Content often follows a looping, twisty path – in your head, in the planning of it, and on the page – and throws up various challenges along the way.

Whether you’ve arrived here with a specific idea, project or challenge in mind or just feel stuck but don’t know why, there are three key areas to explore that can get you on the path of publishing good, well-written, well-produced content – and keep you there.

Get ready

Are you really ready to get started?

Perhaps you’ve been trying to get your project off the ground for a while or find it’s stalled or lost its way? Or you want to make a change or try something new but are feeling somewhat anxious or daunted by it? Or frustrated by going round in circles?

Although there are no certainties, you do have to be ready enough to get started. Often feeling uncomfortable or dithery has nothing to do with lack of specific technical or creative skill.

It can just mean that you are still unclear or unsure at some level. You may already have a sense of why this is, or there may be something hidden somewhere in your subconscious.

One approach is to just try and battle on regardless. Apart from feeling like very hard work, the risk here is that you jump into tactical activity (also known as producing stuff) far too soon, leading to a lot of wasted time and resources and even more doubt, confusion and frustration.

An alternative approach is to pause and take another or a closer look at what’s going on and any blocks to clarity or action, in order to create a simple, workable way forward. To gain a hopeful, encouraging, and supportive perspective. Perhaps unveil new potential or possibility.

Through this process, we come to better understand our purpose (for this article, this idea, this project or this next phase of our work). We reach the point of being able to craft a clear, simple strategy which feels ‘right’ and which we can feel confident to put into action. We know how, at a certain hierarchical level, we’re going to achieve what we want to achieve. The next stage is to plan the detail.

At the beginning, we might be testing readiness to get started. But as we progress, we’re likely to circle back for regular check points of reflection, learning, and readjustment to keep the momentum going and, of course, to think ahead and get ready for the next phase or project.

Plan

From strategy to action

At this point, we now know where we’re going. We understand the landscape, our route and our means of getting there.

Now we can turn our attention to our process and plans in more detail – whether we’re working at the business, career, project or individual article level. We’re now getting organised to get things done.

And although this is about the detail of what to do, more importantly it’s about consciously deciding what not to do. To avoid trying to do too much all at once.

We’ll discuss and work with processes, plans, frameworks, and techniques that are helpful to you. Not things that will be just another burden on the task list.

One key component here is who will do the work? You? Me? Someone else?

Content work encompasses many roles and a good final result always comes from a team effort. One person can – with the right skills – carry out more than one role. The main thing is to be clear about what roles your project or task requires before deciding who will do what.

And planning is not just about how to create something for the first time. It includes how to keep it up to date and fresh and relevant for your audience. It includes knowing, at the outset, how and when to review progress and outcomes – from strategy through delivery to assessing how well our content performs.

Create

Time to write, produce and publish

You might now have an inkling of why jumping straight into creating stuff can be problematic. The rush to be productive might leave you stuck or overwhelmed or lost or worried or anxious or frustrated or bored; everyone’s different.

But by getting ready and with sound planning, the creating phase has a sense of ease about it. That’s different to it being easy. But it’s usually easier to keep going and even enjoy the view, when we sense we’re on the right path, headed in the right direction. Even if we consciously stop, take a break and adjust our route along the way.

In our create phase, there are three main ways we could work together.

• I coach you (or someone in your team) to write and/or hone your publishing skills.
• I manage your content or publication project for you.
• I write, edit or update your content for you.

Sometimes one of those predominates. Sometimes it’s a mix of any two or all three.

Next steps?

If you want to explore any or all of these aspects and think we might work well together, do get in touch for a chat. I’d love to hear from you.