13 productive time-management tips for successful content creators

Successful content creators need to be on top of their time management. With social media marketing, graphic design, and video editing, it’s difficult to know how to prioritize your time. Fortunately, there are many tried and tested tips you can benefit from using so that you don’t feel bogged down and lose hours of your day.

13 Repurpose content

Use what you already created

Most content creators post similar content across various platforms, such as long-form videos on YouTube, short-form videos on YouTube Shorts, TikTok, or Instagram Reels, articles, and static posts.

Instead of recreating brand new images, videos, or words for each platform, just repurpose your already-made content for each platform.

Avoid using duplicate imagery or text, but you can save yourself hours of time by repurposing what you’ve already created. There are many tools — like we’ve covered in 6 ways CapCut Mobile is better than Adobe Premiere Rush Mobile — that can transform long-form videos into perfectly cut short-form videos, and there are tools that turn video into written articles or vice versa.

Remember to update older content too – recycling is good. Again, you don’t need to recreate entirely new work to do this. Use what you’ve already created as a foundation which you can repackage.

12 Front-load your day

Start your days productively

If you have lots of tasks to complete, set your daily schedule to ensure the heavier tasks are at the beginning of your day. Prioritize more difficult or time-consuming tasks first, and let the easier, smaller, or lower priority tasks fall to the time of day when you have less to do (and less focus to do it).

You might feel more productive getting five smaller tasks done all before 10am, but putting off the larger task — like editing or filming a full video — until later in the day will only distract your brain or make you too tired to get the work done later on. Getting the big task out of the way first will motivate you to do the smaller, easier tasks afterwards.

11 Accountability buddy

Tell someone what you’re going to achieve

Source: Google

An accountability buddy system ensures you get work done. This commonly used system holds you accountable by telling other people what you plan to achieve, so they can check in on you and ensure you achieve it.

This system also works alongside someone else, so you both hold one another accountable. You can do this in person, via a video meeting tool, or even by sending over your to-do list (followed by a completed checklist) for accountability. Just don’t let this turn into a social meeting or other distraction. Hold one another accountable to finish the work you said you would.

10 Shrink your deadline

Falsify your deadlines for faster working

Parkinson’s Law — a law that suggests you’ll use all the available time up to a deadline to get the project done, rather than working early to finish a project before a deadline and using the spare time for something else — is something the majority of people follow, whether they intend to or not, so you can use this to your advantage by faking your deadline.

If you have a two-week deadline for a video, for example, instead of slowly creating the video and script, editing, creating thumbnails, making marketing posts, and researching in the entire two-week period and submitting everything the day of the deadline, you should, instead, halve that deadline. Give yourself a one-week deadline to complete the work.

You’ll work harder for a shorter amount of time, and you’ll feel less stressed about cutting close to the deadline, because you’ll have a buffer. This technique works only if you treat your new deadline seriously. As soon as you begin to feel it’s a false deadline, you’ll be back to square one.

9 Avoid multitasking

One task at a time — don’t clutter the brain

It can be difficult to focus on one task when you’re the creator, content manager, poster, ideator, and potentially working a day-job in the other hours. Ignoring distractions and focusing on one task is the best way to stop procrastinating and get things done.

Don’t try to do two things at once. You can’t write an article while brainstorming future articles or responding to comments. Put other tasks to the side and focus on one until it’s done. Set a timer and work solely on that single project until the timer beeps. Then move to the next task.

8 Pomodoro technique

Scheduled work and break time eases stress

The Pomodoro technique is a commonly used time management tip. The premise lies in giving yourself small time increments to work followed by a short break.

This is typically done in 25-minute bursts of work followed by a 5-minute break. But you can choose time limits that work best for you.

While the Pomodoro technique might not work for everyone, it seems to be popular. Set timers to keep track of the time and use the 5-minute breaks to stand up, go outside, and get away from your screen.

7 Time-blocking

Plan your day in blocks

Time-blocking is one of my favorite time management tips. There are apps that allow you to apply the time-blocking theory, but I simply use Google Calendar as it already has my scheduled appointments there.

Time-blocking helps you focus on each task, push out distractions, and can be a very reassuring way to show you that there’s time in your day to fit everything in.

Rather than having an agenda that simply lists all the items you need to do each day — which is overwhelming for the eyes and the brain — you actively block out the time which you’ll need each day for every task. Then commit to it. This includes all tasks, including mealtimes, break times, working out, feeding the baby, or any non-professional parts of your workday you need to consider.

6 Hire a team

Delegate your tasks

Image credit: Acer

Hiring a team to delegate menial tasks can save you time. While it isn’t cost-effective for everyone, there are pricing options and tasks to choose for delegation that could suit any budget.

Sites like Fiverr or Upwork are cost-effective, but sometimes lower quality, compared to hiring a PA (personal assistant) or VA (virtual assistant) directly. You can hire a video editor, researcher, social media marketer, or really any job taking too much of your time from your creative work.

5 Automate

Tech automation can save you a ton of time

Similarly to hiring a team of human help, you could instead — or, as well — automate many tasks using the technology you likely already use.

With the introduction of AI within most software and tech, use it in your favor. Just don’t let AI overtake the integrity of your content and brand. AI can be used to help ideate, write scripts, captions, or marketing text, plus you can even use AI in video editing.

For classic types of automation, you can use remote controlled cameras for filming or photographing, digital gimbals to follow you as you capture yourself, and management systems like Asana or Notion to automate task delegation.

There are so many tools available within your workflow already, you’ve just got to leverage them to your time-saving advantage.

4 Make before you manage

Creative tasks take priority

As a creative content maker, your skills largely lie within your creative abilities. Without creating content, you’ll have nothing to manage, so focus on the creation before you focus on the management of your content.

It’s easy to get bogged down in management, tasks, and non-creative duties. The “make before you manage” rule ensures you’re creating work first. Use your skills and block out the noise by doing what you do best: making and creating. Focus on the management after the fact.

3 Use a to-do app

Productivity apps can help train your brain

Productivity apps like Notion, TickTick, or Apple Reminders can be helpful for getting your tasks on track. While the time-blocking tip can help you to avoid listing all tasks randomly for each day, a to-do app can help you reorganize tasks without the strictness of time-blocking itself. If you are unsure which method may work better for you, try each for a week and see which approach helped you get more done and felt more enjoyable to use.

You could also use a paper method like a traditional to-do list or stay creative in your productivity by starting a bullet journal. These may end up overwhelming you, though, and are often not practical in our digital era.

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2 Set a content posting schedule

A public content schedule holds you accountable

Whether you keep your content posting schedule to yourself or mention it within your content — like many YouTubers who tell their audience they post on Saturdays and Wednesdays, for example — it helps keep you accountable, as people are expecting to see your posts.

Having a set posting schedule also means you can plan your content for the future, saving yourself time and stress when it comes close to the posting deadline. If you bulk create any of your work, you can schedule it ahead of time and forget about it.

1 Use built-in scheduling software

Set it and forget it

Use built-in scheduling tools within most creative software or productivity tools. Adobe Express has great scheduling options, and Express can be used to create a lot of your content, including bulk creation, short-form videos, or animated pieces.

Canva is another tool that offers both creation features for static and video content, plus has built-in scheduling software ready to go.

Having a calendar and scheduler within the software where you create your content saves time and energy by allowing you to create and set it to post within seconds, rather than needing to save projects and upload them elsewhere, or use external scheduling software like Hootsuite.

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Be a productive content creator

Content creators need to wear many hats in the modern day. Not only are you creating visually inspired work for the masses, but you’re often in control of research and idea generation, task management, posting, marketing, and engagement too. It’s easy to lose track of time or feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, but there are plenty of techniques that can help you effectively manage your time.