The first step is to put a clock on your desktop. Why is this?

Have you ever played chess against the clock? For the first time it seems like a different game. Rather than thinking all over you are to play against the rhythm of your opponent. Is there a opponent in article production? There only seems to be the public – the readers – who are watching from the side.

There is however always an opponent. This is you.

If you think that you have all day for writing articles, you are wrong. There is more in life and you have other priorities. The less time you spend on writing, the more you will free up for those other activities that require your attention.

So how do you manage this? By making a project out of it. And… by time-boxing all these little projects.

Time-boxing is a familiar concept that is used in project management. You predefine the time you are going to use for the project. For example three month. There are three pillars that support a project and you can influence two of them: time, resources and quality. The more you emphasize on two of them the less will be left for the third.

Having your writing skills as your main resources, the quality of your article is at stake when using this method. Yet an important lesson from time-boxing in management is that you can not have it perfect; the last details take most of the time.

When applying time-boxing to your article writing, you can start with an hour for one article (or whatever is more likely). During the writing process you will experience that it is serious. You have set a limit and you should work to it. This is difficult in the beginning, but it will help you organizing the process.

After a while you need less time for each article.

This will probably not work for everyone, but it is worth while giving it a go.

© 2005 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account

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