As I write this, I am very tired. It’s a Sunday afternoon while I am typing out these words and I wish I could just go for a nap or watch a Stephen King movie on Netflix, but I have a goal I must reach and excuses are not acceptable.
Sometimes the best you can do is hit a single, rather than a homerun. A single is forward progress, it keeps me moving toward my blogging quota, and will help me meet my ultimate goal of being free via writing words. I figure the only way for me to be free by writing words is to write words, even when I am tired. Being tired is an excuse disguised as laziness. I cannot let laziness win. You cannot let laziness win.
I doubt Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, or Larry Page used “I’m tired” as an excuse when building their business empires…and while not building a business empire, using “I’m tired” is not a valid excuse for me while building a blogging business that is going to cover all my expenses and more. So, we proceed!
9 Steps To Writing A Blog Post When Tired
Here’s a quick checklist to run through when feeling tired but knowing you are up against a deadline.
- Acknowledge You Are Tired This is not excuse making, this is recognizing where you are at. That 5,000 word post you wanted to bang out in one session isn’t gonna happen. But you can readjust and work on a 1,000 word article instead that doesn’t require big brain thinking.
- Say No To Laziness Refocus on your blogging vision, the outcome you are working toward. For the majority of us, it’s building a blog to the point where we are free to live our lives with the people we want to be with; is giving in to laziness worth sacrificing your vision?
- Stick To What You Know Don’t get bogged down with a research intensive article, stick to writing an article filled with knowledge that is entirely contained within your brain. I feel tired right now, so I’m writing an article about how to write an article when you feel tired. Not rocket science, folks!
- Keep Word Count Low I have a rule that no article will ever appear on this blog that is under 1,000 words, so that’s what I’m reaching for because that’s the lowest bar I have allowed for myself. Remember, hit a single, not a homerun.
- Write The First Sentence And Keep The Fingers Moving “Just get started!” is cliche advice from self-help books because it is true. Yes, just get started on the writing. Pick a subject and go. Let the words start to flow, it may not be your best but the importance is to keep the article moving forward.
- Don’t Forget You Can Always Return And Edit The great thing about blogging is we aren’t carving blog posts into stone, we can go back to any post our hearts desire and make any necessary changes on the fly. So, if you post your tired article and later realize it could be much better, no problem! You are 100% allowed to go back and edit previously published articles. In fact, Google loves it when you update old articles.
- Stand Up, Stretch Your Legs, And Walk Back And Forth A Bit When you get stuck, stand up and walk around. Walking around and thinking has been the key to solving problems for several thousand years. It’s incredible how effective walking around a bit untangles problems in the mind.
- Listicle Formats Are Very Helpful As you can see, we are on #8 on this listicle article. The magic of listicles is the article gets broken down into manageable pieces. While listicles can certainly be high-level articles, it helps to write with this ready-to-go format when your goal is to hit a single.
- Hit The Publish Button There is no reason to be a perfectionist in your blogging. It’s what stops you from building out a compelling blog with a ton of content. The article written while tired will be imperfect. But imperfect is better than an article sitting in the drafts folder forever.
- BONUS STEP: It Doesn’t Matter If You Are Tired, Always Go Above And Beyond I set out to write out my 9 step process for writing when tired but since the blogging standard is to go above and beyond, I am including this bonus step which is: always go further than your thought you could go. That’s how winning in the blogging game is done.
When To Admit You Are Too Tired To Keep Working On The Blog
There may be signs that it is time to stop pushing yourself, to stop going so hard and being obsessed with your blog, it may be your body and mind telling you it’s time to take a break, but I recommend to keep pushing until tomorrow because maybe when tomorrow comes you’ll realize your tiredness was just weakness, and that you overcame it. However, if the tiredness continues to persist, then yes, take a break…tomorrow.
Always Keep Your Vision In Your Mind
It’s times when you are weak to remember your vision for what you want to accomplish with your blog. Because nobody is going to achieve what you want for you. You are the only one who can get it, and if you aren’t working toward it, it means nobody is working toward it. There is nobody that is going to come around to make your dreams come true. Not a red politician or a blue politician. Not a celebrity or a rich billionaire. They aren’t coming for you. You must do it yourself!
The first thing I’m gonna do when big blogging money comes through is tell my wife to quit her job and she can do what she desires more than anything else in the world–take care of her family. That’s a piece of my vision. What does your vision look like? Keep it in the forefront of your mind, friend, and you will achieve it.
Until next time. Blog on.