There are times, like this morning, when I simply don’t have much time to create a blog post.

I have a meeting at 9:00 and I need some time to get ready for it before I start. I also really want to make sure that I get out my daily blog post before that meeting. Because then otherwise my day gets away from me and it becomes increasingly difficult to block time for blogging.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t create a blog post in a very short amount of time.

Over the years, I have collected a few tools that I have found are very useful.

The primary tool I’m using this morning is Dragon Naturally Speaking. It is very good speech recognition software. I can write a lot of content that is accurate and spelled correctly in a very short amount of time. You definitely do, however, have to reread what you spoke. It isn’t always 100% accurate. But if you have a good microphone and a good sound card it’s very, very close.

In conjunction with Dragon I like to use an extension in Chrome called ScribeFire.

I like ScribeFire because I’m able to right-click on a webpage and the tool creates a HTML link to the webpage using the title of the page. I just found it to be a big timesaver over the years if I’m writing an article with a bunch of links.

So what I do is I dictate most of the words in DragonPad, capture links using ScribeFire and merge it all together in a new post within WordPress. It takes a little bit of practice but you can definitely get fast at it.

(Invariably, something goes wrong with your technology. I’ve found the more in a hurry I am the more problems I encounter with some tool. It’s probably a Murphy’s Law thing. Dragon just crashed on me… something I’ve never seen it do before. But it started back up without too much issue. Just don’t forget to save your work! That has killed me many, many times.)

I’m also a big fan of Snagit, Mac and Windows screen capture software from TechSmith.

It allows me to quickly capture images on my screen and then edit them and annotate them. It took me a little while to get used to using it but now I love it.

You do, however, have to pay for Snagit.

Chrome has some very good free screen capture utilities. The one I use is Wepbage Screenshot.

It does a nice job and doesn’t cost anything.

Another trick I use when I’m in a hurry is to simply create a two minute video.

I like creating a short video because people respond well to that length. And it also doesn’t take long to upload. A 10 minute video might take you 15 or 20 minutes to upload. Whereas a two minute video might only take five minutes

My primary video switching software that I use is VidBlaster.

But it’s a pretty pricey tool if you aren’t going to be doing a ton of video.

A good tool that I have used over the years and is quite affordable is WebcamMax.

It lets you do picture-in-picture and can easily switch between your camera and your screen. It also has a bunch of pretty funny and corny effects, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I have also really begun to like using Google+ Hangouts On Air.

It lets you capture your screen and also take a video of you. And they keep adding new tools to it as well.

No one said you have to actually have a conversation with someone else using Google+ Hangouts. Just make a good tutorial video.

Google+ Hangouts On Air will post your video directly to YouTube and you can embed that into your blog post very easily. Again, just make a quick short very helpful video.

No one said your blog post had to be long. It just needs to be helpful.

When I was brushing my teeth this morning I was thinking, “How my going to get a blog post done before nine o’clock this morning?”

Oftentimes the hardest part of writing a blog post is coming up with a topic.

To solve that problem I use Evernote.

I like Evernote because I can easily take notes on my phone, my tablet, any computer I happen to be on, and they all sync to the web so I can get them again on any device I happen to be on at the moment.

So I might be on the beach and have a good blog post idea. I just jot that down in my Evernote “blog post ideas” note and then I’ve got it when I need it.

Actually, the time that I usually come up with new blog post ideas is in bed right before I fall asleep. I always think to myself, “I’ll definitely remember that in the morning, it’s such an awesome idea!”

I never remember.

So now I just jot down my idea in Evernote.

So there you have it. A pretty decent blog post in 36 minutes and 59 seconds.

I actually can usually create them in a much quicker timeframe. But this particular blog post ended up being fairly involved.

So don’t think you don’t have time to write a blog post. You do.