How to Be Productive Without Caffeine

This is a guest post by ZK. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

I’ve been running a web marketing blog for the last 15 months, but each time I sat down to write a post I ended up spending at least three to four times the amount of time that would take for me to write the post.

Over the last three to four months I reduced my blog writing time considerably by being more productive. In this blog post I’m going to explain how I achieved that.

1. Create a Daily Routine

This is a quite hard part, especially when you are just getting started with your blog. Getting into the habit of writing one blog post every day (or three times per week) is a challenged when you first try it.

But once you establish a daily writing routine it will get much easier because you just get used to it. You will still blog because you want to and because you like it, but you will grow the habit and force yourself to write no matter what.

2. Use a To-Do List

Or just a schedule. When you have a daily to-do list or a schedule you will be able to manage your time much better. You know what you need to do, when you need to do it and so on.

If you know you only have 30 minutes available, for example, you should skip working on a larger task and instead get rid of smaller things on your to-do list. The list itself, though, will be useful to make sure you spend your time as efficiently as possible.

3. Shut Down Distractions

Close down stuff like Thunderbird (e-mail client), Twitter client, Skype, Messenger and similar. If you don’t want to close Skype or Messenger, just set your status to “Message if important only” or simply just “Busy.” You just need to be able to set a point where you need to be very productive (while writing blog posts).

4. Take Notes When Something Important Comes to Your Mind

If you are in the middle of a task (for an example writing a blog post) have a notepad with you and write the idea there instead of doing it right now. If you jump from task to task you’ll lose focus and efficiency.

Just remember you need to finish whatever you are working on before you jump to the next task.

5. Outsource Stuff You Aren’t Good At

This is probably the best time-saver ever. You should always try to get help from people who are qualified on areas you are not. If you are not a good designer, for example, focus on writing content and outsource the design tasks on your blog to a designer. This will save you time and money in the long run.

Do you have any techniques for being and staying productive?

This is a guest post by ZK , who blogs about web marketing and search engine marketing at WebTrafficROI.com. You can follow him on
Twitter as well.