Happy July! Here are the Copyblogger Content Excellence prompts for this month.

For those of you who haven’t joined us yet, each month in 2017 we’re providing a pair of prompts: one to make you more productive and one to improve your creativity or writing skill.

Feel free to try one prompt or both. You can join the fun anytime you like. And let us know about your experiences in the comments!

The July Creativity Prompt

Create two new types of content

Producing content, like any creative work, has its own set of rhythms.

At first, you have to work really hard to make anything you’re proud of.

As you continue to put in the hours, stretch your creative boundaries, and focus on deliberate practice, you start to get pretty good. Maybe even very good.

Then … maybe you get a tiny bit bored. You quit putting so much time in, and the cycle starts to move in the other direction.

The way to keep improving lies in changing things up. Keep changing the game for yourself. Not because you’re chasing some illusory time when you’ll be “good enough,” but because it’s fun to keep pushing toward the next level.

To that end, this month, I suggest you try two content types that are new to you.

You can vary the medium (text, infographic, audio, video) or you can vary the structure (storytelling, teaching, analogy, review).

If you’re stuck for ideas, Stefanie put a post together about 16 different approaches for a blog post. I’ll bet there are one or two in there that might spark some ideas.

Why two? Well … you might hate the first one. Trying two new ideas gives you more chances to find something new to fall in love with. And if you find some joy in the experiment, try two more new ideas next month.

The July Productivity Prompt

Find two more half hours

Now that (in my hemisphere) we’re squarely into summer, the days are noticeably longer. The sun gets up early and goes to bed late.

All that sun is energizing — and I’ll bet you can use that extra daylight to find an extra half hour in the morning and an extra half hour at the end of the day. You can use that time to work on your two new ideas or any creative work you’ve been wanting to pursue.

Seven extra hours a week is enough to launch the blog you’ve been meaning to get to, finally get that book started (and finished), or just establish a solid process and create one excellent piece of content every week.

Now — for those of you in the southern hemisphere, let’s frame it a little differently. Winter is here, and that means shorter days and fewer temptations to go out and goof off. Cozy up and, instead of retreating into binge-watching Netflix or eating your bodyweight in carbs, nurture a new creative ritual to take advantage of the quieter time.

The common thread?

Make excuses to do your work.

Not “more of the same” — that’s hard to get excited about. Instead, use your creative brain to figure out how to sneak in 60 additional minutes a day to work on a creative project that fulfills you.

Let us know what you’re up to …

Going to try some new content types this month?

Looking for some minutes you can add together for creative work?

Let us know about it in the comments.