Many people have commented that writing content is hard and they have a difficult time doing it!The task seems so huge and overwhelming. Even if they break them down into tasks they still seem too big. This is probably because you have not broken them down enough yet!
One of my favorite techniques to use when a task seems too big to do is the Slice the Salami technique. I am not sure who developed it but I read about it many, many years ago and have used it regularly since. The psychology behind the technique is that your find it easier to do smaller tasks that one large big task.
Here is how it works:
- Write down your task – Write a blog post about …
- Break you task down into smaller tasks – Slice the salami. This depends on how you write a blog post. You will need to have actual steps.
- See how the smaller tasks “feel”- do they still seem to big or do they feel easily doable. This is a very personal thing and will change as you get better and feel better about what you are working on!
- If your tasks still feel to big to do – slice the salami some more! Break your subtask into smaller tasks and see how the smaller tasks feel.
- Keep doing this until each task feels easily doable.
- Then do the tasks –one task a time! The important thing is to think only about each small task as you are doing it.
Lets look at writing a blog post.
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moneymotivej
Premium
I like these posts about content, Thank you for writing this.
I myself am a beginner with a free site and barely learned how to create pages. I have a bad nerves tick whenever I think about having write content, because I feel like nobody would want to listen to what I have to say, if it wasn't the right way. I like how you say slicing the content and making it doable. I had a question, do you slice the pieces on a draft then do the slices over a period of time?
I myself am a beginner with a free site and barely learned how to create pages. I have a bad nerves tick whenever I think about having write content, because I feel like nobody would want to listen to what I have to say, if it wasn't the right way. I like how you say slicing the content and making it doable. I had a question, do you slice the pieces on a draft then do the slices over a period of time?
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mjpd
Premium
I am not completely sure what you are asking. I slice up the steps I use to write the content and then do them over time.
Marcus1978
Premium
Absolutely spot on. I'm always breaking things down like this. It's absolutely true, breaking task down into subtasks and subsubtasks makes it so much easier. Then you have just one tiny task to do at a time.
More specifically, when I write blog posts, I break them down into chunks, and when I'm writing each particular chunk, it can be helpful to imagine that a friend has emailed me asking me to explain it to them. So then I write it as if I was writing my email reply to them explaining it. The thing is, the people reading our blog posts are just normal people. None of it needs to win a literary award. It just needs to be readable, helpful, friendly, conversational. We're not writing a doctoral thesis, we're just writing to normal people in plain English.
Even what I have written here in reply to you is fine for part of an article, and it was really easy to write.
More specifically, when I write blog posts, I break them down into chunks, and when I'm writing each particular chunk, it can be helpful to imagine that a friend has emailed me asking me to explain it to them. So then I write it as if I was writing my email reply to them explaining it. The thing is, the people reading our blog posts are just normal people. None of it needs to win a literary award. It just needs to be readable, helpful, friendly, conversational. We're not writing a doctoral thesis, we're just writing to normal people in plain English.
Even what I have written here in reply to you is fine for part of an article, and it was really easy to write.
HeyItsMeLori
Premium
This is a great breakdown of your process that is totally duplicatable! Thank you!
