And what I'm doing to fix it
“I work better under pressure.”
I've come to realize that's a huge lie.
It's not my secret performance enhancer that I use to vanquish my competition and vault myself up the food chain.
Not at all.
It's a crutch. A bad habit. Lack of discipline.
A bunch of BS.
Waiting until the last minute to finish an assignment, file taxes, elect insurance options, or publish an article is asking for something to go wrong.
The internet can go down. Your hard drive could crash. The power could go out.
Cutting things down to the wire is asking for trouble.
My frat brother Lou understood this.
Many students view it as a badge of honor to pull all-nighters studying for an exam or getting that paper done.
Not everyone though.
Lou was one of the brothers in my fraternity when I was in college.
Super nice guy: a scholar and a gentleman. (And now a judge. Next time I see him I'll need to address him as Your Honor.)
One thing I remember about Lou and his academics was that he got his papers done ahead of time. As a double major in history and German, he kind of had to. That's lots of writing no matter how you look at it.
He had a sense of calm about him that never really came about me during that time.
I didn't pick up on this practice for my own studies. I did all right, but I also did all night.
It set me up for many years of doing things at the last minute. Lots of extra stress and lost sleep.
Serious content creators plan.
More recently, some other creators I follow have made it known one way or another that they've scheduled stuff ahead.
Joe, one of the creators I followed within the past couple of years, showed a screenshot of his Kit queue in one of his articles. There were several days' worth of newsletters already scheduled and ready to go. I remember commenting on this and being a bit jealous of it.
Or John, a blogger I met online early in my creator journey, once said that he had a month's worth of posts ready (or even more) scheduled in WordPress, ripe for publishing. He could go on a couple of cruises during that time, and his content wouldn't miss a beat. A very enviable position to be in.
Or Adam, a colorful and extremely helpful character I've followed on Threads recently. He has a week's worth of posts in the hopper that will come out during his trip to Montana next week.
Are you running on empty with your content?
Running near empty with your content tank is as risky to your success — who am I kidding? to my success! — as it is to drive your car with the tank near empty.
“I know my vehicle,” you might be saying.
Suuure you do.
In any case, it's never too late to change and learn.
When this post you're reading now goes live, I'll be in my hometown attending my 35th high school reunion.
I decided that I didn't want to be thinking, worrying, or regretting over my posting schedule while I was up there.
So I filled up my content tank a bit and got things ready to go.
It was a (very) late night the night before I left, but it got done:
- Articles each day through Saturday
- Newsletters each day through Saturday
- Multiple Threads posts through the weekend
Of course, my content tank will get to empty the moment I get back if I don't do any writing while I'm up there.
But at least I know that I can fill it up a bit and keep things going for a few days.
This time around, I'd say that I filled up to about a quarter tank. Full tank for me might be a week and a half to two weeks' worth of content ready to go and scheduled.
It's all part of The GAS Method
This is a new system I'm working up, and I'd love for you to be among those who hear about it first when it hits the interwebs!
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