Idea - Write - Edit gets faster because you repeat it, not because you understand it or buy tools. This page is a practice loop you repeat with each post, until you do the three steps without remembering what each one is for.
Before you begin
- You know the three steps of the process (see The Idea - Write - Edit publishing process).
- You have a few topics taken from your funnel plan, one line each.
- You have a place to write down times: a notes page or a spreadsheet.
How it usually feels at first
At first it still feels heavy, and that is normal: you do not have much content yet, and the process is new. Keep going post by post, and it gets lighter from three things that add up: your stock of content grows, you get used to the work, and you learn the process by heart. Then you work by habit, without remembering anything.
The process does not promise a number of weeks. The times you write down in step 3 show how much faster you are getting.
Steps
Pick the topic for your next post
Take one topic from your list. How many posts you publish follows your funnel plan; here the goal is to practice the process, not to publish lots of posts.
Do all three steps in the right order
For this post, do the Idea step until the outline is locked, then the Write step, then the Edit step. Do not skip a step, do not write before you make the outline, and do not change titles in the Edit step. Going in the wrong order means practicing the very loop you want to drop.
Write down the time each step takes
When each step is done, write down how long it took. For example: Idea 30 minutes, Write 1 hour, Edit 2 hours. These numbers tell you which step is slow, instead of only seeing that your posts come out slowly without knowing why.
Once it is published, look back at the post and how it felt
Read the post you just published and ask yourself: did this time feel lighter than last time, more on track, did I know my way better? Write a line or two of answers next to your times.
Share the post to get feedback
Show a post made with Idea - Write - Edit to other people, for example in the HXN Tribe. When you dare to share, people dare to correct you, give feedback and tell you straight. When you get something wrong, someone fixes it right away, so you see your mistakes much faster than working it out alone.
Practice the step where you still stumble
Look at your times and the feedback, and pick the slowest step or the one that got the most criticism. In your next post, give that step extra care. Fixes for each kind of stuck step are in Fix a stuck Idea - Write - Edit step.
Repeat with your next post
Start again from step 1 with the next topic. Do not give up after one hard post; a heavy start happens to everyone who is starting out.
Check after a few posts
- Are the steps shorter than in your first post? Compare the times of your first post and your latest one. For example, a step that took 2 to 3 hours now takes about 1 hour. If they are not shorter, practice the step that is still the longest.
- Do you still look at a guide to remember the next step? If so, do a few more posts until the three steps become habit.
- Does publishing feel lighter? If it still feels heavy, share a post and ask others to point out where you stumble.