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I didn't publish a single post last week. I volunteered to serve at a four-day tournament, and my commitment left no free time. I couldn't write anything new, and I had no blog posts or podcast episodes in reserve.\n\nSo last week, I published nothing.\n\nMay I serve as a cautionary tale?\nWork Ahead on Content\nIf you're a blogger or regular guest columnist for another publication, I urge you to do what I failed to do: write several articles or blog posts and store them up\u2014better yet, prep and schedule them\u2014so you'll have content for the weeks you head off on vacation, catch the flu, or volunteer to serve at a four-day tournament.\n\nIf you don\u2019t, you'll end up like me and have no choice but to recycle something from the archives or simply take the week off.\n\nNow, taking a week off is certainly an option.\n\nBut your readers like hearing from you. They look forward to your updates. They appreciate your solutions to their problems. They're entertained by your stories. They show up looking for whatever it is you write and when you and your words aren't there for a week or more, they wonder what\u2019s going on. They hope nothing's wrong.\n\nI wish I'd worked ahead, so I could have offered great content to help you reach your writing goals\u2014and have fun. We missed a week when, together, we could have been more curious, creative, and productive.\nIt Takes Grit to Work Ahead\nI know it's possible to work ahead, because I pulled it off last year when I was going to be gone for several weeks. The month before I left, I got up early and stayed up late to double the work, writing one piece for the week I was in and another for a month out, when I would be traveling. My pace was nutty\u2014unsustainable, really\u2014but I pulled it off and felt great having a month's worth of content finished, prepped, and scheduled.\n\nIt took grit; I had to push to get ahead. But what freedom!\n\nAnd the beauty is that once you're ahead, you can revert back to a normal schedule, producing only one piece at a time knowing there\u2019s a safety net. If you fall behind one week, you\u2019ll still have something to publish.\n\nI wish I'd kept it up and maintained that work-ahead advantage.\n\nBut I didn\u2019t.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why last week, I did not record a podcast or write a blog post.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why this week, I\u2019ve resolved to work ahead.\nWrite When Productive to Have Content When Blocked\nThe work-ahead advantage is a great gift not only when you're busy, like I was, but also when you hit a creative lull.\n\nCall it writer's block or call it a dry spell. Whatever it is, writers often enjoy mega-productive seasons followed by weeks of meager output. If you can manage to write extra when words are flowing freely, you'll accumulate essays, articles, blog posts, or poems you can continue to send out even if you enter a phase when you're unable to produce polished pieces.\nWhat Season Are You in Now?\nIf you\u2019re in a mega-productive season, write. Write a lot. Write more than you need. Write until you have a month\u2019s worth of material or more. Make hay while the sun shines and all that.\n\nIf you're in a dry spell, hang in there. Read some great literature and relax into it. Underline phrases that generate a sigh or laughter. Copy into your commonplace book sections that seem significant and deserve further consideration. Take long walks. Sip tea. Exercise. Write in a journal.\n\nDuring that lull, maybe\u2014hopefully\u2014you\u2019ll have some extra content on hand that you can send out or publish. If not, that\u2019s okay. Call it a hiatus or a sabbatical or something.\n\nAt some point, the muse will return and you'll feel that surge of energy. Ideas and inspiration will once more flow through your fingers and onto the screen. Once again, you'll produce content. Once again, you'll feel the joy of creativity. And once again, you'll have the option of working ahead, writing two or three or four more articles, poems, blog posts, or essays so you can set some aside for safekeeping.