I used to struggle with creating content on the internet. No matter how hard I tried, I could never quite get on top of it. 

On a daily basis it seems, I would inevitably hit that moment of panic where I would think, “oh no, I haven’t posted anything today,” and I would have to scramble to come up with something.

For years, I watched other creators turn out videos, pictures, tweets, and more with regularity, wondering how they did it without missing a beat while I consistently struggled to keep up.

To fix this, I vowed to hit publish on a new YouTube video five days per week for months, and while this was a great exercise in building my “creator muscles”, it still didn’t solve the problem of constantly playing catchup. 

But everything changed when I figured out how to create content systems that allowed me to get ahead of the curve and stay there. 

So if you’re struggling to create content with regularity–if you’re constantly playing catchup like I used to do–here’s my playbook. 

I hope it helps.

Set a schedule for creating content

You have to approach creating content like it’s a part-time job. 

Because it is.

Creating content on the internet is free publicity and the fastest way to build your audience, which will lead to the monetization of your art, your skills, and your effort.

I block out a specific time every week that is devoted to creating my content for the weeks and months ahead. For me, it’s Friday morning. I find that Friday morning is the time when there is the least demand for my time from clients and customers, and the time when I am able to be the most productive and creative.

So set aside the time–make a weekly appointment with yourself, put it on your calendar, and be sure to show up.

Start with one main idea

It’s a lot easier to come up with one great idea than it is to come up with 50. 

Even though 50 pieces of content may be the goal, it all should stem from one well-thought-out main idea.

Each week, I start the week with one main idea for my content strategy, and I build upon that when making everything else.

In fact, you’re reading that main idea right now: this newsletter.

The Monday Marketer is my main content idea for the week, every single week. Everything else I put out stems from this single piece of cornerstone content.

Coming up with a single idea every week (instead of 50 or more) prevents me from getting overwhelmed and helps me to take action and get into the creative state with ease.

Create “sub-content” in batches

Instead of trying to come up with a thousand different things to say, learn to say one thing a thousand different ways. 

Every week, I take my cornerstone content (this newsletter), and I figure out how to share the ideas inside of it in as many ways as I can. I’ll pull bits of text and use them as tweets and captions, and I’ll share some of the broader ideas as short-form videos across different platforms. 

My YouTube video stems from this, my podcast will be about this, and a slew of other posts, short-form videos, and more will take this primary piece of content and express it in a number of different ways over the course of the coming weeks and months.

So rather than getting overwhelmed by having to come up with all of that content in one day, I know I only have to come up with this one. The rest takes care of itself. 

Schedule everything in advance

Building a reliable content-creation system is a lot easier when you schedule everything in advance. 

Trying to play catchup and create every single post in real-time is a losing strategy (and an easy way to burn out).

Once I’ve created all of my content–cornerstone and sub-content–I sit down and schedule all of it across every platform where I want to post it, and I stagger it out for weeks to come so I’m not talking about the same thing every single day.

This gives me the freedom to spend the majority of my time working on my business, serving my clients, and creating new products and services to help my fellow artists and creators. 

Remember, content is a part-time job, not the whole job (at least not for me). Scheduling in advance allows me to keep it in its proper place.

Fill in the gaps and test new ideas

You should always be testing new ideas with your audience. 

Once you’ve created your cornerstone content, built out all of your sub-content, and scheduled everything in advance, now you have the space to come up with new material whenever inspiration strikes. 

Personally, I take to Twitter and YouTube’s Community tab to do this. In both of these places, I will post off-the-cuff ideas to share what I’m thinking about. This is a great way to get these ideas out of my head and on paper and also a great method of testing these concepts to see if they’re worthy of becoming a “main idea” for future cornerstone content.

If a tweet or post gets above-average engagement, that’s generally an indication to me that it has some legs and is worth digging into more deeply.

Building an automated content system may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but once these systems are in place, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them. 

So I encourage you to take your content strategy seriously, treat it like a part-time job, and stop playing catchup on carving out your piece of the digital landscape.

Your calendar (and your brain) will thank you.