I started using a WordPress plug-in that gives you a calendar view of your posts:
This is another step toward writing in the editor by default. Asking ‘why’ a couple more times:
- Why write in the WordPress editor if it’s easier to just write in Ulysses, Evernote, Cold Turkey Writer… (all tools I also really like)? I’m writing with the intent to publish posts regularly. There’s a little more friction up front to writing in WordPress: if I’m just waking up, it’s a lot easier to open up iOS Notes and start writing there. No need to think. It delays the friction. Once I think something is shaping up then I need to move it over to WordPress at some point anyway. Some integrations make this seamless so that I could skip going into WordPress at all. At some point I do end up with two copies: the published version and the text editor version.
- Why are you trying to publish posts regularly? I write just about every day. A lot of times it is with the intent to publish, but with the above process I end up not actually transferring things over to WordPress. I end up not publishing anything. Writing in a frictionless text editor where I also write 1 word or 3 sentence notes for things means I’m kind of used to writing in a brainstormy way. (“Nobody’s going to see this anyway.”) Lots of ideas can be good until they start to look like evidence that you don’t finish things. One way to ward off that negative lens is to also have a lot of evidence that you do finish things.
- Why do you want to be someone who finishes things? That’s too far up the ‘why’ chain. Emotions are involved. Let’s get back to this editorial calendar.
Okay so the good thing is that I can plan out posts and stick to the schedule. I can build trust in some past self that deemed this order of content the proper order of things. If I have something that’s really exciting to me at the moment, then I can bump it up sooner but at least do a quick check to rank it against other ideas I wanted to write about.
There’s also a view for opening up a small text-only editor. It’s the right amount of space for me to jot some topics down and add a quote. At the same time, it reminds me not to go too deep into the post yet.
If I’m good about things, I’ll always have a book quote and some bullet notes ready to write about first thing in the morning. Then I can create before consuming.
Summary: Having a calendar is helpful, who would’ve thought???