All Ping

In business, there is a right way and a wrong way to do just about everything. This certainly extends to asking for favors or any other kind of help from someone who is busy and less likely to answer every single piece of email they get. Whether this is a client, a potential client, or simply one of your personal heroes whose brain you’d like to pick, there is a way to make a request of them that will get them to happily reply.

Likewise, there’s a way to make requests that will get you ignored forever. We’re going to explore how to do things the right way, so that neither you nor your busy recipient will be wasting any valuable time

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Don’t Ask Bad Questions

Many people say there’s no such thing as a bad question, but I say that’s a lie. If it’s something that is frivolous, impersonal, or that could be answered by a five-second search on Google, it’s a bad question to ask someone who has a limited amount of time.

                                                        (Image source: Oberazzi)

One thing I like to do, if I have a pressing, work-related question, is to find a popular book on the subject at the library, check it out, and read it. I take plenty of notes on all the possible answers given in the book, and usually I can find the answer to my question in short order. If not, I can either choose to read one or two more books on the subject until I’m satisfied, or I can send a quick note to someone I know will have the answer, making sure to explain that I’ve already attempted to find it on my own.

People, especially busy people, appreciate initiative (why wouldn’t they, being so busy all the time?), and the fact that you haven’t simply come to them with a dumb, generic question will usually delight them and make them more interested in helping you out.

Be Considerate Of Their Time

Let’s face it: we’re all busy. If you’re a working professional, you are inundated with a deluge of emails, voice mails, texts, social media messages, blog posts, and so on. Not to mention interactions with the real people in your life and all of the tasks, large and small, that have to get done. Often, people are busy simply attempting to multitask their lives, not to mention their work.

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Be aware of what’s going on in your intended recipient’s life before you pose your question. If possible, research them a little bit. Do they have a family? Are they currently observing any kind of holiday or taking a vacation? Are they in “work mode,” “family mode,” or “leave-me-alone mode?”

Finding out the current situation of your busy person will give you valuable information about how you should phrase your question, and when you can best expect a positive response

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Work On The Question

If you absolutely can’t avoid asking a question in the middle of a person’s busiest time of day, make sure you word it so that they can devote the least amount of brain power to their answeras possible. Simple, fill in the blank answers, or yes/no questions are the best.

Play with different formats, and if appropriate, consider a shorter delivery method, like a tweet or a Facebook post rather than an email.

Try To Guess Their Answer

By this, I don’t mean attempt to answer the question yourself. There’s no point in asking it in that case. I mean that you should try to guess the way in which they will answer you. Before you send that email, tweet, or Facebook message, think of the likely response you will get. How does the language sound? Is it in simple terms?

Try to answer a similarly worded question yourself first. If it’s too difficult for you to answer quickly, it’s too long or complicated and you need to change it.

Make It Super Easy

Again, make it easy for people to answer your questions. Make them short, easy, and, if you can, entertaining. Busy people are human too, and sometimes a splash of humor is just what they need to pick them up and help them get through their hectic day.

And remember that not every question in your email has to be strictly work related. Engaging people casually, not just professionally, is what builds real relationships that last.

If they have a spouse or children, ask about them. If you know they’re working on an exciting project or are working on their graduate degree, ask how it’s going. No matter how busy they are, everyone will be more likely to remember the person who took the time to ask them a simple, human question about their lives.

Give People A Directive

Calls to action aren’t just for websites and marketing materials. Everyone appreciates knowing what is required of them, and busy people appreciate it more than most. Don’t ask vague, open-ended question without giving directions on what, specifically, you want in terms of a response.

   

                                             (Image source: Fabrizio Sciami)

Tell them to do something, anything – click here, watch this, reply with your top 3 ideas, et cetera.

It’s not condescending or manipulative to have a call to action in your emails. On the contrary, you alleviate people’s stress and save them the mental energy of figuring out how to reply. As a result, your request is much more likely to get a response, instead of a short trip to the trash bin.

In Conclusion

Remember, if you do everything right and still fail to get a response, you shouldn’t take it personally. Most likely the person was simply too wrapped up in their lives and responsibilities that they couldn’t get to your request. It’s likely nothing personal, and most people will appreciate it if you simply try again, rather than vanish.

If you just disappear, it sends the message that you weren’t really looking to make a meaningful exchange with the person in the first place. Don’t come off like an opportunist – be persistent and respectful, and you may find that busy people will start carving out time to approach you with requests, rather than the other way around.

Whether you blog for personal or business reasons, creating quality content can really eat up a lot of your time. This is especially true if you want to make a dent in the online world. Creating awesome content that is informative and worth sharing requires significant time and effort to research and write.

There is a defined process to creating a successful blog even after writing and publishing your articles. You must take time to promote your content and be prompt in responding to comments from your readers. After that, the whole process starts over again and it’s time to write your next post. Sometimes we wish we can just wave a magic wand and new content magically appears, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.

Unless you can afford to hire your own writers similar to large publishing companies, you’ll have to do it all yourself. Consistency is key if you want to be successful and earn a living from blogging. Don’t worry though. Here are some time saving tips that can help you write with more efficiency and be more productive.

1. Have A Specific Place To Store Your Ideas

One of the biggest challenges most writers encounter is thinking of ideas and topics to write about. Writer’s block is common to most bloggers. Ideas often come to us at unexpected times and in unusual ways. Ideas can come to us while taking a walk, playing video games or even chatting with friends.

Having a place to store your ideas is important.

Either have a little notebook handy or use a notes app on your smartphone to capture your ideas. Write down any ideas that come to mind. Don’t be concerned about the relevance or quality, just get your raw ideas written down. Later on you can go back and review and edit your ideas to help you finalize your next blog topics.

2. Create A Content Plan

Aside from writing down ideas, take time to create a content plan. Your content plan should be in the form of a calendar. It is where you will track types of post you will create and when you will publish each one. You should also note your promotional strategy in your content plan for each post you publish.

By updating your plan on a regular basis, it will help you be more productive and be more consistent in creating and publishing your content.

3. Create An Outline For Each New Post

Once you have figured out the title and have written the introduction for your article, the next step is to create an outline. This is especially helpful for articles that are in a list format. Creating an outline will help you shape the flow of your content, making writing your post easier to complete.

After creating your outline, tackle the most difficult part of your article first. I find this method works well to keep my writing process on track.

4. Schedule Time To Write

Have you ever sat in front of your computer and just stared at an empty screen? Don’t worry. You are not alone. The best way to tackle this problem is to schedule time for yourself to write. Pick times when you feel most creative and alert.

Choose a time when you’re likely to experience the least distractions. Some people write better in the morning, while others write better at night. Make sure you stick to your schedule and make it a habit.

5. Remove Distractions

When you have set up your writing schedule, the next thing you need to do is eliminate all distractions. Turn off the television, close your email client and log off your social networks. By removing distractions you can better focus and be more in the creative zone.

Writing requires a lot of concentration. You want your words to flow naturally. Don’t let those seemingly little distractions derail you from creating great content.

6. Use A Timer Or Set A Deadline

Another effective trick is to set a deadline for yourself. Let’s say it takes you two hours to write and edit a blog post. Set yourself a deadline and stick to it. The time you allow yourself will depend on the kind of article you’re writing and your overall writing skills. The key here is discipline.

I know some friends who even use a timer. This tool is a great way to get you hustling and more focused on the writing task at hand.

7. After You’re Done Writing, Take Time To Edit

Have you tried writing your article and editing it at the same time? It doesn’t work very well. I know this is hard for some writers to understand, but it is something that is important if you want to create well written content. The main reason for this approach is to give yourself the opportunity to truly focus on just writing and to let your thoughts flow.

Constantly stopping to edit will just distract you and derail your train of thought. Don’t stop to check grammar or spelling until you are done writing your first draft.

8. Fact Check, Create Your Tags And Add Photos

After editing your work for grammatical and spelling errors, the next step is to do your fact checking and add meta tags. At this point you can also add images that will complement your article. By doing these activities in batches, you save time and can concentrate on actually writing your post. Establishing a defined, repeatable workflow is key for maximum productivity.

9. Back Up Your Site

Imagine you wake up one morning and your blog is gone. All your work has disappeared. One key step that most bloggers tend to miss is backing up their website or blog. Do not wait for your site to get hacked or infected with malware before implementing a back-up strategy.

If you are unsure of how to go about backing up your blog, hire a professional to do it for you. Being prepared will save you significant money, time and aggravation in the event that something bad happens.

10. Use Analytics To Avoid Guess Work

Aside from using the comments and social-sharing statistics to help judge how well your content is resonating, you may want to look at implementing more formal analytics. If you struggle with analysis (finding which topics your readers like and share the most), the best thing to do is implement Google Analytics on your site to eliminate the guess work.

Google Analytics will give you a good idea of the kind of articles that resonate most with your audience. Your site’s analytics will show you who visits and on which pages they spend the most time.

Knowing how your readers interact with your content will help you better gauge your audience’s behavior and preferences. If you are new to blogging, it is a must to set up your Google Analytics at the start and not lose out on valuable analytical information.

Final Thoughts

As a blogger there are so many things you can do to shave time off your blogging workflow and to-do list. By saving time on your writing process, you can allot more time promoting your articles, replying to comments and building relationships with other bloggers.

What time saving activities have you implemented? How much time have you saved? Share your tips with us here. We would love to hear from you.