Category: Productivity

Why You Need the 80/20 Rule if You Want to Grow Your Platform

by Maria
the 80 20 rule 

We are creatures of habit, and we can so easily be caught up in our routines and systems. This is especially true for bloggers, who control their own schedules and have to face a whole slew of new challenges as they grow: how to build traffic, how to monetize, how to avoid burnout, how to resist the urge to give up. And as I wrote about a few weeks ago, one of the biggest mistakes bloggers can make is to spend too much time simply churning out content. If you’re just operating in survival mode five days a week, it becomes impossible to tackle the big-picture growth initiatives.

Which is why the most successful bloggers I’ve seen—the ones that built blogs with millions of pages views in just a couple of years—are the ones that understand the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is this: you should spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time finding ways to share it. Here’s why it works:

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Twitter vs. Facebook vs. Pinterest vs. Instagram: What’s Right for Authors?

by Maria

best social media for authors

There is a grand battle royale going down between social media networks, and writers and bloggers are caught in the middle of it. The boundaries are constantly shifting, the pros and cons of each platform are always changing, and no one ever seems to be able to decide where in the heck they should be.

So, which social media networks should you be on? Where can you get the best bang for your social media buck?  I get this question all the time, and like the Twitter-specific question from last week, the answer is complicated. Because really, choosing a network depends on what kind of writer or blogger you are and what areas of your author platform you need to bolster.

The one thing that applies to everyone? You can’t (and shouldn’t) build your numbers on all of them. You will drive yourself straight loony-tunes if you try to keep up with all of them, and your social media campaign will be less effective if it’s not focused. It’s worth it to find your social media soulmate–that one platform that will not only grow your platform but also be actually enjoyable!

Ready to choose? Here are the candidates:

  • Facebook: The big kahuna. I’m still of the belief that every single writer should have a professional Facebook page, and this is for one simple reason: sheer numbers. Facebook has 1.35 billion monthly active users. The other networks lag far behind—Instagram has an estimated 300 million users, Twitter has an estimated 288 million users, and Pinterest has about 70 million users. Facebook is still where everyone and their grandma is, and even though it’s been changing its algorithm to limit the reach of posts (more on the changes to Facebook’s algorithm and what it means for authors here), it’s still the best place to reach the most people. Facebook also allows you to integrate all mediums–text with no character limits, images, videos, GIFS, etc–so it can work for you no matter what your strengths are. I consider a professional Facebook page to be one of the foundational elements of building a platform.

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How to Stop Procrastinating (& a Free Brené Brown Art Print!)

by Maria

Brene Brown quote on writing

One of the toughest things for writers (and really anyone working on anything) is learning how to outsmart procrastination. Our minds are so resistant to being used, and they’re just as wily at coming up with ways to distract us. A quick look at Twitter? Well, sure! Just a peek at Facebook to make sure I didn’t miss out on something super important? Definitely necessary. Another break to search blogs for inspiration? Why not?

We all know the end result of this: we put off the project, and the longer we put it off, the harder and more intimidating it seems. Whether we’re writing a blog post, a book chapter, or a business plan,  it will probably require using more than 5% of our brain. But social media and other passive activities requires so much less energy from our brains–biologically, we’re hardwired to prefer these “easy” activities, like watching TV, because they use less of our energy than “difficult” activities, like writing and brainstorming.

But isn’t there a secret way to trick our brains into preferring these difficult activities?

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How to make yourself do work, even when you don’t want to

by Maria

How to make yourself self-motivated–these 5 easy tricks will help you do work even when you don’t want to. Learn how to make yourself self-motivated, stay self-motivated, and get more things done so you can finally stop procrastinating and feeling guilty.

Here’s what Wednesdays used to look like for me:

  1. Get to work; plant butt in cubicle.
  2. Stare at my to-do list, read some things online, daydream.
  3. Get a few things done.
  4. Go home and start over again the next day.

I was working at a small publisher at the time, and the pace was s-l-o-w. I had just come from another editor gig that was relentlessly fast-paced–each day was chockfull of meetings, paperwork, and dozens of things only I could do each day.

Now suddenly I was plopped in a quiet office, with almost no meetings or urgent to-dos. The 8-hour day stretched endlessly, and I couldn’t figure out how to structure my time, keep up momentum, or get things done when it was just so much easier to put things off until tomorrow.

I was bored, unproductive, and definitely not living the How to Get Sh*t Done life. I realized I would have to teach myself a key skill: how to make yourself self-motivated.

how to make yourself self motivated

Now my Wednesdays look like this:

  1. Wake up, grab laptop and coffee, and write a blog post before 9 am.
  2. Reward myself with a shower and getting ready for the day.
  3. 8 hours of emails, proposal editing, contract review, calls, etc.
  4. Shut my laptop promptly around 6-7, make dinner, relax.

It took a long time, but I finally learned how crucial it is to do the most important thing first in the day. So now, every weekday, I start the day by proposal editing, pitch letter writing, blog post writing, or whatever else is going to take the most brain power and concentration.

That was so game-changing for me. I finally (mostly) beat back my lifelong habit of procrastinating and avoiding tough projects. I’m not perfect and definitely still fritter away time, but now I know a bit more about how to make yourself self-motivated.

But that was just one of a few productivity tips that have completely changed how I work and stay self-motivated. So today I’m sharing one of the essential articles that has changed my life–it’s from one of my all-time favorite writers, Leo Babuata of Zen Habits.

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How to make yourself self-motivated: the Zen Habits way

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