Why I write Better Blog Posts When I Am High
I am writing this at 37,000 Feet looking out over London as I head to Belgium for a couple of days much needed rest over the Xmas holidays. Writing in the air is something that I often do as I have no distractions up here due to the lack of Wifi and I usually find that I write some of my best and most appreciated posts (more comments, more Re tweets, more links etc) in the air. I’d even go as far as saying if every blog post I ever wrote was while travelling this would be a far more successful blog. I wanted to think about this more and try to figure out if I could transfer this to all my writing every single day of the week…
Why Is The Content Better At 37,000 Feet?
When I finish my post with a couple of images after a flight and hit the publish button I just know it is my best work. I know it will be a hit. There has to be some factors that make the posts better when in the air and I think they are…
No Distractions
When working on a blog post normally I might have about 10 others things on the go including email, Facebook, Twitter, video editing, recipes, a phone call and people working in the room with me. All of these things are going to grab some of my attention and divert my attention from the blog post. At 37,000 Feet all I have is a plain white page on my laptop to focus on.
Focus
The flights I get are usually between 60 and 90 minutes in length which means that after take offs and landings I’ll have about 45 minutes to write my post. I am always determined to write an entire post in 45 minutes so I have razor like focus and a clear defined goal.
How Can I Repliacte This at 0 Feet?
Writing great content is easier said than done but there are a few lessons that we can all learn from the examples above if we are to start producing great content time after time…
Lock Yourself In A Room
You don’t need to literally do this but do get away from all the distractions that you have in your life by taking yourself away to a quiet place where you can concentrate. You’ll start to think of this as your quiet room, a place where you go to get things done without any distractions.
Turn Off Your Computer
Well don’t turn the whole thing off but make sure to turn the WIFI off. We all know the scenario where you sit in front of a blank page thinking of something to write while you skip off to various different blogs and websites looking for inspiration but as you do that you get distracted by other articles and social media tools and 10 minutes brainstorming turns in to an hour of surfing the web, You’ll be much better off if you turn everything off and just concentrate on that page you need to write.
Set Time Limits
My writing reaches it’s goals when I am on a plane because I know the time constraints I have in place. I have a very specific goal and for that reason I normally make it. Set aside an hour of every day or 30 minutes or whatever it takes and have that time for nothing other than creating your content. Don’t give yourself extensions, don’t bend the rules and no cheating and you’ll see that you end up creating much better content.
Conclusions
There is an awful lot of noise coming from the Internet these days with all the live streams and Twitter clients and instant messaging and with those running it can be nearly impossible to create great content. Everybody will have a different technique to help create great content but I have discovered mine by accident while flying and adapted it to the real world. You need to figure out what works best for you (it might be listening to Iron Maiden full blast in a busy room) and run with it as much as possible. Finding the best conditions around you and figuring out what works for you is the key to creating great content.
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