Tips to save time from the Web Strategist
A few people told me yesterday, like Mukund and Chris Heuer they were amazed at the output of content I put out on my blog, here’s a few tips:
1) Blogging as part of your job. Blogging is part of my job, this is how I reach our corporate clients, most customers (and prospects) are reading it. I can also see who’s signed up for the email subscription (see right column) there’s some big brands. If I can demonstrate I can use these tools correctly, then I’ll be able to help clients with it as well. It’s working, as I’m my currently my companies greatest source of customer introductions. If blogging is not part of your job, you can certainly slowly and strategically make it part of your job, I did this at my previous company.
2) Reservoir of drafts: I currently have 135 drafts in wordpress. I work on some slowly, some will never be published, and some will get published. Quite often, my daily posts could be an iteration I’ve been working on for months, maybe years. I collect content as I read, and drop it into my drafts, link posts, and posts. I’m constantly filtering the web and making my blog a lens, and adding my additional thoughts.
3) Be efficient: Don’t spend too much time on my posts. I really believe that blog posts should not take more than an email of equal length, while my grammar will never be perfect, it’s the ideas and concepts that are more important to get out. It’s a blog, not a magazine article.
4) Cut out what you don’t really need: I recently purged myself of all coffee or caffeinated beverages as advised by my doctor. It took 5 days to get over the urges and head pressure and then it was over. You don’t need coffee, really you don’t. This has saved me time, money, and energy every day. If the average person spends $5 on coffee every day (some more), how much does that equate to in year? How much time?
5) Schedule time: Every morning before the world wakes up, I get up and read, check feeds, techmeme, digg, and key blogs. I then blog, this process takes about 2 hours, usually before 6 or 7 am. I leap out of bed every morning in anticipation for this, no joke.
6) Pay yourself first: I rarely check email before I start reading and blogging, (and I cut out instant messaging last year) it’s an endless spiral, the more you put in, the more you get back. I use blogging and video as a way to be more efficient with my time. As I start to get a pattern of questions, I realize that’s a blog post. I also use Facebook, Twitter, my Video Show and other tools to make my communications more effective. (Update: Great tip for email management from Trey, he recommends you try to answer your email in three sentences only)
I’m sure many are going to say in the comments: “Wait till you have kids”, I hear that quite a bit. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I have a balanced and fulfilled life, happily married, eat ’somewhat’ healthy, socialize, workout, swim, get sun, travel, and enjoy a good red wine.
Also, I’ve noticed an increase in web analytics activity on this blog, there are 30,000 unique visitors in last month, but more importantly, the average time spend on site has doubled, it’s 7 minutes. If you multiply those two numbers, that’s a lot of time spent on site, although one could suspect that a tab was left open, so attention data is never accurate alone. Trends matter, and I think the activity/engagement has increased by 30% holistically.
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Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I used to be a professional piano player (jazz) so I can type rather quickly.
Hi Jeremiah,
Thanks for teaching by example.
Keep up the good work.
~msg
For me, the early to rise tip is one I’ve struggled with lately.
As for email, http://three.sentenc.es/ (or 2, 4 or 5) has helped with that distraction.
Great tips Jeremiah. Thanks for sharing your process, i know we all very much appreciate and respect the content you produce here.
Curious on the early to rise thing, how many hours of sleep do you get per night? How many do you feel like you need to really function well?
This is a great tip Trey!
http://three.sentenc.es/
Teresa, I have an odd sleeping pattern.
I either sleep in short bursts 2-4 hours, or 6 hours straight through.
BTW: In case anyone is wondering, I don’t take any drugs or medications, legal or illegal. I’m just very active.
Great post, Jeremiah. This is something I am always struggling with, and (like most of us) probably will be forever. The point about the many drafted blog posts was good though…I should stop feeling guilty about having 5 drafted posts that I haven’t gotten out yet.
The draft reservoir is definitely a very useful tip.
Keep up the good work and thanks!
I just talked to a buddy on the phone
He’s slaving away for his company and paying them over and over and over. His job could be at risk as they’re undergoing some massive M&A, you never know
I told him that he could work on paying himself first everyday, and that would guarantee a return, but by paying his company over and over, there’s no guaranteed return.
In addition to keeping a draft reservoir, you can use Wordpress to post items in the future. So instead of sending out three blog entries in one day (and probably overwhelming anyone reading your blog through an RSS feed), trickle them out over the next few days (or weeks).
Another great post. Quick tip for all on how to avoid caffeine withdrawals: Instead of quitting cold turkey just mix your caffeinated coffee with decaf over the course of the week or so, i.e. start with 3/4 caffeinated and 1/4 decaf and gradually increase your decaf ratio and decrease your caffeine! Worked for me, however I am back to hitting the bean
Reservoir of drafts is key. My most successful weeks are those where I have at least 6-10 posts in draft phase at any one time.
Great tips Jeremiah! I had seen the draft reservoir idea on your blog anniversary post with the stat’s & it dawned on me then.
My best suggestion that shifted me to daily blogging was Microsoft Live Writer. It’s the greatest tool ever! It allows me to blog to 2 different blogs & has so many great features.
http://digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/2007/07/08/windows-live-writer-makes-blogging-easier/
and no caffeine here either, but I never turn down chocolate
Connie and everyone, thanks for the positive comments!
Your trailblazing and sharing is helping attract a huge — dare I say mainstream — drove of settlers who will use social media like previous generations took to the newspapers, telephone, cars, radio, TV… Keep pioneering!
[…] Tips to save time from the Web Strategist - Jeremiah Owyang - Aug 2007 (tags: seo blogging tips) […]
[…] Jeremiah Owyang: Tips to save time from the Web Strategist - “Every morning before the world wakes up, I get up and read, check feeds, techmeme, digg, and key blogs. I then blog, this process takes about 2 hours, usually before 6 or 7 am. I leap out of bed every morning in anticipation for this, no joke.“ […]
Jeremiah, my ‘reservoir of drafts’ is building up as I get new ideas and work on various subjects for my blog and as I began to see the growing list of drafts, I remembered this post where you said you have 150 drafts!
I am getting overwhelmed (organizationally) with just 10-15 drafts! I’m use Wordpress for my site, so my drafts just show up as a list at the top of my “Write” page, which gets rather inconvenient. So I was wondering if you manage your blog from a web-based interface or via desktop software that makes it easier to index drafts?