Why should you always try to publish in the morning?
It only takes one quick click to publish your article or ebook. But if you are not on the ball, it’s very easy to miss something important.
If you are tired, distracted, or struggling to concentrate, the chances of you making a mistake or overlooking a vital step are high.
When you write, it’s no problem because you can always edit, fix, or correct. However, fixing things after publishing is not always so easy.
When are you fresh and at your best?
Everyone has a different rhythm, but for most people, mid-to-late morning is when they are most likely to be fresh and alert.
A recent study by Andrew P. Smith at Cardiff University, examining the effects of time of day, speed of response, alertness, and fatigue, offered these insights.
Alertness peaks in the late morning and is reduced after task performance.
The present study confirmed that alertness is higher in the late morning than in the late afternoon.
There were also more errors later in the day.
It is not to say that everyone is the same, but it is an indication that the best time of day to tackle important tasks is late morning.
However, early morning can be affected by sleep inertia, so you need to wait until you are fully alert.
Hitting the publish button is not the issue. It’s what you might miss, forget, or mistake before you do it that can cause real problems.
Have you ever unwittingly selected the wrong manuscript file when publishing an ebook?
I have, and I can tell you that it was tremendously embarrassing.
Mistakes that are easy to make when you are tired
When I first started writing and publishing, I was often in a rush to get my stuff “out there”.
It led me to make so many silly mistakes, and one in particular, because it was so clumsy.
I was working late at night, trying to finish writing a blog post. Back then, I was writing directly into my WordPress editor, which was mistake number one. (I now write in a word processor. It’s safer.)
However, I decided I was too tired to finish and publish my post, so I clicked “Save Draft” and got ready for bed.
Before I made it, my phone was beeping with contact messages and comments.
What happened?
Because I was so tired, I had inadvertently clicked “Publish” instead of saving my incomplete draft.
It’s easy to do silly things like this when you’re working late at night. And it wasn’t the only time for me.
However, I eventually learned from my mistakes and realized that there is no urgency in publishing.
Everything can wait until I’m ready, which means that I almost always publish in the morning.
For new writers and authors, I can empathize with the excitement that comes with publishing your articles, posts, poems, short stories, or books.
There’s no better feeling than seeing your words in print or online for people to read.
But there’s no worse feeling than noticing errors or publishing problems that readers will definitely notice.
The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen to you is to take your time and leave the publishing button well alone until you are sure everything is perfect.
Find your best time to publish
Everyone has a different routine or rhythm to their days or weeks. You probably have work and family to consider, which can make finding your quiet time a bit of a challenge.
But if you can, set aside two times in your day or week: one for preparing to publish and the other for publishing.
I have a routine now of collecting and preparing everything I need before I publish anything.
What works for me is creating a folder that is easy to access, such as in the downloads folder or on the desktop.
For a blog post, I have my word processor file and any images I will use. I also have a plain text file with the information I need, such as category, URL, internal links, and perhaps some keywords.
If I’m preparing a book or an ebook, I do almost the same. The folder contains my final manuscript text and book cover, along with a text file that includes categories, keywords, and my book description.
Most of the time, I prepare all this the afternoon before I want to publish. It makes it much easier to find everything rather than hunting through a file manager looking for the right files when publishing.
It’s also a good time to double-check everything or do one last proofread.
You can do this anytime, but if you are tired or distracted, leave it for a while.
But when you have everything you need, wait. Leave it for the next day, and if you can, publish it mid-to-late morning.
Summary
You can write anytime you like, because you’ll always come back to it later to edit or proofread.
For some writers, the quiet of late nights is the best time. While for others, it’s very early morning.
However, when the time comes to publish, these are not always the best times of the day. They may be great for creativity, but not so good for technical tasks and accuracy.
Sure, nothing is irreparable, but making mistakes during publishing will require a lot of unnecessary work to fix things.
It can also be embarrassing and affect your reputation.
Having a fixed routine and choosing the morning (or the best time for you) to publish will help you avoid these problems.
As I learned the hard way, being in a hurry to publish is not clever.
Get everything you need ready first. You could even create a quick checklist if you publish regularly.
When you take the time to make sure everything is 100% perfect, it makes publishing much easier and far less stressful.
Related Reading: Before You Publish Use These 5 Helpful Free Tools
