Consistency is key. That’s a common theme you’ve seen across our articles. Whatever advice lies within, it doesn’t mean as much if you can’t utilize and apply it on a consistent basis. In a similar vein, if you can’t produce on a consistent basis, you’ll experience challenges in growing your personal brand.
How does one become consistent? What are the quantified steps that can lead to a consistent process and output? There’s undoubtedly a level of personal responsibility that goes into consistency, but there are a few tips and tricks that can help you stick to it.
5 Ways to Stay Consistent With Your Content Production
1) Plan Ahead and Always Be Prepared
People work in different ways. Some people can work for a long time once they get into a rhythm. Others work in spurts of energy and maximize their time in focus. Whichever style of worker you are, you can maximize your efforts by ensuring that the brunt of your work isn’t spent planning and ideating on the fly.
Plan ahead and always come prepared to your content creation – whether it’s on video, in written content, or elsewhere. If you do the passive research and development behind the scenes ahead of time, it makes production that much easier, and it also improves your confidence and the quality of the work.
Plan ahead, don’t make production a spur-of-the-moment ordeal, and you’ll find that your consistency will improve.
2) Craft a Schedule and Designate Blocks to Certain Tasks
Going beyond simple planning ahead, you can also schedule out your time and energy, and designate blocks to certain tasks. Maybe you want to use morning hours for written and video content production, and the afternoon hours for editing and post-process. Maybe you want to block off twenty minutes per hour interacting and engaging on social media.
Your time allotment strategy will differ based on your goals beneath your brand umbrella. But by crafting a schedule and blocking off segments of time for certain tasks, you can have a better idea of what to expect each day, and it’ll be easier to settle into your specific roles.
3) Communicate to Stay Engaged and Supplement Accountability
As mentioned earlier, personal responsibility and accountability are two major principles of consistency. No matter how many hacks or tips we give you, it’s ultimately up to you to stay consistent and utilize your energy efficiently. That said, you can also lean on your content team and your collaborators to help keep you honest and on-time with your work.
Communicate and stay engaged with your team. And if they rely on you for certain things to be produced on time, maintain a constant dialogue with them. For example, you might have a video editor who processes and refines your recordings. Maintain a dialogue about your recording times and always keep them in the loop.
Workers in a community or a collaborative environment, with a cohesive team, are often more motivated to deliver on their production promises, because people are relying on them to produce. Use your team to help you stay engaged and supplement your personal accountability.
4) Quickly Identify Stagnation and Take Appropriate Steps
Stagnation, being burnt out, using up your energy, or straying away from your passion – these are other factors that can impact consistency when it comes to content production. If lapses in consistency are sourced from stagnation, it’s up to you to identify that quickly. And once you do, you can determine the best steps to revitalize your energy and focus.
We recently wrote about five ways you can actively fight stagnation as a content creator. In truth, it’s a multi-step process that involves diagnosing the problem, discerning its root, and taking the necessary steps to take care of yourself first, so your best work flows within your content production.
5) Don’t Let the Fear of Failure Weigh You Down
If you don’t do something because you fear failure, you’ll only end up failing yourself. The many tasks of a content creator and an aspiring influencer can be daunting, and at times overwhelming, and it can be difficult to envision long-term success.
Nevertheless, if you have a well-developed brand identity, a plan of attack moving forward, and a defined content focus with an audience waiting to be claimed, you owe it to yourself to give that opportunity the best of your efforts. If fear of failure holds you back, you’ll only end up leaving that opportunity untested, or you’ll fail to fully capitalize.
There are other things that are allowed to slow you down: Brand re-evaluation, introspection, skill development, and replenishment – among other things. But fear and anxiety will only paralyze you to no avail. Don’t be afraid of failure; it’s part of your growth.
Playbook:
- Plan ahead
- Designate tasks in schedule blocks
- Stay engaged with your team
- Identify and attack stagnation
- Don’t fear failure
