A colleague recently asked:

Creating content takes SO long. Do you have any tips to make it faster other than just doing it?

Content creation really is a labor of love. Research from coSchedule found that it takes 1-6 hours, on average, to create a single piece of content. That’s a lot of time! But the return makes it worth the effort.

And I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I’m going to share to help make your content creation faster. 

First, I’d recommend creating a content calendar and schedule so that you have a plan in place. Having a plan alone will save you time because you’re not scrambling to come up with ideas at the last minute.

Once you have that in order, you can start using the hacks below to speed up the content creation process without compromising quality.

5 Hacks to Create Content Faster

1. Focus on Evergreen Content

One of the best things you can do to speed up your content creation is to focus on evergreen content – content that never gets old.

Evergreen content will be just as relevant a year from now as it is today. It includes things like:

• Guides
• How-to tutorials
• Lessons you’ve learned
• Foundational concepts or processes

Building up a collection of evergreen content will save you so much time in the future. 

2. Recycle and Remix

Now that you’ve invested a lot of time into creating evergreen content, you can leverage it to create so many other pieces of content.

For example, can you take a social media post and turn it into an article or a newsletter?

Or can you expand upon that social media post and make it a part two?

OR can you just reshare it completely? 

(Hint: probably so.) Let me share an example from my own experience:

In 2022, I posted content that I had already posted for two months straight. I don’t usually do this (I never have before), but long story short, I wound up having my baby prematurely. I was not prepared to go on maternity leave when it happened. However, because I had so much evergreen content, my team was able to keep posting content I previously posted. As a result, I was still posting consistently for two whole months without having to create a single new post.

That’s the power of evergreen content. And it can save you a ton of time. 

Now you might be asking, “Won’t my followers notice?” And the answer is: probably not. 

Justin Welsh said it best in his Tweet below.

3. Set Time Limits – They Need to be Strict

Do you push your content off until “later?” We’re all guilty of putting content on the back burner or letting the creation process drag out. If you want to create content faster, do the following:

• Set strict timelines
• Shut off all distractions
• Create, create, create
• Follow Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill an allotted timeframe. If you give yourself four hours to complete a blog post, it will take four hours. Give yourself three hours? You’ll finish it in three hours.

4. Collaborate With Others

Creating content alone isn’t your only option. Creators can leverage others in their industry to make the process more fun and exciting. 

Sit down and figure out:

• Who can you team up with?
• Who serves your same audience?

For example, let’s assume that you serve law firms. Who else works with law firms? Can you connect with these people and co-create content together to better the industry as a whole? 

Not sure who these people are? Start searching on LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, and other niche sites. 

An example of a company that did an amazing job at this is FloQast. They created a CPE learning platform. As part of the learning platform, the company started a gameshow and invited CPA and accounting content creators to:

• Answer questions
• Ask questions
• Have fun together

FloQast asked me, among many others, to join the game show, including Drew Carrick, Terrell Turner and Kelly Rohrs.

And we were all able to connect and collaborate on some amazing content together! You don’t need to create a gameshow to create fun content – just connect with others.

5. Leverage AI – With Care

AI is somewhat of a “taboo” for some creators because no one should be copying and pasting it. You need to finesse the content, verify stats, and make it your own. If you’re not posting consistently, AI can help. 

AI content is riddled with words like:

• Journey
• Embark
• Therefore
• Delve
• Etc.

And don’t get me started on the endless emojis that are created with AI. 

So, what do I recommend AI help with?

1. Brainstorming, especially if you have writer’s block.
2. Editing! Sorry, Grammarly, but in my experience, it’s better to let ChatGPT edit your content for you.
3. Outlines. You can have AI help you come up with killer outlines and even reorganize them for you.
4. Creating hooks that will keep people on the page and reading your content.

If you’re interested in how ChatGPT can further help you with your content, be sure to read my guide on 4 Types of Content You Can Create Using ChatGPT.

When you create content faster, it’s a lot less tedious to produce. You might even find that you have more fun in the process and make posts that resonate with your audience better. Critical changes, like those above, and strict time limits will help.

And, that’s a wrap on this Dear Katie question.

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Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a question? 

Submit it here

Until next time, cheers to your success!

Katie