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Creating content for the internet can be fun.Until it starts to feel like a constant treadmill you'll never be able to get off.
You start creating content and then there is this constant pressure to keep creating more and more to feed the beast.
Content for your newsletter, content for socials, content for a blog, LinkedIn, X, Threads, Short form videos, long form videos.
The list is endless.
And it can quickly become a bit of a grind & set your head spinning out of control 😵💫
That's a little how I felt at the beginning of the year.
Constantly spinning my wheels coming up with more and more content. But never feeling like I was getting ahead.
My whole task list for my content business was:
✅ Create content
✅ Create content
✅ Create content
✅ Create content
✅ Create content
And sure I have a business where content is at the heart of it. But I wasn't get to other parts of the business because content was taking up too much of my time.
I'd fallen into the content treadmill and couldn't get off.
So I made it my mission to start to streamline my content efforts this year.
One strategy I've been using is Justin Welsh's Hub+Spoke Content Model.
The idea is that you create one piece of long form content (your hub). And then chop it up into short form content (your spokes).
And I've been enjoying it so much.
I'm far less frantic when it comes to content because I only have to focus on one single idea each week. And then the spoke system means all my short form content is taken care of.
Now here is the quirky thing about my process.
I don't do it in my note-taking app. Instead I save the content into my read it later app (I use Matter, but you could easily use Readwise Reader for this or any other read it later app).
And the reason I started doing this is because when I'm in my Read It Later app my brain switches into 'Spark Mode.'
I'm used to reading other people's articles and content and getting sparked by their ideas. So by saving my own article I'm using that same energy to get sparked by my own content.
It also means that I can be anywhere and do this method. Most times I'll grab a coffee, sit in the sun and review my content.
The process works much better if I take a few days between when I publish my newsletter & when I extract it for content.
This allows me to gain some perspective. And sometimes I'll even have some early signal from comments or replies that I can use to spark new ideas.
I use the in built highlighter tool to highlight passages I think I can use for posts or further ideas:
I'll usually go back over the content multiple times and let it simmer.
Each time I'll get new insights. I find this simmering effect works really well for me and makes the whole process feel like a light focus.
Because my read it later app is connected to Readwise and Readwise is connected to my notes app all these notes & ideas are automatically synced back into Tana.
And ready for when I next batch schedule my content.
Most weeks I get at least 6x short form posts and 4x main ideas that I turn into short videos, carousels or long form posts.
That gives me 10x pieces of content for every long form I write.
And the best thing about this method is that if you already have some long for content you can start right now. You might even fill your content calendar for the next few weeks.
Could you use AI to make the process faster? Absolutely. But I find I get better results when I do a first pass at the content myself.
So go ahead - try out the Hub+Spoke method & start getting sparked by your own content.
