Tuesday Tip 006: My Secret Weapons for Blogging Consistently

Lately I've been reading about habits.

A few months ago I finished Gretchen Rubin's book Better than Before that provided all kinds of practical tips on how to change your habits. Now I'm reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and it brilliantly unpacks the science behind habits. Have you ever driven yourself home and not really recalled any memory of the drive?  Or have you gone on "autopilot" and accidentally driven yourself to Chipotle (oh, just me?) It proves that habits are disconnected, in many ways, from our conscious thoughts. 

Habits are powerful. And one way to change them is to remove the friction in the process of doing something that you really do want to accomplish.

[Enter the Editorial Calendar.]

An editorial calendar makes blogging consistently so much easier. I don't have to reinvent the wheel every week when I sit down to write. Here's four other things that together with an editorial calendar help me blog consistently: 

1. A standing list of blog post ideas. I view the world through the lens of a writer. I keep an eye out for blog ideas all the time and I often add ideas to a standing list. 

2. An expectation. I blog each week not only because I want to but also because I have an audience that expects a new post each week. I feel a responsibility to you to provide you something valuable and new each week. 

3. An intuitive image creation tool. In the past, creating images for blog posts was a real drag for me. I'm a writer, not a graphic designer! Canva has changed my perspective on creating images. I can't recommend it enough. 

4. A blogging platform that's easy to use. Creating new pages and blogs on Squarespace is painless. Blogging is more than writing. And having tools and a platform that support me as a writer really helps me stick to my commitment to blog weekly. 

I'm learning in blogging, as in life, that if we make it easier for ourselves to do the good thing (in this case--blog) then we will inevitably do it more often. So keep a stash of ideas, create an editorial calendar, and use a platform and tools that you like. You'll be churning out brilliant new content as quick as I can say "burrito bowl for here white black chicken."

Get your copy of the Blogger's Editorial Calendar Cheat Sheet here.

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