Part 3 of 4: How To Make Your Content Writing Easier Using James Clear's 4 Laws of Behavior Change
Welcome back to Part 3 of the 4 part blog series where I’m diving into How To Make Your Content Writing Easier Using James Clear’s 4 Laws of Behavior Change!
Before you keep reading, make sure you’re caught up on Part 1 and Part 2 where I covered Law 1 – make it obvious – and Law 2 – make it attractive.
In this blog post, we’re moving on to Law 3 – Make it easy!
Because let’s just be real for a sec, shall we? If something feels hard to do, then there’s a veryyyyy slim chance we’re going to do it consistently.
For example – let’s say you want to start going to the gym. Butttt the gym is 30 minutes away, it’s always crowded, you aren’t sure which machines to use, and every time you leave you feel frustrated.
Suddenly your good intentions of going to the gym is one of the hardest tasks of your day, so it never even has the chance to become a part of your regular routine.
This concept can be true for ANYTHING in your life or business, especially your content creation. If creating content feels hard to do, then the more you’re going to ignore it on your to-do list.
Which is why I’m here to help make sure content creation feels like the easiest thing you do in your business every single time. Here’s how:
3 Ways To Make Your Content Writing “Easy” So It Becomes a Habit
1. Plan your content in advance
One of my favorite writing tips to give people that really does speed up the writing process is “know what you’re going to write about BEFORE you sit down to write.”
Although this might seem simple and obvious, think about the last time you wrote “create content” on your to-do list and when it came time for you to do that task, you had no clue where to start.
Are you going to work on a blog post? Newsletter? Social media content? And beyond that, what is the topic going to be about?
Pre-deciding what you’re going to work on and the general topic for your content before you sit down to actually work on it is going to save you soooo much time and make your writing feel easier right away.
When it comes to blog content, this is why I always preach planning your blog content at least 3 months in advance using my tried and true 4 step blog content planning process.
When you plan your blog content one quarter at a time, you’re able to:
✔️ make sure that your content is strategic (meaning it aligns with what’s going on in your business at the time)
✔️ build your content consistency because you’re pre-deciding what topics you’re going to cover
✔️ stay organized and efficient (especially when you use a content calendar like this!)
✔️ hold yourself accountable
✔️ have higher quality idea generation and research (because you’re giving yourself more time to brainstorm talking points, conduct research, gather data and incorporate relevant examples or case studies into your content)
2. Keep all of your content ideas in one place
Raise your hand if you’re guilty of having content ideas in a cute little journal… and your notes app… and a spreadsheet… and a Google Doc… and maybe even a Notion dashboard.
🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️
I used to be this way until one day I realized that I was making content creation soooo much harder on myself.
When you have everything scattered like this, it’s impossible to remember all of your content ideas because well… you probably forgot that you created a list of them in all those places.
So instead of being able to sit down and plan your content strategically and efficiently, you’re left scrambling around trying to find that one reallyyyyyy good idea that will unfortunately probably never see the light of day.
The solution? Keep all of your content ideas in one place. I know, groundbreaking right?!
I don’t care WHERE you keep your content ideas, as long as they’re all compiled together so that YOU know exactly where they are and where to go when it comes time to plan what you’re going to create.
For blogs and emails, I prefer a Notion dashboard – I’ve recently switched from my trusty spreadsheet to a dashboard like this and if you’re in need of something similar, you can grab the template for only $27, which includes:
Quarterly tables with columns for publish date, draft due date, blog category, subject, title, keywords, and more
Sections for major holidays and national days so your blog content stays seasonally relevant
A Blog Content Brain Dump section for storing and organizing all of your blog content ideas in one place
3. Break up your content creation into phases
One of the worst things you can do for yourself is say “write blog post” or “write newsletter” and expect to be able to finish every single step of that process in one sitting.
From the drafting, to the editing, to the finalization, and then the publishing or scheduling, it’s a LOT to do in one full swoop.
INSTEAD, it’s usually wise to break up your content creation into phases.
For blog writing specifically, I teach 3 phases:
1️⃣ Prep
Just like when you're cooking or baking, you have a prep phase.
You pull up the recipe, you get all the ingredients out of your fridge and pantry, you pre-heat the oven, and THEN you start the actual process of cooking, blog writing is no different.
There's a prep phase before the actual cooking phase.
In this phase, 3 main things need to happen – ideation, research and outlining. This goes back to knowing what you’re going to write about BEFORE you sit down to write.
During this phase, you’re referring back to your content ideas, deciding what you want to write, researching if needed, and creating a VERY general outline before you move on to phase 2.
2️⃣ Draft
Once you’ve prepared yourself for writing, that’s when you can effectively create a draft of your content. This is the phase that you ideally want to be in when you sit down to complete that to-do list task of “write blog post” or “write newsletter.”
And let me be clear – when I say draft, I really do mean DRAFT! We aren’t editing things or linking things or formatting things here. Even though it might be hard for you to let it be messy, it’s sooo important that you KEEP writing no matter what and let all of your thoughts flow.
All of that other stuff comes next!
3️⃣ Finalize
Once you’ve drafted your content, let it rest! Take a break and walk away. I don’t care if it’s for a day or just 5 minutes, I simply want you to remove yourself from your content and come back to it with fresh eyes so you can finalize what you’ve written and publish or schedule it accordingly.
This phase is where you’re going to add your links, add emojis, format things correctly, check your grammar, etc.
For blogs specifically, I like to follow this blog editing checklist:
✔️ Spelling + Grammar
This one is obvious, but don’t forget to do it! If you write your content in Google Docs, luckily it will catch a bunch of stuff for you and offer suggestions, but don’t hesitate to lean on Grammarly if needed!
✔️ Formatting
When it comes to blog posts, there’s a certain way you want to format your content so that it’s skimmable and easy to read for your audience, but ALSO follows certain SEO guidelines in order to boost your rankings with Google. Here’s a breakdown for that!
✔️ Separate Your Paragraphs
One of the BIGGEST things that I’m constantly giving feedback on is to stopppp writing formal paragraphs in your blogs and break those things up! It makes your content skimmable and easier to read!
✔️ Add Emphasis + Points of Interest 🥳
Just like you emphasize certain words when you're talking, you want to do the same in your writing! This can be done by bolding, italicizing, underlining, using emojis (my favorite), em dashes, squiggle line (tilde), etc.
✔️ Add Any Necessary Links
Make sure you go back in and add any necessary links that you need! During your writing, it can be tempting to stop what you’re doing and go find the link you need, but that almost always leads to distraction and gets you off track.
Instead, try highlighting any words that need linking so that when you make it to Phase 3, you can easily skim your content and see where a link needs to go!
✔️ Finalize Your Blog Title
One of my biggest blog writing tips is titling your content LAST because you never know where your brain is going to take you when you're writing.
You might sit down with a certain topic in mind, start writing about it, but then you're taken in a different direction than you initially thought, which would mean your blog title needs to reflect that.
If you try to title first, you're sort of boxing yourself into that title and not letting your creative juices flow.
If titling your blog posts is a struggle for you, click here to download my titling freebie, which includes 4 main titling styles AND 20 plug and play title formulas you can use!
(BTW, there’s so much more where these 3 phases came from – I created a whole training on this topic alone for my Writer’s Room members! When you join the membership, you get access to all past AND future trainings – click here for more info!)
Looking for more support for consistent content creation in YOUR business?
Overall, by making your writing and content creation easy, the more likely it is to become a habit that you do without much thinking.
If you’re hoping for 2025 to be the year that you FINALLY prioritize content creation for your business and become truly consistent with it, that’s exactly why The Writer’s Room exists!
With the done-with-you blog writing membership, you receive:
Bi-monthly trainings from me (centered around marketing, blogging, email marketing, and more) 💻
Quarterly Guest expert calls (featuring industry adjacent guests that I personally know, work with, and trust) 👩🏻💻
Weekly Co-writing Wednesdays (to hold you accountable for consistent writing in your business) ✍🏼
Quarterly Blog Content Planning Parties (so you can have a strategic blog plan ready to implement) 🎉
Writing Resource Vault (all of my best writing resources in one place) 🔐
Weekly Feedback Accessibility (so you can feel confident in your content creation before you press publish) 📝
Slack Community (for access to other members to brainstorm, support, provide feedback, etc.) 👥
CLICK HERE to learn more about The Writer’s Room and join the waitlist to be among the first to know about the next enrollment period!
P.S. Want to be notified about Part 4 of this blog series? CLICK HERE to subscribe to Notes From Natty – the weekly newsletter that shows up in your inbox every Friday morning with stories, writing tips, and of course the latest at Natty Writes, including the latest blog post. 💌