Whether you work at home full time or you are just a part time blogger, you have probably experienced times where you have become overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done. It’s easy to sit down in front of the computer and get sucked right in, realizing a couple hours later that you have no idea where the time went. These easy tips will help you better manage your time to get more blogging done.
Prioritizing is Key
First you need to sit down and figure out what tasks need to be done so you can prioritize them. Reading and answering emails, checking social media, writing blog posts, and networking with other bloggers are all activities that a blogger must juggle on a day to day basis.
For some activities, such as checking social sites, it might be helpful to limit a certain amount of time for it so that before you know it a couple minutes doesn’t turn into a couple hours. You might want to spend 15 minutes or so on Facebook first thing in the morning and again in the evening.
Same with Pinterest. If you are an active Pinterest user, it is easy to let the time get away from you. If you use Pinterest to promote your blog, however, it is important to spend a few minutes on there once or twice a day, pinning your own and other people’s pins. This is also place to get inspiration for future blog posts.
Scheduling Your Time
After you have created a priority list, decide how much time you want to allot to each activity. You might want to spend an hour each morning responding to emails and then two hours writing blog posts or preparing photos for Pinterest.
Some bloggers find that it works best to set aside a certain time each week to perform certain tasks, not every day. For instance, if you are writing DIY type blog posts, maybe you set aside one day a week for working on projects, another day for preparing photos, another day for writing the blog posts, etc.
A lot of bloggers are stay at home or working moms and it is hard for moms to find extra time in their day to work on their blogs. Many moms get around this by getting up an extra hour early in the morning, working during children’s nap time, or working late at night. If you can’t work on your blog every day, then schedule times several times a week to work on it instead, on the weekend if necessary. Setting aside a designated time will help you get motivated to get the work done.
Planning Ahead
One secret of successful bloggers is to get work done ahead of time. You might wonder how that is possible, when you never seem to be up to date as it is. Try to work on several blog posts at one time and save one for future publication. That way if you get sick or need to attend to some other area of your life, when you come back to your blog you will still have new posts available for publication.
There are many tools you can use to help schedule posts for future publication. Facebook, Blogger, and Word Press all have easy-to-use features that allow you to schedule posts ahead of time. Then your work is automatically posted at the times you have designated.
You can write newsletters ahead of time too. Email software such Aweber allows you to create email newsletters ahead of time and have them sent out whatever day and time that you designate. This can be particularly helpful during summer months when you want to go on vacation. A few hours of work ahead of time, and you can leave your blog for a week or two and no one would ever know you were gone.
Time Management Tools
There are many tools available to help you schedule your time. Some people work best with handwritten calendars, such as Day Planners, but there are also very useful online tools available, and some of them are free.
Google’s free calendar feature is very easy to use. All you have to do is sign into a Google account and the calendar is one of the options available for your use. What’s great about this tool is that you can synchronize it with your iPhone. When you open the calendar on your iPhone, it automatically loads your Google calendar and you can update your calendar both on the phone and on your computer. You can also create multiple calendars for a variety of day to day activities.
Time management is a learned skill, and it is harder for some people than others. With a few simple tools, however, any blogger can learn to better manage his or her time and get more work accomplished every day.
