How I Prepare My Creator Week Like A Chef Prepares For Service

Ev Chapman
April 11, 2022
2 min read

Every Sunday after I've done my meal prep for the week, I do my creator prep.

Just like a chef might sit down and prepare the menu for the following day or week, I sit down and prepare my menu for the week. Rather than run around each day like a crazy person in my creator kitchen, I take the time to prepare the menu & my ingredients so I can gracefully and effortlessly push out plate after plate of content.

Here's how I prep my creator week like a chef preps for service:

Plan Your Menu. Every Sunday I choose a shortlist of essays to work on throughout that week. It's not a 'content calendar' it's just a loose list of ideas that I'm excited about writing. I call this my 'Up Next' Pile - my menu of items for the week.

Prep the Ingredients. Once I know my menu, it's time to prep the ingredients. The first thing I do is a big brain dump of everything that is on my mind about each of the ideas. Then, I go to my notes library and find anything that will support that idea. And finally, I do a quick outline. All of this means that even if I have zero energy throughout the week I can still hit publish.

Plate it up. Now during the week, it's service time. Everything is prepped and it's all about plating it up. The writing & the thinking has already been done when I'm brain dumping or through my library of notes. So I spend a little time constructing things from the raw materials.

This has 100% been the key to me being able to publish so much over the past year. Prepare like a chef, so you can enjoy the process.

Liked thIS? Then You Might Like My SPARK Newsletter...

The Spark Newsletter:
Join 1,500+ knowledge workers building smarter personal knowledge systems.

Every Sunday I drop into your inbox with a simple creative workflow to help you think clearer & create smarter.

Or Keep Browsing More Posts Like This...

2024: The Year That Transformed How I Create Content

Three shifts that made 2024 my best creative year yet.
Read post

How to Use AI to Kickstart Your Writing—Without Getting Generic Content

How to Turn a Messy Brain Dump Into an Outline Using AI in 10 Minutes (and while chilling on the couch)
Read post

How To Create New Ideas From Old Content With A Simple GPT Prompt called 'Pretend Podcast'

Breath fresh life into old content with a simple chatGPT prompt that will get you thinking in ways you never thought of before
Read post

How to Turn Your 1:1 Calls into a Goldmine of Content: Step By Step Guide

What if every time you jumped on a call with a client you could generate a bunch of content ideas at the same time?
Read post

Turn Your Morning into a Creative Powerhouse with This Simple 3 Step Writing Routine

How I Went from Sporadic Blogging to Consistent Content Creation with One Simple Routine
Read post

The Quirky Method I Use to Mine My Newsletter for Social Media Content

Ever feel like content creation is consuming your life? This method will save you.
Read post