4 Tiny Tweaks to Write Faster Without Sacrificing Quality

Beat the dreaded "lack of time".

Image created with Microsoft CoPilot

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I’m obsessed with the habits, methods, and decision making of established creators.

I want to find common winning patterns. The ones that can work for me, too.

Occasionally, though, I come across some pattern I wish I hadn’t discovered.

Like the most fundamental of all: every successful creator publishes an unbelievable volume of content. Or at least did it in the beginning for months (even years).

It’s a problem

When you start out as a creator, you aren’t full time. Worst, you don’t make money from your writing.

Where do you find the time to create a boatload of content while something else pays the bills (and costs you time)?

Successful creators are machines:

• on short form channels (like 𝕏 or Instagram), they publish 5-10 times per day,

• on long form channels (like blogs and YouTube), they publish 2-5 times per week.

But they started as everyone else did. They all did this part-time.

Recently, I restarted from zero as a content creator in English. I couldn’t bring with me the audience I built in Italy. Every stereotype about Italians fumbling for words like toddlers is true.

And I already have an Italian business. I didn’t have a magical passive income fountain providing for my basic needs.

I don’t want to spend years to build an audience, either. So, I'm always trying new techniques to increase my output. Here are a few ones that helped a lot.

This will sound stupid

Increase your typing speed.

I thought I typed fast. But I actually found out I’m average. You may have the same problem.

When you type at high speed, you don’t just create more in less time. Your thoughts flow unhindered to the page and writing feels effortless.

So, learn touch typing:

• rest your hands on the two halves of the keyboard, separated at “T”,

• rest your fingers on the middle line (the “ASD” line),

• don’t hunt for keys.

If you aren’t already typing this way, use a site like https://www.keybr.com/ to train every day.

Extra tips:

• never correct while typing,

• use a spell checker that automatically fixes typing mistakes, or fixes them in bulk (like Grammarly).

Don’t type

You probably talk much faster than you type.

Many tools (even free ones) will allow you to leverage this skill. My favorite is audiopen.ai. It transcribes and fixes your text using AI.

I described how I use it in this article.

Try it for a few weeks. It can become much more convenient than typing. (And it can also limit your sitting and screen time)

“Waste” more time before writing

Creating more quickly is not just a practical problem. It’s also a methodological problem.

I helped my brother improve his LinkedIn posts. He never created content before, so 200 words took him up to 1 hour. The problem was that he kept adding steps, facts and concepts while he drafted his post.

This is a common issue. The solution is to spend longer on a detailed and comprehensive outline. It must show you exactly what to include in and what to exclude from the post.

So, when you finally write, you only have to choose which words to use. No more wasting time reconsidering the entire thought process.

Choose “fast” ideas

I'm leaving this for last, but it comes first in the process. Why? Because, for me, it's the hardest part.

I am constantly amazed by Eve Arnold’s work on Medium. She publishes almost every day while having a day job. She's been doing it for over three years.

Her secret? Look at her profile: you'll find just a handful of articles longer than four minutes.

This is the secret.

My articles on Medium are at least six minutes long. Some reach 15 minutes.

The audience liked them. But a longer article means more time outlining, drafting, and editing. The creation time grows exponentially with the length of the article because the parts are interconnected.

If you are able to choose an idea that leads to a shorter article, you immediately put a cap on the writing time. And most audience members appreciate it.

This doesn’t mean being superficial, but more specific. Your audience will thank you.

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I hope this helped.

What or your tricks to speed up content creation without compromising quality?