How to Create Content Faster

Trying to grow your social media or blog traffic? One of the most important steps for growth is a consistent posting schedule. The trouble is, without a bank of content, scheduling and posting consistently is really hard! That’s why you need to get faster at creating content.

I know what you’re thinking, ‘I don’t have the time to create a batch of content.’ I’m sorry to burst your bubble, if you can’t make time for content creation, you are not likely to find success as a digital creator. (Speaking of success, what are your goals as a content creator?)

If you want to grow your presence, monetize your content, and have a real shot at making a career of content creation, you need to speed up your production! I’m sharing my top tips for creating content faster below.

Before we get into the tips, an important note. Content is only helpful if it is engaging for your audience. Don’t get so caught up in creating and banking content that you forget to audit how it’s performing! If all your posts are tanking, it’s worth taking the time to figure out if your pictures or caption/blog writing needs to be improved before you go into caption writing mode.

PS: Have you signed up to get my FREE Instagram Prompt guide yet? I’m giving away 101 Instagram post ideas. You’re gonna want this!

My top tips for creating content faster

Batch Your Content Creation Work Together.
There is no better time saver than batching work. Each time you switch a task, or start something new, you have to get your focus together. Rather than scrambling every morning to figure out ‘what to post today’, why not set aside 90 minutes on the weekend to plan and write your captions? I promise you that once you get into a flow, your captions will come together much quicker!

I usually batch the following content creation tasks together:

  • Research and brainstorming. I try to set out a couple of hours a month to research ideas, clip concepts I like from magazines, and brainstorm my content direction for the next 4-6 weeks. (Here’s a great post on finding more ideas for posts & captions)
  • Writing captions. Currently I’m posting twice a day on weekdays, and once on weekends. That’s 12 Instagram captions a week. For me, that can take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours depending on the complexity of the captions.
  •  Photos & visual prep. I try to shoot photos that I’m in, on one day a week. Then I wash and blow dry my hair, paint my nails, etc, and make the most of it. Similarly, I try to make all the graphics I’m going to use in one week in one sitting. I find shooting photos on one day, also helps visual build consistency on the feed. 
  • Engagement. I set aside 30 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes in the evening to engage with the accounts that I follow and enjoy. 

By batching content creation, you can save hours each week, and schedule your content to go out at the same time on each posting day. Batching helps create consistency. 

Work Within Your Key Content Themes.
Under no circumstances, should you be changing your mind every day about the types of topics you post about. That is just a huge time-suck. Sit down right now, and pick your 3 major content themes, and 3-4 minor themes that you like to cover, and, 2-3 seasonal or “limited edition” topics you are focusing on this quarter.

For example, my major content themes are; food, fashion and beauty, and creative entrepreneurship. My minor themes are books, interiors (design and plants), and motherhood/personal relationships. In addition to these themes, for the rest of the year, I will also be covering 3 other topics – my milestone birthday/getting older, holiday season, and [secret topic, I don’t want to share yet].

Look, I get it, sometimes you want to share so much, it feels restrictive to choose themes. Trust me, it’s the exact opposite. When I sit down and stare at a blank calendar, and I can just tell myself – write 3 posts about business, 3 about food, and 3 about fashion, it’s very calming. Also, it teaches your audience what type of content to expect from you. If you follow this method, you’ll create a community, versus random followers that might like one post that one time. 

Use Your Templates!
If you are creating graphics, quotes, or memes for your account, set up some templates in Canva! Pick your favourite backgrounds, brand colours, and fonts – and then stick to them!

You can even do this for your Insta Stories. I often create Insta Stories that I want to post throughout the week on Sunday night in Canva. There is also a great app called Unfold for creating Insta Stories ahead of time. Post in real time, but plan ahead.

Take Advantage of Your Photo Bank. 
You have a photo bank right? Not a camera roll, but a photo bank. This is hands down, one of the best tricks I have for saving time. Do you spend hours every week scrolling your camera feed for a nice picture to post on Insta? That’s a waste of time. 

Here’s what you are going to do. Create a folder on Google Drive, your computer, or an external drive, and inside it, create sub folders. These are the ones I use; monthly folders (labelled for every month), pics of me, family photos, spring/summer, fall/winter, and food & drink. Once you’ve created your folders, dedicate an hour to going through your camera roll and choosing pictures you like, and categorizing them. That beautiful photo of you from the last family holiday, the one you can never think of the right caption for? Put it in the January folder, and then when you sit down to plan your January content, force yourself to write a caption for it. 

Next time you have some pretty flowers at home, take 3 photos with them instead of 1. Put the other two in your spring/summer or florals folder. Taking a picture in a pretty tank top? Throw on a cardigan for a second photo you can use in the fall. If you take a top shot of something, take a side shot too, and bank it for a future post. 

The idea behind the photo bank, is so that when you sit down to plan next week (or next month’s) content, you already have some images in the bank. Then you can plan to shoot 1, 3, or 8 images this week depending on your capacity. Always be thinking of ways that you can get two photos out of one set-up. The golden rule of the photo bank though, is that you must put the photos there! They cannot live on your phone, because they will be lost and buried under random screenshots of things you don’t even remember screenshotting.

I hope you found these tips helpful. Now go put a block of time on your calendar, and use it to create content – lots of it!


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