Read this post about creating content on Medium
Main Takeaway of this Blog Post:
Just get started: Write without thinking, just get that messy first draft down as fast as possible. Once it’s locked in, it will be a breeze to go through and correct the mistakes, and move things around.
Intro
It seems difficult to begin writing or creating content, because it feels like there is so much work to do. However, we neglect how much knowledge we have inside ourselves, and I believe the main barrier that is in the way is the thought that something is more work than it is. ⛰️
Don’t Correct, Just Write
Write down anything. Whatever comes out of your mind: no judgement, no correction, no perfection.
Omar Shishani
To write blog posts or custom cover letters, I just begin writing. I don’t take the time to correct my grammar, spelling, or to rework the sentence structure, because this often can make writing take double as long or more. I have found recently, when working on my custom cover letters for job applications, that I feel resistance to sitting down and beginning on a cover letter. I want to just quit and go do something else, because it feels like too much work, but the key is I want to make it extremely easy for myself to begin.
I just say to myself “Write down anything. Whatever comes out of your mind: no judgement, no correction, no perfection.” This get the ball rolling. I’m often judging my writing as it’s coming out, saying “It sounds stupid,” or “It’s not good enough,” but I just keep writing. And the funny thing I discovered was, most of the writing I was judging to be not good enough as it was coming out, was actually perfectly fine upon my rereading it. I was getting in a huff about it not being good enough all for nothing, and in the end I produced a great cover letter.
To just keep writing without correcting was a great idea I heard from a writer who was on The Tim Ferris Show (Tim’s podcast). I can’t remember his name.
Keep Creating, Don’t Get Hung Up On Quality
The most important thing, as I have learned from watching people like Gary Vee (businessman, entrepreneur, social media marketing expert) is to just create content. Sitting and judging your work, and trying to make it perfect, is a great formula for not ever pushing out content, or doing it much less frequently. I have found this with my web development YouTube channel. I took Gary’s advice and just starting documenting my thoughts on simple iPhone videos, and posting them on my channel. Over time I was able to piece together better and better content for the videos, such as tutorial videos, adding a video of my face in the bottom corner of the tutorials, creating a custom thumbnail, and more. Each of these things in turn I started out doing in the simplest way possible (such as a super simple custom thumbnail in Microsoft Paint) and then advanced upon them later. This set the stage for small progress that turned into big progress over time, and it was not so overwhelming that I never got started.
That point is that the content gets better and better over time, even when you start making things really basic. The point is that you get started faster and you get better faster just by creating things, rather than taking time to make things perfect. It could be good to make super quality content as well, but everything doesn’t have to be pristine, and people often enjoy seeing things that are not super tailored, because it feels more personal and it makes people feel less intimidated.
Summary
Just get started: Write without thinking, just get that messy first draft down as fast as possible. Once it’s locked in, it will be a breeze to go through and correct the mistakes, and move things around.
That voice in our head often tells us we can’t do it, but that voice is not us. That voice needs to be ignored when we are trying to accomplish things, so we can push through and persist to succeed. ?
Photo of Berries in Bowl by Katie Bernotsky on Unsplash
Photo of Berries on Bush by Shelter on Unsplash