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Everyone wants to get more done.
Usually, being more productive means being more organized.
But in this post, you’ll learn something a bit different.
You’ll learn how to actually get things done faster with WordPress. By the end of this post, you’ll have nine new ways to write your blog posts faster so you can get more done in your day.
This first tip will get your workday started faster.
1. Login via /wp-admin
Every WordPress site has a login page. The URL is your domain name followed by /wp-login.php.
If you visit that URL, WordPress will ask you to login even if you’re already logged in. You’re entering your credentials over and over again for no reason.
When visiting your site, always go directly to the admin panel by adding /wp-admin after your domain, like this:
website.com/wp-admin
If you’re already logged in, you’ll be sent straight to the admin dashboard. WordPress keeps you logged in for 2 full days, so you won’t have to login nearly as often by visiting your site this way.
This next writing tip will save you more time than anything else.
2. Use the new block shortcut
If you’re using the block editor, then you know you can click on the plus button to add a new block, like this:
That works okay, but it’s kind of slow, isn’t it?
Well, today is the last day you ever add a block that way.
Instead, type “/” followed by the name of the block you want to add, and then hit Enter.
This GIF should make it clearer what I mean:
This method is soo much faster than taking your fingers off the keys to click on the plus button and find the image block.
While that’s the most time-saving shortcut, in my opinion, the Gutenberg editor includes dozens of other shortcuts too.
3. Learn the editor shortcuts
You can find all the shortcuts by clicking the More Options button (the three dots) and then clicking the “Keyboard Shortcuts” option to reveal them all.
There’s a lot to learn, so pick one or two to get familiar with first. As you add more shortcuts into your workflow, you’ll find yourself getting things done faster in the editor.
The most important shortcuts to learn are:
- Undo (cmd+z)
- Redo (cmd+shift+z)
- Bold (cmd+b)
- Italicize (cmd+i)
- Add link (cmd+k)
These are the shortcuts I use the most and they save me a ton of time.
Some actions, like uploading images, can’t be accomplished purely with shortcuts, but there are quick techniques available.
4. Drag-and-drop your images
When you add an image block, it looks like this at first:
There’s a button to upload a new image, but you actually don’t need to use it.
Instead, simply drag-and-drop an image onto the block itself to upload it automatically.
If you’re using two monitors, this technique is especially useful. And while we’re talking about images…
5. Use image blocks as placeholders
Writing is hard.
When you’re focused and the words are flowing, the last thing you want to do is stop writing so you can find a good image. That will kill your flow.
If you’re in the zone and need to get an image, just include an empty image block and leave it for later. This way, you haven’t disrupted yourself and you have a nice placeholder for the image.
I’ve started doing this and it’s made my writing time much more productive.
This next tactic will help you add images in even less time.
6. Use Format Media Titles
Each time you add an image to a post, you should add a title and alt text.
Typing these out makes adding images take longer, and that’s where the Format Media Titles plugin can help.
Format Media Titles will reuse the image’s file name as the title and alt text automatically. You can set it to capitalize words and replace hyphens with spaces so the formatting always comes out readable.
For example, the image above is named format-media-titles.png, so both the title and alt text are “Format Media Titles.”
This little trick saves me a lot of time and keeps me disciplined when naming image files.
If you find yourself adding videos and other media, this next tip will speed things up.
7. Paste in embed URLs
The block editor includes tons of embed blocks.
But you don’t need to select them manually to add embeds to your post. All you need to do is paste the link into an empty block.
For instance, you can simply paste a Youtube URL into an empty block and WordPress will automatically embed the video using the Youtube embed block.
The same technique works for Tweets, Instagram posts, and tons of other popular websites.
The majority of WP have no clue this next idea is even possible.
8. Set a new default category
Here’s something all WP users can relate to…
How many times have you published a post and forgotten to take it out of the Uncategorized category?
I did this all the time.
But you don’t have to use the “Uncategorized” category at all!
If you visit your Writing settings menu, you can set your most-used category as the default category with the first option.
If you publish posts in that category a lot, you won’t have to worry about assigning the category as often.
And while we’re on the subject, you can actually delete the Uncategorized category entirely. This video will walk you through the steps.
This last tip is helpful for long posts and improving your post outlines.
If you’ve ever written a really long post, you know how annoying it can be to scroll up and down through it.
Here’s a simple remedy.
The WordPress editor has a Content Structure button at the top that will reveal the document outline of your post when you click on it.
As long as you’re using headings properly, you can click on any of them to instantly navigate to that heading in your post.
This is a really fast way to jump around a long post without any scrolling.
The document outline is also great for reviewing your headings to make sure you’ve structured them correctly and haven’t skipped any numbers in a list post.
Conclusion
You know it’s important to speed up your WP site, but you can speed yourself up too!
It might take some time to practice these techniques and remember them while you’re writing, but if you implement them all, you’ll find yourself finishing posts much faster.
