First off, you must start with a quotation. Preferably by an Asian spiritual leader (quoting Lao Tzu, Confucius, or the Buddha works, but don’t quote Jesus). The quotation really doesn’t have to relate to the article or the picture at all. It just has to make you feel good. And quotes by people with obscure names are a good thing.
-Sun Zhongmou Liu Yuanzhi Xu Shu
The perfect productivity article should start with a picture of a person jumping. Pictures of beaches, sunsets, or children also do the job, but a picture of someone jumping really is best. It really doesn’t matter whether the picture relates to the topic, so long as it’s a really cool picture of someone jumping. Then you can proceed with the introduction.
The introduction shouldn’t be very long. Its real purpose is to make you look like a writer instead of a glorified list maker. Because if you don’t have an introduction, then you’d just have a list of tips and that wouldn’t look very good. Or literary.
Bear in mind that a lot of people aren’t going to read past the second paragraph of your introduction. They’re just going to skip to the list, which is the most important part of the article. So without further ado, here are 70 simple power tao secret hacks to writing the perfect productivity article, plus a guide & system for doing it:
1. Call Your Article a Guide or System
No matter what the content or article length, make sure that you call your article a guide. Or a system. Your piece might only be 500 words, but that’s OK. Remember, people want to read guides and systems.
2. Make a Numbered List
Making a list is the most essential element of a productivity or self-help article because there are few things as compelling, sexy, motivating, and exciting as a list. So make sure you have one. The reason you want to have a list is because it allows you to number things. Also, it’s easier to make 70 points poorly that to make one point very well.
3. Include a Number in the Title
One of the main reasons you use a numbered list is so that you can have a number in the title.
4. Make the List Long
If you don’t have a lot to talk about the best way to make up for it is by ensuring that your list is very long. You might not have substance, but at least you’ll have, like, 70 tips. In this post, for example, we’re hoping readers will look past lack of substance and see that there are 70 TIPS. OMG 70?!
5. Write a Really Good Productivity Article
It’s perfectly ok to just tell people to do what you’re article is supposed to teach. I read a “exercise motivation hacks”? list yesterday and one of the hacks was “go out and exercise.”? This kind of thing is done all the time.
6. Make Sure you "Hack-ify" Your Tips
Thoughts, ideas, tips, and philosophies, aren’t sexy. Hacks are sexy because they’re very DIY and punk and remind us of real hackers who hack computers. The doubters should remember that ANYTHING can be a hack. So use the global find and replace function in your browser to replace each instance of the word “tip”? with the work “hack.”?
7. Don’t Use Transitions
Transitions between different topics in your article provide perspective, put the material in context, and make the tips easier to remember. But you shouldn’t write transitions. They’re really hard to write, and they’re the reason why we use lists.
8. Use as Many Buzzwords as Possible in the Title
Good buzzwords words include “tips,”? “tweaks,”? “hacks,”? “zen,”? "tao," “guide,”? “simple,”? etc. If you can use two of these words together then you’re golden. For example: “simple guide,”? or “tao hacks,”? or “hack guide.”? You get the idea.
9. Write About a Buzz Topic . . .
like how to wake up early, and how you’ve implemented GTD. Or how you’ve “hacked” your composting & gardening (after starting a raw food vegan diet) with your awesome new compost pail.
10. Ignore the Principals of Psychology
The average adult’s working memory holds between 4 and 9 items. But don’t let this restrict the length of your list. People won’t remember most of your tips, but at least they’ll be impressed with its size.
11. Don’t Cite Any Research
You should really limit yourself to things other people would think of if they just had enough time. No need to actually explore research on the topic. Just because people have spent entire careers researching your topic doesn’t mean you should actually explore that research.
12. It’s OK to Write about the Same Topic Over and Over Again
It doesn’t matter if you’ve written about a topic before, or if 1,000 other people have written about a topic before. You can write about it again.
13. Its
14. OK
15. To
16. Add
17. Fluff
18. To
19. Your
20. List
21. Just
22. To
23. Take
24. Up
25. Space
26. Tell People to Write Down Their Goals
You can always tell people to write down their goals. This one belongs in any list of productivity hacks and is good fluff.
27. State the obvious.
La la la no one’s reading this. People often rush through the non-bolded text in lists. In fact, if you’re a famous blogger, then other bloggers are probably skimming your list as quickly as possible so that they can be the first commenter.
28. Write More Things on Your list . . .
just to take up space. Remember, you don’t have to actually have substance as long as you can put a lot of things on your list. Because hey, it must be good if there are 70 things.
End with a quote. It keeps you from having to write a conclusion and sum things up.
-Xu Sun Liu Yuanzhi Zhongmou Shu
P.S. I’ve done most of the things on this list. Check this blog and my guest posts for further illustration.
For more simple power tao secret hacks for writing the perfect productivity article, subscribe to The Growing Life.
Photography by AbleJTD.
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