The Writing Robot

One of my 2020 resolutions was to publish 10 articles. By October, I was up to eight. The Practice inspired me to wonder: could I increase my writing output 10X? Could I write 365 articles a year?

As Seth Godin explains, goals don’t work; habits and systems can. It took a while to create a writing system that worked for me. The secret was to automate non-writing tasks like publishing and email list maintenance. I built a writing robot for myself with nine tools: Day One, Otter.ai, iBooks, Squarespace, Grammarly, Hemmingway Editor, Day One for Apple Watch, Canva, and Streaks. 

This morning, 72 of 75 minutes were spent writing. I track my progress with Streaks (image below), which gives me a visual sense of accomplishment. The system, with links to tools I use, is below. 

Resolutions don’t work for me; habits and systems do. Since October, I’ve published 50 articles. As Godin says, committing to a new habit might be the single most effective work you do all year.

Content flow is built on Tiago Forte’s PARA note-taking and progressive summarization system in three phases: capturing ideas, finishing articles and staging a new article idea, like this:

  1. I capture 2-3 ideas a day in my Day One writing sandbox folder. It’s important to write these as if I’m shipping the article. It’s a dress rehearsal! Here’s how:

  2. I finish an article each morning. Here’s how:

    • Block calendar from 7-10 AM every day to write.

    • Review my drafts that are almost ready and pick one to finish.

    • Copy it from Squarespace to Grammarly and Hemingway Editor.

    • Ship it.

    • Write a summary of the post for Twitter, LinkedIn, Twitter.

    • Create a cool Instagram post with Canva.

    • Send email to subscribers via the automation tool in Squarespace.

  3. I stage a new article draft each day. Here’s how:

    1. Scan my PARA notes for a cool idea

    2. Write a draft in Squarespace so I can see what it would look like on the Web.

    3. Write a metaphor and find an inspirational photo or piece of art that exemplifies the article. For non-stock images, send an email to ask permission. I have templates for this email.

    4. Mark it as a draft. If it’s really good, schedule it for this week.

The tools for this system cost about $300 a year. Half of that is Squarespace itself and my URL. My guess is you could use other tools for less than $75 a year. For example, Medium would get the job done and save about $75 a year.


My writing process in the Streaks app.

My writing process in the Streaks app.


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Best of 2020

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Trevor Bauer Goals, 2021