Credit: J6Design.com.au

Credit: J6Design.com.au

How to Hack your Post Writing

Do you know what the one thing is that most small owners dislike doing above everything else? Coming up with ideas for writing regular social media posts.

For many entrepreneurs, sole traders and small business owners, writing can be the most frustrating task they face every day. Some actually hate it.

Let me ask you a question. How many times have you actively avoided writing social media posts by finding something else to do instead? Quite a few times, I am sure.

Learning To Love What You Hate

If you really dislike writing blog posts for your site, or creating posts for and , it can really come across in your writing. When this happens, then you can be sure your readers will not find anything you write interesting to read either.

I am going to teach you a simple hack that I use sometimes when I am not feeling very inspired to write. A lot of writers experience times when their creative juices are not exactly flowing. This is a trick that I picked up from a fellow writer, and it really works a treat!

How to Hack Your Head!

You can actually use this hack when you are struggling to write just about anything. Even that weekly hand-written letter to your granny that you struggle to write can be given the same treatment.

First things first, choose your weapon of choice! Some of you may be more comfortable using a note pad and pen, others may be better using a keyboard and a word processing package. Heck, I don’t care if you choose to use parchment and quill, as long as you are using what you are most comfortable with.

Next, you will need a timer. This can be your kitchen timer shaped like a bulb of garlic or a tomato, or whatever your chosen whimsy is. If you don’t have a kitchen timer, then you can Google for one to run on your laptop or tablet. There are even smart-phone apps that you can download and use for free. Whatever you choose to use, it would be helpful to have an alarm that sounds once your timer counts down to zero.

Now, what I want you to do is to choose three words. These words have to be relevant to your business, service or product that you are wanting to promote. Got them? Good.

You are now ready for the rules:

1. The very first word you write down must be one of your three chosen words.
2. Your other two chosen words must be included in your first sentence.

Get yourself comfortable with your writing instrument of choice. Set your timer for 5 minutes and put it somewhere out of sight so you are not going to become distracted by watching it count down.

Now, write as fast as you can. Don’t stop to think about anything. Just write down everything that pops into your head. Your three chosen words will help to spark things off in your head, so just keep writing them out.

  • Don’t stop to read back what you have already written.
    Don’t stop to edit what you have put down.
    Don’t pass judgement on what you have written – it doesn’t have to make sense.
    Just keep writing out all the words and phrases that pop into your head as fast as you can.
    You start writing as soon as you set the timer, and you do not stop writing until you hear the timer ring.

Once you hear the timer ring out, then you can go back to read what you have written, and edit it to your heart’s content.

What you will find in amongst all those spewed out words will be some great one-line quotes suitable for Twitter posts, and rich sound bites that would be ideal for Facebook or G+.

You may be rolling your eyes at me right now, or even just furrowing your brow in a sceptical way. But you will not know how good this is until you actually give it a go yourself.

OK, you will need to spend a little time editing your words to knock them into shape, but take a step back and look at how much relatable stuff you have managed to write in just 5 minutes!

You may have provided yourself with a whole weeks worth of Twitter posts from a single 5 minutes of hack writing. Isn’t that better than sitting for 20 minutes staring at a blank screen or an empty piece of paper, scratching your head and wondering what on earth you are going to write today?