Are you one of the many who use lack of time as a reason to put-off building a personal brand by writing provocative thought leadership articles, books, starting a podcast, frequently updating your blog, or submitting guest posts on other blogs?
If you don’t have the time now, when will you have the time?
Lack of time is an unfortunate reality for most of us; today, everyone is stretched then by family demands, financial pressures, job expectations, and an “always connected” Internet/cell phone world.
Nevertheless, each year, new subject area experts appear as competitors in every area.
What’s their secret?
Since everyone shares 24-hour days, and no amount of wishful thinking is likely to reduce your workload, there are mainly just 2 things you can do to find the time to build your personal brand:
- Commitment. Commitment means making your personal brand a priority in your life, not just something you do when you finish your “real” job. Commitment involves recognizing the importance of creating a personal brand, making difficult choices, and cultivating the habits needed to create the content you need to establish a a compelling personal brand in your field.
- Efficiency. After making the commitment to build your personal brand, you have to cultivate the habits of efficiency. Efficiency involves multiplying your time by accomplishing in 30-minutes a day what would normally take you 60 or 90 minutes a day. Efficiency involves writing strategically, so your words and key ideas can be leveraged as broadly as possible.
The following are some ideas learned from authors and subject area experts whom I’ve interviewed during the past 18 months.
7 time-saving personal branding tips
Time limits. Try writing your blog posts in 30-minutes, or less. Stress builds, and productivity often gets clogged, when you take a writing task too seriously. The solution is to commit to writing your blog posts in 30-minutes. Words are far more likely to flow when you spend your time writing, rather than over-thinking the topic before you begin writing. Writing quickly also gives you more time to review and self-edit your post before sharing it with the Internet.- Technology. One recently self-published author I interviewed purchased an inexpensive, hand-held digital recorder and dictates blog posts and sections of chapters while driving to client meetings or stopped at traffic lights. When he gets back, he plugs the digital recorder into his computer, and his voice recognition software program transcribes his dictation and prepares the first draft.
- Expanding topics. Although the practice is by no means universal, more and more individuals are building their personal brands and leveraging their writing by expanding blog posts into articles, ebooks, and chapters of brand-building books.
- Condensing topics. The same idea works in reverse; blog posts can be condensed to their essence and reused as tip sheets and sidebars in articles and books.
- Reformatting. Content ideas should transcend media; ideas that first appear as blog posts can be addressed in podcasts and YouTube videos. Likewise, after creating a podcast, you might be able to convert the topic into 2 or 3 separate blog posts addressing aspects of the podcast. Each media has its own followers. More important, each time you re-address a topic, you’re likely to come up with new ideas.
- Live connections. One of the easiest ways to develop new content is to present an on-going series of free interviews and teleseminars which are recorded and transcribed. Live events create deadlines that overcome procrastination and prompt action. Your enthusiasm builds, and your voice changes, when you’re projecting to a live audience, and the ideas flow as they tend to during conversations.
- Crowd-sourcing. Many profitable personal brands have been based on tapping into the power of others, often by providing an opportunity for others to share their expertise and ideas. By soliciting success stories and examples of mistakes made and lessons learned, or even just commenting on the videos found on the TED.Org site, ( not only taps into the power of story, but provides a foundation for your critical analyses and observations.
Personal branding sense demands efficient content creation
The above are just a few of the ways you can save time while building your personal brand with helpful and relevant content. There’s no time to waste! If you want to succeed in the Web 2.0 world, you must establish your personal brand, and personal brands dependent content. Your ability to build your personal brand is, ultimately, tied to your ability to save time creating content. Do you agree? What’s your favorite time-saving technique? Do you have a tip you’d like to share with others? Submit your ideas as comments, below.
Author:
Roger C. Parker shares ideas for planning writing, promoting, & profiting ideas and strategies in his daily writing tips blog. His latest book is #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, & Event Titles.
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I whole heartedley agree with you Roger. A personal brand is vitally important in blogging whick is why I have my name as a domain for my blog!
I tend to suffer a lot from procrastination but i have practises in place for me to overcome this!
1 Thing I love to do is carry a little notebook with me at all times as people never know when an Idea for a blog post rises to the surface! So for 24 hours a day 7 days a week I have my little notebook.
Another thing i do is to create a weekly timetable for writing a post or 2 commenting on others blogs and working on my social networks and its improtant not to get distracted when utilising your time on the internet as there is a lot of temptation to get distracted which is why I have on my timetable a period called “Fun time” for the times I want to check out that new funny youtube video!
Anyway thanks for Sharing this post Roger. Also could you make the text in this posting comment field a little darker as its straining my eyes trying to write this!
All The Best.
-Phillip
Dear Phillip:
Thank you for your kind words, and–especially–your tips for overcoming procrastination (something everyone suffers from, but few admit to). I like the notebook idea, as well as the weekly timetable idea.
Best wishes on your continued success. Roger
[...] Tips for Saving Time while Building Your Personal Brand Published: May 2, 2010 Source: Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel Are you one of the many who use lack of time as a reason to put-off building a personal brand by writing provocative thought leadership articles, books, starting a podcast, frequently updating… [...]
Roger, Great insights into how to save time! Yes, we all have the same 24 hours in which to get things done, and some people seem to accomplish so much more than others.
I liked your suggestion regarding writing your blog post in 30 minute increments—that’s a great tip. Here are two other things that I do to make sure my time is used as wisely as possible:
1. I create an editorial calendar for my blog posts at least two weeks in advance. I try to write at least three blog posts a week, so I try to come up with six topics to blog about.
2. I have an ever-growing swipe file. When researching topics for specific blog posts, I’ll file that away to draw upon when writing the post. I categorize my swipe file by topics: social media, blogging, SEO, etc. That cuts down on having to search through articles that aren’t relevant to what I’m writing about at that specific time.
3. I create a schedule for each work day, and build it around any business meetings or other appointments. For example, Monday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 I create my editorial calendar. I block off each assignment I give myself on my Outlook calendar and treat it like an appointment I have with a client. That helps me stick to my schedule, and ultimately accomplish my goals.
Dear Emily:
Thank you for your comment, and for sharing your great ideas about editorial calendars and–especially–the swipe file idea which is something I wholeheartedly agree with.
Your idea of treating your planning time as an “appointment” on your Outlook calendar is sheer genius! Thanks for sharing such a valuable idea.
Best wishes on your disciplined approach to writing success!
Roger
[...] Tips for Saving Time while Building Your Personal Brand | Personal … [...]
Commitment really is the key on successful personal branding.
If you don’t take time for yourself who will? I carry index cards with me in my purse so that if I am waiting (doctors, line, etc) I can start working on blog ideas.
I also write out my weekly plan on Sunday nights and then add to it as the week goes on.
I still used the old trusty Franklin Covey method of organizing tasks to ensure everything gets done or at least not forgotten.
I truly do think that everyone needs a schedule maybe not a regimented schedule but some type of schedule.
At least schedule the days of the week you are going to work on your personal branding.
Dear Kingsley:
Thank you for commenting and emphasizing the importance of commitment.
The index cards idea that you shared is really great: it’s more important that you always have your ideas and the cards with you. I think, based on your suggestion, I’ll turn in my yellow lined legal pads in exchange for index cards which are far easier to carry around as well as organize back at the office.
Best wishes on your success.
Roger