How to Establish Workflow and Increase Writing Productivity

Want to increase your productivity? Try to establish a workflow that works for you and helps you save time. Watch this video of my workflow to get ideas for yours!

The Power of Routines and Procedures

“Make sure you teach your students your routines and procedures in the first month of school,” the principal told us, “and the rest of your year will go more smoothly.”

Wonderful advice, but not always easy to do. Why? Because when faced with teaching a routine or procedure, I have to take the time to analyze not only what I want, but how I want it to happen.

I’d rather do something than sit down and figure out what I want the process to look like. But I know that if I teach my students how to behave in my classroom through routines and procedures, I’ll save time later on because I won’t have to deal with discipline issues.

About a year ago I started using Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner—but it took me six months to sit down and figure out my morning and evening rituals. I resisted the idea of scripting every moment because a routine seemed to schedule out spontaneity and creativity.

But once I could establish my ‘ideal’ morning routine, I discovered that I had an increase in my productivity. Who would have thought that scripting your morning could increase the amount of time you had available to do other, more creative things?

I figured that if it worked to increase my free time in the mornings, perhaps if I established a workflow for posting blog posts I could save time, too. When I work on a series, I perform the first three steps over and over again. I can do this anywhere I have internet access and it doesn’t require a lot of creative energy.

The Workflow that Helped Me Increase My Productivity

1. Check KeyWord Tracker (affiliate link) for potential keywords.

2. Try different headlines on Headline Analyzer

3. Add the title and keywords to the top of the document page, as well as a memory jogger that will help me remember what I want to write about or the point I will make.

4. Write the post—keeping in mind the keyword or keywords as I write.

5. Prepare the snippet. Use <small> and </small> at the beginning and end of it.

6. Copy and paste the post to WordPress.

7. Tidy up the post with the headline, headers, and a snippet.

8. Copy and paste the snippet to the snippet editor (metadata description). Add keywords and hashtags.

9. Copy the new snippet.

10. Create at least four graphics—one blog post graphic, one header graphic, and two Pinterest pins. Use slightly different wording on each one. I love RelayThat (affiliate)

11. Return to the blog post and add the snippet with hashtags to the ‘Excerpt’ box and select the featured image.

12. Move the newly created graphics to the media library and add a different Pinterest headline to each one (this feature shows up because I purchased the Tasty Pins plugin). Paste the snippet in the appropriate boxes, and use your keyword or keywords in the title box.

13. Add the graphic to the top of the page under the code block where the snippet resides.

14. Add the Pinterest graphic, then position and resize it.

15. Go to the social media panel on Yoast and select the graphics for Facebook and Twitter. Paste the snippet with hashtags here, too.

16. Tidy up any errors Grammarly pointed out.

17. Add Better Click to Tweet

18. Add links as appropriate (I forgot to demonstrate this in the video).

19. Schedule or hit publish.

My Workflow Videos

Here are the links to videos (I had to break it up into two sections) of me demonstrating my workflow.

Establish Your Rhythm, but Don’t Be Afraid to Change it!

Once you establish your rhythm or workflow, don’t marry yourself to it. You may find something that will increase your productivity. Do take the time to tweak your list so you don’t forget your wonderful insight.

When I write book review posts for my Book Talk Tuesday series, I have a slightly different workflow. For some reason, I have to use Safari to add the Amazon affiliate graphics to those posts, and Firefox to add the snippet in code.

Want to increase your productivity? Establish a workflow for your blog posts. Find out how. #write28days #blogger Click To Tweet

Don’t feel like you have to follow my workflow—you need to do you. Figure out your best times to write and whether or not you can batch perform some of the tasks. Sometimes, watching someone else’s workflow will help you establish your own more quickly. However you decide to organize your time, the simple act of thinking about it and writing it down will increase your productivity.

Just like teaching my students how I want them to walk into my classroom saves me time with discipline issues, establishing a workflow will increase your writing productivity. I guarantee it.

Affiliate Link for Tasty Pins

I mentioned in the video that my media library looks a little different from the standard one for a WordPress site, and also that I can have hidden Pinterest graphics that I load on the back end. Tasty Pins, a plug-in I purchased, makes those things possibe. You can find out more about it by clicking the link.