De-Sprawlifying Content Marketing for Personal Projects, Solo- and Micro-Businesses
Here are 8 ways to make “making content” a project.
Oh content. I love creating thee. I love consuming thee. And I hate doing both.
When it’s good, it’s really good, and I think “this is magical, what a wonderful medium”. When it’s bad, it’s the worst of the worst of everything.
But there is no denying, as a means of marketing a small business and sharing ideas, it can be very effective.
“Creating content” is an interesting question in personal projects and content marketing driven businesses on a similar scale. Because most content is very short (from a project management perspective no one calls a novel or a full length movie “content”), but there are many of them (content marketing generally requires more than one piece of “content”).
So it’s like lots of mini projects (individual pieces of content) make up one large project (your feed or website or platform) which fits within a much larger project (your business or your life).
No wonder it sprawls.
If you like sneak peeks, here are the solution options we’re covering (some work for more than just content marketing):
> Screw the project and make it a habit
> Establish (and maintain) a streak
> Loyalty card it
> Create in collections
> Time bound creation
> Make it a big goal
> Write it like a book
> Fill in a Mind Map or Table of Contents or Body of Work
Zooming in, zooming out, and switching hats
One of the most underrated skills in creative work is being able to change the scale you’re thinking at. When you’ve been focusing in on the details, then zoom out to look at the whole. When you’ve been grappling with the whole project, then zoom in to dig deep into the details.
Content might not be high art, but it is creative work all the same.
Context switching and multi tasking gets a bad rap for good reason. But switching hats is a vital skill in focusing on what you want to be focusing on.
If we’re in business we don’t have a marketing department, or someone whose whole job is to drive the marketing side of our business forward. And if it’s a personal project or side project, it’s certainly not our whole deal.
When you run a solo-business you wear a lot of hats, only one of which is marketing.
When you run a micro-business you may not be the only one doing the marketing, but someone is, and they are also probably wearing multiple hats.
From a creation perspective, there are many layers to “making content.”
There’s the creating of individual pieces: some pieces of content require a text doc and 15 minutes of your time. Some pieces of content require a production schedule on the scale of a concert film. Most pieces require something in between. More than nothing, less than massive.
Then there’s the creating of the whole: The project of the whole IG feed or the whole blog or the whole SubStack that continues for… ever?
And if you truly want to overthink things, then there is the project of content marketing within the greater project of your business. But the less we dwell on that the better all around.
I don’t have one solution to rule them all. It is the nature of content to sprawl. But I do have some options for how to turn “making content” from a gnawing allconsuming monster into a project with a beginning, a middle, an end, and milestones in between.
How to use this list:
The short answer is: use what works for you at this moment.
Pick one. Try it out. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, adjust.
Different types of creators will favor different tools. Different businesses will adopt different methods more and less seamlessly. And our needs change over time so our business tools should too.
Right now, I’m finding the Loyalty Card It method works for me right now. At other times I’ve done collections, and for many years a Wednesday “what I’m working on” post was just a habit (like water before coffee).
Use what works for you. And if you want to work together on your content marketing plan, get in touch.
Making “creating content” and “content marketing” a (more) manageable project:
> Screw the project and make it a habit
We’ll start with the “it’s not a project” solution first.
Client communications is not a project. Brushing your teeth is not a project. Training for a marathon might be a project but going for a run is not a project – these are habits or “just things we do”.
If you can make your marketing a habit, it becomes just something you do, instead of a project.
You can’t always resolve a problem by redefining the situation and poof the problem goes away, but I love when we can.
> Establish (and maintain) a streak
A streak is like a habit with some stakes. Maintaining a streak is somewhere between a project and a habit. Not as banal as “just” a habit. But without some of the downsides of a bigger project.
So if it’s your thing, publishing every day or every week or every month is kind of perfect for establishing and maintaining a streak.
Just a heads up: some people love maintaining a streak. Some find this particular gamification technique abhorrent. So while the gamification crowd may think everyone is motivated by maintaining a streak, your individual mileage may vary.
> Loyalty card it
This is what I’m finding currently works for me.
You know loyalty cards for businesses? Every X purchases you get some sort of discount or freebie. My old brows place did for every 10 appointments, you get a free brow threading. My old local yarn shop did every 10 purchases, you get a 10% discount. That sort of thing.
You could do this for publishing content: every 10 published pieces, you get yourself flowers or ice cream or chocolate or a massage or whatever.
If you publish every weekday, this would fill up in two weeks. If you publish every week, this would be every 2.5 months. If you publish twice a week, it’s just over a month. If you publish three times a week, maybe your loyalty card is after 9 or 12 pieces of published content. If you publish whenever, you’ll fill it up when you fill it up.
I’m really enjoying the balance between the concrete steps (filling the card), continuity (each card is a new “project” but without the starting friction), and anticipation (celebrating the card being filled).
You could obviously do this for publishing content. But you could also do this for developing content – time spent writing, or filming, or editing, etc.
You could even do concurrent loyalty cards – one for creating and one for publishing.
> Create in collections
This has worked for me in the past, and I’ve loved it.
Instead of content sprawling forever, you create in bursts. I did this when I was publishing my podcast. I would release 5-8 episodes at a time all focused around the same theme.
This has the advantage of giving clear parameters to the content. Instead of podcasting forever, I was focused on creating a collection of 5 episodes on a very specific topic. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end with clear milestones in between. I knew when I was at the very beginning, I knew I was halfway through, and I knew when I was finished.
From a creativity perspective, this also takes the pressure off of any single piece of content. Instead of trying to fit everything into one piece, collections give us space to develop ideas, and tackle sprawling thoughts. We can consider different perspectives or situations and give each idea its due.
> Time bound creation
Time bound as in “this month’s content” or “this year’s content.”
For this, you really just need an editorial calendar or publishing schedule. The beauty of an editorial calendar or publishing schedule for solo- and micro-businesses or personal projects, (when business is not publishing content), is in knowing how much content you need to make.
If you publish once per month, you need 4-5 pieces for the month, 12-13 for the quarter, and 52 for the year.
If you publish every day, you need ~30 per month, ~90 for the quarter, and 365 pieces for the year. Of course, if you publish multiple times per day, you need more than that.
Creating this month’s content can be a project. Creating this quarter or this year’s content could also be a project.
Knowing when you’ve created enough (and can therefore stop creating more), is a superpower of an editorial calendar.
> Make it a big goal
I know someone who once set the goal to help 1,000 people leave their day jobs. She worked with business owners and that goal turned “going to work” into something more.
Goal-like projects give structure, milestones, and motivation to something that can sprawl into infinity and beyond.
Publishing on SubStack, or creating YouTube videos, or writing blog posts, or posting TikToks could become: publish 10, or 50, or 100 or 500 or 1,000 pieces. If you’ve already started your channel, newsletter, blog, or profile it could be: publish your next 10, or 50, or 100, or 1,000 pieces.
The goal gives you framing for your content. You know when you’ve started, you know how far along you are, and you’ll know when you’ve reached the end.
> Write it like a book
A big problem with “creating content” is the infinite possibility. The variety and quantity of topics, frequency, platforms, mediums, and more makes it a lot. It’s like the math behind a capsule wardrobe but on a much larger scale.
(Speaking of topic variety – I also write about personal style over here, and have a particular appreciation for the math that makes capsule wardrobes so magical. So this comparison is less out of left field than it could have been.)
The beauty of writing a book is it does not go on forever, and there are parameters of what you leave out. No matter how endless it feels. Books do not go on forever.
You could write very orderly. Outline your content, start writing at the beginning, keep going until the end, and publish it along the way like a serial. (It worked for Dickens.) When you’ve reached the end, you’re done.
Or you could write more freeform. Give yourself an outline, write a piece from section 1, then section 7, then section 5, etc.. You can write and publish in the order you feel called to write in. Then if you’re feeling snazzy interlink the pieces so people can easily explore your back catalogue. When you’ve covered it all, you’re done.
If your content wouldn’t all necessarily fit within a single book, you could treat it like you have multiple books in the works and cover multiple subjects.
> Fill in a Mind Map or Table of Contents or Body of Work
This is kind of like a less linear book-style-project. Instead of starting with the outline, you start with the piece of content. Each piece you publish then goes on a mind map (or in a table of contents or body of work outline). As you publish subsequent pieces, you connect them to previously published pieces.
The key is clearly connecting this piece you’re creating with something larger than itself. Piece A and Piece B may both relate to your topic but might not connect directly, until you write Piece G in a few months which bridges the two pieces together. As you continue building, the connections become stronger.
Once the table of contents or mind map or body of work feels complete, time to spin off a different thread.
This finish line has a bit of a “you’ll know it when you feel it” vibe but can contain satisfying milestones.
Which will you try?
Just because content creation’s natural state in a landscape of relentless algorithms is sprawling and all encompassing, doesn’t mean we need to approach it that way. Adding a beginning, a middle, and an end with milestones in between gives us some concept of structure.
As always, use what works for you and leave the rest. If you’re unsure what to try, pick one out of a hat, or ask a friend or coach, you’ll know soon enough if it’s the right fit for you right now (or not).
Like I said, I myself am working with the Loyalty Card It concept. It has enough structure to be helpful, without turning into a cage of my own making.
If this is something you also struggle with, which will you try?
Why don’t we talk about seasons of life on the micro scale?
When I locate myself in Picking-Up and Putting-Away Time, I can focus on clearing the desk, sorting the mail, and doing the dishes. I can trust that everything will get its season.
Each time I’ve sat down at my desk recently I’ve had a nagging voice in my head listing the things I haven’t touched in weeks: writing, marketing, emails, messages, etc. etc. etc. Things that are part of my normal life and business cadence.
Only to run up against a messy desk, a stack of mail, a tower of dishes, and a mind that needs to catch up with itself.
You see, the few weeks before this “nagging meets messy” period were busy-busy. There were multiple clients increasing their commitments, a presentation to prep and give, a last minute doctor’s appointment opening, a rescheduled family gathering, and more. All added amidst day to day business and life and health and world stuff.
My desk slowly got messier, the mail piled up higher, dishes overflowed their dedicated dishes tray, and processing in real time wasn’t happening.
It makes sense that jumping straight back into my usual cadence wasn’t happening.
Everything required was getting done – client commitments, basic business and life stuff – but nothing extra. Dishes and desk and mail and mind needed to be cleared first.
Seasons of life is a common enough concept, and really useful. But I always see it talked about over the span of years or decades. Why don’t we intentionally apply this concept on the micro level?
It’s intuitive enough, I guess, the desk needs to be cleaned so we clean it. But without a clear framework it can be hard to figure out where we are. And when we don’t know where we are, it can be easy to expect ourselves to be somewhere we are not. (At least I do.)
When I remind myself I’m in Rest and Recover Time, I can remember that it is ok I hadn’t jumped back into everything right away. When I locate myself in Picking-Up and Putting-Away Time, I can focus on clearing the desk, sorting the mail, and doing the dishes. I can trust that everything will get its season.
I think about micro-seasons in this way:
Here’s the rhythm I see in a functional micro-seasons cycle:
→ Busy Time
→ Rest and Recovery
→ Pick-Up + Put-Away
→ Ramp-Up
→ (Back to Busy)
For me, these usually happen in the timeframe of a few weeks.
It’s tempting to jump from busy to busy to busy to busy. But this cycle isn’t idealistic, it’s kind of what my body and brain quietly needs, whether or not my calendar and schedule reflect it. (And I’m not the only one.)
When we build systems and calendars and internal monologues that go from busy to busy to busy, we rest when we’re forced to. Usually when the flu takes us out or we crash at the worst possible time. Take it from someone who would always get a bad cold or flu right after a big work project wrapped, when we ignore our bodies, they get louder.
When we bypass recovery, or skip re-entry, we don’t create margins between what was and what’s next. For a while, we can get away with it (sometimes for a shockingly long time). But eventually, it wears down both the external system (your calendar, your commitments, your delivery)… and your internal one (your clarity, your willingness, your rest).
The longer we push through, the longer recovery takes, and the longer picking-up the pieces takes, and the longer ramping back up takes. Suddenly our micro-seasons of life are looking a lot like macro-seasons of life.
If you would like to personally something to do with this concept:
- Name your current season (micro or macro).
Locate where you are. Not where your inner monologue thinks you should be. But where you actually are.
- Protect and commit to the season you’re in.
If you’re in a busy season, let the mail pile up, let the dishes linger. If you’re in a recovery period, protect your recovery time. If you’re picking-up and putting-away, commit to it. If you’re ramping up, ramp-up at the speed of your energy.
- Let clarity replace urgency.
Instead of doing everything all at once, do what is right for the season and space you are in.
Usually you don’t need to go faster or slower. You need to go in rhythm.
Featured photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
The right to-do list for the right job
Here is an incomplete collection of my go-to to-do lists.
My relationship to my to-do list changed completely when I realized there were different styles of to-do lists I could use.
Different types of lists for different types of projects, or purposes, or days.
Sometimes the point of my to-do list is focus, sometimes it’s productivity, sometimes it is merely to have a record of the day.
Here is an incomplete collecting of the types of to-do lists I use and how I think about them:
As always, use what works, leave what doesn’t.
Classic to-do list:
This is what I assume people mean when they say a “to-do list.”
Purpose: task tracking and management.
Format: a list of things that need to be done. There may or may not be some sort of organization or prioritization. Maybe all the tasks that involve the same project or person or area get highlighted in one color. Maybe some tasks get sub-tasks or sub-sub-tasks. Maybe highest priority tasks go at the top or get stars or something else. But then again, maybe not.
Length / Time Frame: unspecified. I’ve had classic to-do lists that last an hour. I’ve had classic to-do lists that kept running for months, with tasks flowing in and out.
Running done list:
This is less task management, and more energy and momentum management.
Purpose: momentum.
Format: a list of tasks that you build as you’ve completed them. You start with a blank page. Write down one or two (preferably tiny) things, then you do them, check them off, and write down the next one or two tiny things to be done.
For example: write down “Email Erin.” Then go email Erin. Come back. Mark the task as done. Repeat.
This builds a cadence of keeping commitments to yourself and getting things done. Which generates momentum and keeps the day moving forward.
Length / Time Frame: short. The aim is to build momentum and give yourself credit for what you’re completing. (Though it could be fun, maybe in an overwhelming kind of way, to keep this going for days on end.)
The Most Important:
A micro list of the 1 to 3 most important things.
Purpose: focus.
Format: write down the most important things, keep it short, and as long as those 1, 2, or 3 things get done, you’re good to go.
Length / Time Frame: short list, unspecified time frame. Though I’ve found, with a longer the time frame this becomes more like a list of goals or objectives and less like a to-do list.
I find “the most important things for today” or “the most important things for this week” or “the most important things for this project” the most impactful time frames for me.
But I know some people like doing these for the month, or the quarter, or the year. You do you.
The Most Important (+ some other stuff):
A micro list of the 1 to 3 most important things + some other stuff.
Purpose: focus when you don’t have the luxury of hyper focus.
Format: this is like The Most Important with a Classic To-Do List tacked on at the end. The key here is keeping the focus on the 1, 2, or 3 most important things to do.
Being able to hyper focus on the ultra essential is a luxury that not everyone has access to. This style of to-do list gives the ultra essential items their due focus while also having space for the other stuff.
Length / Time Frame: short list, unspecified time frame. But again, I find the shorter the time frame the easier this is to wrap my head around.
The Punch List:
A punch list can have a very specific project-management meaning. But I think of them as: a to-do list for the very end of a project when there are a million tiny tasks to be completed and you just need to work your way through them.
Purpose: a long list of all the final touches and tasks. I use these kind of like a parking lot of to-dos for a project I’m actively working on. The real goal is to get things out of my head and into something resembling order.
Format: a list of tasks, sometimes with some sort of grouping or organizing, but usually just a startlingly long list. As much as I try to have a complete picture of what still needs to be done when I create this list, inevitably new tasks pop up and get added to it.
Length / Time Frame: the final push to get a project done. If I start a punch list before the final stretch of a project I find it overwhelming or something more akin to project planning.
The Parking Lot By Any Other Name Still Gets Ignored:
A list of projects, tasks, or ideas that live in one place but you are not actively working on.
Purpose: keep ideas and projects contained and safe somewhere I can find them again but out of my brain.
Format: I’m still working on figuring out a method for using a parking lot that fits into my life and projects. Ideally this is one spot for everything that is a good idea but not a priority right now, and I’d review it regularly.
In reality, these ideas end up in the nearest notebook, post-it, journal, planner, or scrap of paper. Until I rediscover them.
Length / Time Frame: TBD.
Do you have a to-do list you’d add to the list?
