5 Habits of Highly Productive Online Writers & Content Creators

How to boost your writing productivity and publish your work with confidence and consistency.

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

After writing online for more than seven years, I can confidently say it’s not the most skilled writers or creators who win, but the most consistent ones.

You can’t expect to grow an audience, make an impact, or let alone earn an income from your writing if you only publish the occasional article here and there.

However, writing and publishing consistently is easier said than done.

That’s why, right now, we’ll look at five habits that the most prolific online writers practice, so you can boost your writing productivity.

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Habit 1: They Act Despite Their Fears And Doubts

The most successful creators you see online aren’t any different than you. Just like anyone, they have fears, doubts, and uncertainty about their work.

Whether it’s imposter syndrome (not feeling ‘expert’ enough to write about a topic) or the fear of rejection (what if my work isn’t good enough), even the most popular online writers are taunted by uncertainty.

The main difference is that they act despite their fears and doubts. They don’t let it stop them from writing and publishing.

As Steven Pressfield wrote in Turning Pro:

“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”

That’s what real courage is.

It’s not about being fearless or having iron self-confidence, it’s about having doubts and fears but deciding to act anyway.

So, if you ever doubt whether you’re expert enough to write about a topic or fear your writing isn’t good enough, just hit that publish button.

Get your message out there.

The worst thing that can happen is that no one reads your work (which isn’t that bad of a scenario).

But the potential upside massively outweighs the downside.

Your work can reach and impact thousands of people, grow your following, attract new high-paying clients, and lead to countless other opportunities.

So, hit that publish button despite any fears or doubts you experience.

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Habit 2: They Schedule Their Writing Sessions

One of the most common excuses we hear why writers aren’t writing consistently is “I don’t have enough time to write as much as I want.”

But as we say in our SuperWriter workshop:

You don’t just have time to write, you make time to write.

If something is important to you, whether it’s writing, working out, or spending more time with your family, you have to make time for it.

Don’t leave it up to chance.

That’s why, every Sunday, I schedule all of my writing sessions for the upcoming week in Google Calendar.

I find that whenever I schedule my writing, it actually gets done - even if I don’t necessarily feel inspired or motivated to write.

So, if you’re serious about writing online, don’t leave it up to chance. Actively make time for it by scheduling your writing sessions in your calendar.

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Habit 3: They Strive For Quality, But Not Perfection

Obviously, it’s good to strive for high-quality content. But if you find yourself tweaking, editing, and overthinking your work for far too long, you might suffer from perfectionism.

Perfectionism usually leads to one of these two scenarios:

• You don’t publish frequently enough to succeed because you spend way too much time to finish an article

• You don’t publish your work at all because you tell yourself it’s not ‘ready’ to be shared with the world yet (since it isn’t ‘perfect’ yet)

The problem with striving for perfection is that you’ll write too much in private.

If you only write in private (because you believe your work isn’t yet ‘ready’ to be shared), you’ll never get any real-world feedback on how good your work truly is.

That’s why we say in our SuperWriter workshop:

Published is better than perfect.

You’ll learn so much more from publishing your work - even if it isn’t perfect - than you possibly could by writing in private:

• You’ll learn which of your ideas resonate with other people

• You’ll discover which hooks or writing frameworks get people’s attention

• You’ll find your writing style and voice much faster

• You’ll make more connections with other writers who read your work

• You’ll get real data you can analyze (instead of drawing conclusions based on your own assumptions)

The key is to allow yourself to write things that aren’t perfect. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Allow yourself to get started no matter where you are in your writing journey.

Keep in mind that perfectionism is often just a defense mechanism.

It’s a clever excuse from our subconscious to protect us from any negative feedback or potential rejection.

(As long as you don’t publicly share your work, you can’t get any negative feedback or experience any forms of rejection.)

But if you let perfectionism run the show, you won’t write and publish consistently enough to succeed - and it’s time to let it go.

Remind yourself of the mantra ‘published is better than perfect’ and allow yourself to produce imperfect work.

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Want to become the most productive writer you can be?

Join the SuperWriter workshop, where we teach the mindsets, routines, and systems to write with consistency and publish with confidence.

For a limited time only, we offer this workshop at a 50% launch discount (and we’ve added a few cool bonuses for you).

Sounds good? Click here to join the SuperWriter workshop before enrollment closes.

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Habit 4: They Create A Distraction-Free Writing Environment

Research by RescueTime shows the average person gets distracted every 3 to 6 minutes, while a study by Microsoft revealed that the average human attention span has declined by 34% since the year 2000.

In other words, we are more distracted than ever before - and it’s no coincidence.

Modern-day digital distractions have been purposefully designed to hijack our brain’s attention system (specifically through a neurotransmitter called dopamine).

Whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, notifications from texts, or breaking news, there are a ton of distractions designed to steal your time and attention.

So, whenever writing gets boring or challenging, we tend to escape into a world of digital instant gratification.

That’s why the most prolific writers remove all possible distractions before they start writing. Instead of having to fight the temptation of distractions, they create a writing environment where focus is the default option.

Here’s how I create a distraction-free writing environment:

• Turn notifications off from social media, email, and my smartphone

• Put my smartphone out of sight (and out of reach)

• Download app/website blockers (like Freedom or App Block) to block social media and other distractions

• Put on noise-cancelling headphones and listen to focus music

• Close all unrelated internet tabs (especially email, social media, etc.)

• Write in a quiet place (like a coffee shop, library, or my home office)

I usually write in 90-minute sessions, where I protect my focus at all costs.

I set a timer and write until it goes off. After that, I’m free to check social media or other distractions again if I want.

But I’m pretty serious about protecting my writing hours.

When I write, I want to be 100% with my writing. Not 30% on Instagram, 15% reading the news, 35% checking my smartphone, and 20% writing.

When you write, actually write.

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Habit 5: They See Writing As A Long-Term Game

If you expect to grow an audience and make a lot of money quickly, you’re going to be disappointed and will likely give up too soon to see any results.

Like any good thing in life, succeeding as an online writer takes time:

• Developing your writing skills takes time (my first 20 - 30 articles were truly embarrassing)

• Building an audience takes time (it took me three months to get my first 1,000 followers on Medium)

• Making a full-time income from your writing takes time (it took me two years to reach my first $10k month)

The most prolific online creators understand this is a long-term game, so they don’t get distracted by short-term results (or lack of results).

Instead, they focus on building a consistent writing habit they can stick with for long enough to succeed.

Because with enough time and repetition, ordinary actions can compound into extraordinary results.

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If you enjoyed this article and want a step-by-step system to boost your writing productivity, join the SuperWriter workshop, where we teach the mindsets, routines, and systems to write with consistency and publish with confidence.