It’s a common dilemma: you want to write more but you feel like you have nothing to say.
That, however, is a myth.
If you’ve moved around the world for any measure of time, you have lessons and skills; you have something worthwhile to share, and you have a right to say it.
Here’s how to uncover those experiences when you feel like you’re stuck in a creative rut.
1. Lessons learned
Everyone’s always looking for career lessons they can apply to their own professional lives.
Since we’re all different and have led such diverse lives, this category offers a ton of content creation opportunities. No two people have followed exactly the same path throughout their career. You’ll likely have a different perspective on a popular topic.
Here’s how I did it: I wrote this blog post about the lessons I learned when making a career transition from a journalist to an online content writer working remotely.
Think about a challenge you’ve come up against during your working life. How did you overcome it? In the example I shared above, I was making a career pivot and needed to understand what my new field found valuable, .e.g, writing samples over formal qualifications.
2. Industry trends
Nowadays, most industries are changing quickly and it pays to be a step ahead.
Many industries have organisations – or individual influencers – whose sole purpose is to make projections. No one owns a crystal ball so not all of these predictions will come to pass, but it’s helpful to have an idea of possible scenarios.
I write online and there’s been so many shifts in my field over the past year. It’s honestly been difficult to keep up with changes and best practices, and I know I’m not alone. Writing up your analysis about these projections is also a good way to clarify your thoughts about the state of your industry.
A good option here is AI. I know I’m always keen to hear how AI will impact writing and publishing online, but it’s going to touch every industry. More generally, there might be ways you use AI into your everyday working life. For instance, ChatGPT can help to create daily routines while Consensys collates research papers.
3. Book recommendations
In a famous Stephen King quote, he calls books a “uniquely portable of magic”.
While King may have been referring to fiction, non-fiction books are an excellent resource for career advice and personal development.
Some of the books I’ve read have 100% changed my life, and that’s not an exaggeration. Before reading Deep Work, I was working in fragmented bursts while splitting my concentration between writing, social media, and other distractions. Tiny Habits reframed my thinking around building new habits and helped me establish a process that saw me becoming a better writer.
Chances you have one or two books you’d credit with making similar change in your life. If not, learn the recommended reading for your industry and start working through the list.
4. Content curation
The amount of web content created each day is staggering.
Sifting through the options is overwhelming. So how do you decide who to listen to and who to ignore? There is a cost to following bad advice after all. For me, I prioritise sources that add data to support their arguments. I put more stock in advice when it’s coming from web publishers who are constantly running experiments to test or form their theories.
To get started, curate a list of sources you trust – pages you regularly consult for industry updates. Add your own take to their findings for a social media post or blog article. Feedly is a good tool for finding sites to follow.
5. Regrets
It’s unavoidable: if you’ve spent enough time in the workplace, you’ll have one or more things they wish you’d done differently. I know I wish I started blogging and building an online presence earlier in my career. My prospects, and my thinking, improved greatly once I committed to a regular writing practice.
Set aside time to reflect on your working life to date. Do you wish you studied more? Was studying more a waste of time? Decide that you’d change if you had a time machine and present your insights in a way that’s useful for the reader.
Remember the goal of this kind of content is to leave the reader with a solution. They might be ruminating on a similar missed opportunity, and discover that it’s actually never too late. (It rarely is.)
Or your content might be the trigger they need to build a professional brand, study the degree, start the business, etc.
6. Tools
If there’s a routine task you do for work, there’s a tool you use to complete that task more efficiently.
Now more than ever before, we’re overrun with software that promises to make the work faster and better. In my field, there’s an array of tools for SEO, AI, grammar, and so much more.
The sheer volume of applications is overwhelming, and it’s always good to hear from people who have hands-on experience with the software.
As an example, in this post, I write about some of the best writing tools.
Think about the applications you use daily, and list out why you can’t live without this tool. Even better is to compare your preferred software against popular alternatives.
Featured image credit: Photo by Craig Adderley
