I have a business writing process that lets me do better work with less effort. It's based on three separate steps on three separate days. Sometimes those days come one after another, sometimes they're spread out over a week or two.

Day 1: I just review the material, familiarizing myself with the ideas and context. If I'm writing something from scratch I make notes or even a mind map (a diagram of the way the idea or argument flows). No writing is done this day, just a gathering of thoughts into some sort of order.

Day 2: Now I write, and perhaps even rewrite, based on the thoughts I’ve developed over the past 24 hours or more. My experience has been that if I carry the ideas around from the first day long enough, the article will just about write itself. So, unless I have a deadline, I don't rush to write. Conversely, if I'm having trouble getting something written, I presume I'm not yet ready and set the project aside if I can.

Day 3: Now that I’ve reflected on what I’ve written, I can challenge the assumptions I made during the writing process. In addition, I can more objectively judge what I've written if some time passes. When I'm writing for clients, I like to come back to a piece of writing once a day for several days before submitting it. 

While the process is simple, it leverages my communication skills in a big way. I don’t sit for hours trying to figure out what I want to say, or how I want to say it. Instead, I let my subconscious mind do a lot of the work while I’m doing other things. 

In summary, this three step writing process – familiarization, writing, and revising – allows me to do a better job on my business writing projects, and to do it with less effort.