What Do I Use For Writing Posts Like This?

I thought it might be useful to outline how I write a blog. This is about the process not the content. I will take you through the steps from idea to publish and the tools I use and why I use them.

Stage 1 – The List

It all starts with an idea and in line with best GTD (Getting Things Done) practice, this idea needs a home – or it will be forgotten.  I use Evernote as my main note taking / clipping application and I have a “Blog Post” notebook in Evernote with a post called “Ideas and Schedule”.

So I add the idea to the ongoing list (currently I have 58 on this list) which gives it a number and puts it in sequence.

An idea may sit there for days or months before it gets picked and taken to the next stage – Outlining.

Stage 2 – Outlining

I outline in Evernote and outlining means taking the idea and augmenting it with words, phrases and ideas that I want to incorporate. So for example for this post the outline might include the words :  process not content, list management, outline, draft, edit, schedule, publish.

These are just words that help me define the scope of the blog post and from it I sometimes rework the idea into two separate blog post ideas or I take it to the next stage.