blog regularly, you can easily create an ezine from your blog posts. Since I blog daily, I send a weekly ezine to my mailing list covering a number of posts around a theme, e.g. Squidoo or LinkedIn. You need to decide the frequency of your small business ezine based on the regularity of your blog posts, the nature of your business and the kind of information you are offering.

Most autoresponders will replace the blog links in your email with their own generated links (if you specify that you want open rates and click-through-rates measured).

Another option is to use the URL shortener bitly.com to shorten your blog links. The advantages of this approach are that you can share each individual shortened link automatically with your Facebook and/or Twitter account and you can also get statistics on click-through-rates on the Bitly link. It is a good idea to add a comment (like a status update) before you share your link on Bitly.

Blogging has lots of benefits, not the least of these is that it provides you with content to share with your mailing list via your small business ezine.