Save Time by Using Your Research Wisely

© Cheryl Malandrinos - All Rights Reserved

Writers perform research often. When I first began writing time management articles, I would find a topic of interest, research it, and then write the article. Next month I would do the same thing.   

At some point I thought, “There must be an easier way.” 

Many articles later, I’ve learned that the key is to use your research wisely.  

It’s possible to research once and write multiple articles. I’ve been interested in this concept since I read about it in Kelly James-Enger’s book titled, Six-Figure Freelancing.

This concept is known as reslanting. You take your original idea, spin it off into different angles, and locate possible new markets for it.    

Enger writes health articles, so her example looked something like this:  

You write an article on the benefits of antioxidants for older people with a health-oriented publication like Prevention in mind.  

How can you spin that for new markets?  

Some potential ideas she offered were: an article for a parenting magazine on why eating fruits and vegetables is important for children that includes tips on how to get them to consume more produce or a story for a fitness publication on how anti-oxidants help your body recover from exercise and keep your immune system strong. 

Even though I write mostly about time management, I’m also interested in parenting tips. After writing an article on how to beat holiday stress, I was able to reslant that idea using my original research and come up with an article on how parents can make the holidays more meaningful. This new idea appeared in an online newsletter. 

Another way to use your research wisely is to take an article that covers a broad subject, pull out one topic, and write a new article focusing solely on this topic. 

One year I wrote a three-part series on how to create an organized and clutter free home office. Part 2 of that series discussed office furniture and machines. While ergonomics was touched upon, that wasn’t the focus of the article. 

Being someone who has struggled with lower back pain and tendonitis for years, ergonomics is important in my home office. I used my original research to write a short article on the importance of ergonomics in your home office that was published in an online newsletter.   

So, how can you reslant your work?  

Read an article that you’ve written and then make a list of potential new angles that can be spun off of it. There might be a small amount of additional research to fine tune your new article, but overall, the majority of research will be done.  

Reslanting saves you time, which will increase your productivity and allow you more opportunities to submit your work.  

About the Author: CherylC. Malandrinos is a freelancer who specializes in helping writers increase productivity through time management and organization. She has also written articles on everyday life in the 1800’s, gardening, parenting, and women’s health issues. Cheryl is also a virtual book tour coordinator for Pump Up Your Book Promotion and the editor of Musing Our Children’s quarterly newsletter, Pages & Pens. Her first children’s book will be released in 2010. You can find out more about Cheryl by visiting her website