​

Waddup Part-Time Creators!

Welcome to the newsletter where I talk about writing, marketing, psychology & creating on the internet if you work a full-time job. Today we're talking about top-funnel content & simplifying building on the internet.

In today's email:

• How to rethink content
• Incredible content this week
• Simplifying creating on the internet

Read time: 4 minute

---

Rethinking Content

Three Words You Never Want to Hear from Your Readers

Most people think you need to sit in a dark room to come up with marvellous ideas.

To sit. In complete silence. And just... think.

You don’t. I mean you can.

But there are other ways to get there.

Design thinking agencies have come up with a shedload of ways to think about ideation (that actually work):

• Crazy 8's.
• Hat-thinking.
• Reverse-brainstorming (my fave).

Frameworks to focus your mind to come up with ideas. And sure, you'll still come up with ideas in the shower but you can also come up with incredible ideas through step-by-step thinking.

Because great ideas are the result of great thinking. Great thinking comes from the ability to churn things in your mind.

To flip them.

Switch them.

Pull at them.

To blend new ideas with old ones. That’s the magic.

But once you have the idea, then what?

You must outline.

So you have your idea but if you sit down and write you might accidentally spill all the good stuff in the first line. Then you’ll have missed the opportunity to build suspense.

• To grip your reader.
• To sell your tale.

Instead, you must structure your thinking.

Dump it all down first in whatever order, it doesn’t matter, a draft is meant to be ripped apart.

Come back the next day and tweak.

The most important bit

Most won’t do this. It’s high effort, and it takes attention to detail and planning but it’s worth it.

When outlining remember:

• Think S.O.V (speed of value)
• Remove boring details
• Show don’t tell

But then you must think about the story:

• Who is the hero?
• What’s their goal?
• What have they tried?
• Why is this time different?

But then you must go further, you must understand the human mind...

Selling is psychology. So is reading.

After all, you are selling your writing to your reader.

First up, ‘authority bias’.

People listen to those that have credibility. If you have expertise or authority in an area, show it. Give people a reason to listen to you.

You don’t need to list every accolade (nobody likes a name-dropper) but you do need to tell people why they should listen.

Ask yourself, what have you done and why does that matter? It’s enough to get people through the door.

Then understanding people

Present bias is a real thing.

What is it? People will choose now vs. later, even if later means they get more. It’s the opposite of delayed gratification.

Knowing this as a writer means you can reverse-engineer your content.

Phrases like ‘in 2 minutes’ help readers commit because they know they’re not giving up too much.

And speaking of losing

Loss aversion moves people.

What is it? It is the tendency for people to feel like giving up something is worse than getting something new. Losing $5 feels worst than gaining $5.

With that in mind, show people what they are missing out on if they don’t read your work. Wrap that into your outline.

'Not knowing this costs me 12 months progress' that one line changes things. All of a sudden readers are thinking... I don't want to lose time.

So what's the formula?

It’s how I start all my articles.

• Idea
• Outline
• Write

Simple. Easy. And it’ll get you pumping out articles that hit rather than just are published into the void.

And it's hard. It's a high standard. You will do all this and get crickets. That's the game. But this level of content is what it takes to stand out on the internet.

And you won't stand out by doing this once. You have to do this over and over for years. That's what it takes.

But when you write like this, you write stuff that you are proud of.

So here's the bar...

So let’s say your target reader has just read you’re the latest article. What are the three words you never want to hear somebody say… ‘it was okay’.

Remember, the content is the product.

Put the work in, you'll thank yourself in 5 years.

---

Pumped for the week ahead

• ​$850k a year writing on the internet 🤯
• ​Embrace quiet moments of discomfort 🤫
• ​Simple frameworks to make better decisions 🧭

---

Creator Longevity

Simplify Creating on the Internet and Get Ahead of 99% of People in the Next 6 Months

Creating part-time and working a day job is hard.

You have 1–2 hours a day to get stuff done. I’ve been creating part-time for the last 3 years, here are the best time management tips I have.

1. Decision time

I’m not talking about the big stuff, yes you should think carefully about who you spend your life with, if you want a dog and what you want to do with your life. I’m talking about:

• Writing a to-do list
• Deciding what to write about
• Choosing between one task or another

Don’t choose perfect, just pick. Realise that an incredible amount of time is spent deciding and the choice isn’t that deep. Sure it matters what you write about but if you’re spending 5 hours deciding, it’s taking too long.

2. Complaining time

Look yes life is unfair. Yes, people have it better than you and yes you might be living bigger if you’re parents were millionaires. Cool.

The truth is though, complaining doesn’t change that.

My best rule for this: allocate complaining time, say 30 minutes on a Sunday and then throughout the week, if you come across something you want to get mad it, put it in the box for 3pm on Sunday.

3. Recurring decisions

There are some decisions that happen every day.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Dog walk
• TV time

Make them simple and easy. Choose what to watch before sitting down, have the same breakfast most days (mix it up on a Sunday if you're feeling wild), take the dog for a walk at the same time each day and make a food timetable for the week.

Sounds overkill but it saves soooooo much time.

4. How to list

Having a to-do list is all well and good but if you don’t know how to tackle the things on that list, you’ll find yourself procrastinating.

Instead of writing a ‘to-do list’ that feels overwhelming, write a ‘how-to’ list. It describes how you will achieve a task (it’s especially important if the task is complex).

• To-do: Write an article.
• How-to: Find 3 interesting people in the field of procrastination, write up their key ideas, find a gap in what society believes about procrastination, write an intro… you get the jist.

5. Healthy options

I’ve started having a shake for lunch. Oats, almond milk, berries and vanilla protein powder. I’ve gone from feeling tired after a lunchtime sandwich (carb overload) to feeling ready to go in the afternoon.

I’m sure it has everything to do with this recent upgrade.

6. Mix up tasks

Doing a task for an extended period of time can get boring quick. If you have the entire day to just ‘write’ it’s likely that you’ll get fatigued within 30 minutes and you’ll feel lost pretty quickly.

Instead, use time blocked.

Write for 60 minutes, and go for a walk. Edit for 60 minutes, go do the washing. The variety and break-in between tasks make for a more enjoyable experience.

7. Time block

When things get serious I set a timer. I’ll only allow myself to write for that time block. It encourages me to stay in the seat because I've only got 40 minutes.

It means I skip the coffee break, don’t procrastinate (as much) and get to work. I know I won’t have the time in 40 minutes to write, this is the only time I’ve got, I better make it count.

8. Write out your thoughts

Sometimes it’s not knowing what to do, how to do it or when to do it that holds you back. But sometimes it has nothing to do with any of that. In fact, it has everything to do with something else entirely.

Your thoughts.

Instead of tapping away at the computer, you find yourself dancing inside your mind. You’re worried about what you said last week, that dream you had, where you’re going.

Those are the thoughts that engulf you and you can’t be productive, you’ve got a million and one things going on inside your mind. For that, you need to write them out.

Write out exactly what you’re thinking, and get it out on a page. You’ll feel better.

9. Expectations

The biggest killer of productivity is expectations.

Most people starting out cannot fathom how hard it is to do something consistently without getting any traction whatsoever. Imagine turning up each day, every day, for years to 5 people every time.

It’s soul-destroying.

Except it’s not. It’s exactly how it should be. It’s the rules of the game. For first 2 years are indescribably hard. You’ll have days where you feel like giving up like it’ll never work, like you chose the wrong path.

But if you expect that to happen you can carry on anyway.

10. Accepting blockers

Needless to say, all of these things are wildly difficult to deal with.

Nobody wants to write when they feel like a sack of potatoes. Nobody wants to show up on the internet when their self-esteem is on the floor. But here’s the biggie.

You can.

You can feel all these feelings and still show up. They can be a blocker, to many they would be, but you can feel like rubbish rustling in the wind and show up anyway. The best creators on the planet cultivate exactly that mindset.

We're all just trying to figure it out.

---

Content of the week...

Happy creating,

Much love, Eve.

P.s. If you really wanna level-up your part-time creator biz, here's how I can help...

• The Part-Time Twitter: Transform your Twitter with the easy-to-follow crash course if you work full-time. Join over 200 students.

---