Blogging 101: Time Management

Time: I swear there is never enough of it.

Blogging: There is never enough time to do it.

Maybe it’s your first week blogging, or your 252nd, but sooner or later you’ll realize that serious blogging takes a lot of time and hard work. Not only do you have to write posts, you have to maintain comments, promote sponsors, tweet things, pin things, like things…rinse and repeat.  I never knew there would be so much work poured into my little ol’ blog. Why do we do it exactly? To get our blogs well on their way towards success? I’ll get back to you when I find an answer to that question. 

After figuring out how to defeat ‘the time monster’, we decided to completely wreak havoc on our perfectly laid out schedule by adding something called ‘self-employment’ into the mix-some full-time and some part-time.

I am so blessed with all the wonderful clients I have received since the launch of my design shop, and I am just floored by your enthusiasm, support, and collaboration with me as I began a new venture! Things couldn’t be better, and I promise I plan on giving the love right back to you with some new ideas I have for The Suitcase Designs. Stay tuned for those. :)

All this to say: I’ve been stupidly busy with blogging.

Believe it or not, I do live a life outside of blogging. I work part-time as an ESL English teacher, and full time as a wife/housekeeper. I love my expat life, and have always enjoyed new experiences and running 100 mph with schedules, deadlines, assignments, and events. But with being so busy, there has to be some sort of method to all the madness right? There is. Trust me, if I didn’t do the steps I list below, I’d probably blow a fuse or two every day.

1. Scheduling. I’m HUGE into lists. You could say I have a ‘thing’ for crossing items off one. Same goes for schedules. You better believe I have about 10 planners laying around my house, just waiting to be used. Without a schedule I would have a lack of direction and no motivation to get things done as quickly or as orderly as I should. 

You see, I’m one of those girls that starts a project only to realize I need to be doing something else, then realizes that something MORE important has to be finished immediately. For example: The other day I was right in the middle of doing the dishes then realized my laundry needed to be taken out of the dryer. While in the laundry room I noticed Jazz was looking a little forlorn and lonely (yes my rabbit is totally spoiled), so I spent 20 minutes playing with him. Then I realized I hadn’t done my workout for the day. All this happened in a matter of 30 minutes, and I still had dishes to do and laundry to put away. But hey, at least my pet was happy right?!

I need a schedule.

Think of blogging as another part-time job. There are certain things that need to get done each and every day to allow you to continue the upward climb in blog growth and overall success. If you put writing, replying to comments, and social networking under the table to deal with another day, I guarantee it probably won’t get done. Your page views will drop, people will stop being encouraged to comment, and you’ll grow less and less visible in the ‘blog world’s’ eye.

I do most of my heavy design work on Wednesdays and Fridays because those are my easy days for teaching. I have also decided to start scheduling my posts ahead of time; writing them over the weekend so I can spend most of the week hanging out with my husband and doing minimal blog maintenance work. I’ve loved this new way of scheduling so far, and don’t see myself changing it up anytime soon.

2. Write you posts whenever you feel inspired.  Who says you have to wait until you’re in front of a computer to write a post? Sure I do all my post scheduling over the weekend, but 7 times out of 10, I write my posts on paper throughout the week. Yes…I’m bringing old school back. I get short breaks between teaching classes, and these have made prime opportunities to get some writing in. I usually feel inspired to write something interesting while I’m out and about anyway!

3. Set Priorities.  What is your focus right now for blogging? What is most important to you and your blog? These are questions that must be answered so you know where and how to prioritize your time.

If your focus is growth, maybe instead of focusing on blogging every single day, you could get a few quality posts out and then take a majority of your scheduled time to network (aka sponsorships, guest posts, commenting on other blogs, etc.). If your focus is bettering your brand, maybe you could write more posts per week that are consistent to who you are and what you are trying to market (in the blogging world), and also focusing on social media.

4. Remembering life. Um yes a weird statement. To be honest, I don’t know how mommy bloggers or career women do it. Blogging takes ginormous dedication, but obviously life should come first. To put it in simple terms, blogging is writing in a glorified journal that (for some reason)people find interesting to read. Do not let your writing become more important than the life that is so rapidly passing by around you. Theres so much out there to learn, experience, and love. Don’t waste the days sitting on the computer just because you’re trying to get your ‘follower’ count higher (this is a reality check moment for me). 

Just remember, our time is short. Use it wisely.