Are You Using Drafts To Get Ahead?
I have a quick tip for you today that will come in handy as you’re planning your blog posts. It’s using the draft feature. Yes, it’s handy that WordPress and most other blogging platforms have a way to save your posts as drafts so you can continue to work on it over the course of a few days. It’s even better that they usually auto-save for you – at least it is in my case. But there’s another great way to use the draft feature.
You can use drafts to get ahead of the blogging game in several different ways. Let’s start with the most obvious one.
Use Drafts to Work on Your Next Blog Post (or Two)
The most obvious way to use drafts is of course to work on your current blog post until it is ready to publish. But don’t just stop there. If you know you have a busy day tomorrow or later on in the week, go ahead and give yourself a head start by creating a draft and working on it here and there as you can fit it in your busy day. You’ll be glad you did when it comes time to wrap up that particular post.
Use Drafts to Plan Out Your Week
You can also use drafts to plan out your blogging for the week. Let’s say you want to post 5 times per week. Come up with 5 topics and create a draft for each. Then start working on them, making sure you wrap up and publish at least one of the posts on each of your publishing days.
Not only will this keep you on track and show you at a glance what you’ll be blogging about this week, it also allows you to work on multiple posts throughout the week, giving you options when you get stuck on writing one post.
Use Drafts as A Way of Storing Blog Post Ideas
Let’s wrap this up with my favorite way to use the drafts feature. And that’s to use it as storage container for ideas for future blog posts. Here’s how to do it. When you get an idea for a blog post, go ahead and create a draft. Come up with a working title and make a quick note of what your blog post will be about. If you’re feeling ambitious, go ahead and write a quick outline for the post. Then save it as a draft.
Do this anytime you come up with an idea and save them for later. Then whenever you need something to blog about, browse through your drafts and pick one of these. The idea is there and you may even have done some of the writing already. These drafts make for fast blog posts and are just the thing when you’re suffering from writers block.
How many blog posts drafts to you have right now? Can you finish and post one of them today? Do you have a few ideas to add to draft mode today?
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I have 87 drafts . Obviously I love this post. Lol. Good advice.looking forward to more…..
I also use draft even throughout writing my blogs. I learned this the hard way when my content disappeared while write. I did find a saving grace in hitting CTRL & Z to bring it back as long as I hadn’t written anything else yet. Vey helpful blog post!
I know the feeling sometimes my cat Gidget walks on my keyboard and pushes lots of buttons. Having things saved regularly really helps.
I have been saving my work as a draft from time to time…usually I work on stuff for a max of 1-2 full days. But YES, this is a great feature and to be honest, this is a great reminder to take your time and create/ produce the very best work you can. And to have a checklist of things to be including in/on your post and saving as a draft can help you go back and forth to get things “right”. WOW – MEOW- #MOL (meow out loud) what a powerful post!
Thanks Pamela. I look froward to reading more of your new blog posts.
I do have a handful of drafts saved at this time, although some of them are ideas I’ve abandoned. I do like this idea, and I think I will start implementing it. I do like seeing what drafts I have on hand to inspire me to write! Thanks for the tips on planning blog posts with drafts.
Thanks Julie. Creating this series of blog posts about blog posts has really helped me be more organized, and consistent.
THIS IS BRILLIANT! Your method is so much better than my jotting ideas down on post-it notes and notebooks in my purse. Thank you!