Most of us in the blogging world aren’t lucky enough to be able to devote all day every day to our internet hubs. Most of us have to balance in work, school, parenting, something else that takes up a good old chunk of our time. I started this blog back as I started uni, and as I’m coming to the end of my 3 year degree, I feel like I’ve finally worked out how to keep on top of everything!
- Organise your time. A big old planner is your best friend. Block off your work/school/mummy commitments, and any social arrangements, so you can see what time you have left. Then you’ll have a better idea of what time you have to devote to your blog. If you can block off a couple of hours a week to take all your photos, great. If you have an afternoon off at the weekend to write content, fab. If anything, I find that scheduling these things in makes me more likely to do them, because I know I won’t get another chance to do them!
- Plan, plan, and plan again. At this point in life, I’ve got notebooks coming out of my ears. I keep an Erin Condren Life Planner with everything from my classes to social events, to to do lists, to meal plans in, which is basically my own life manual. I then have a separate diary for Uni deadlines, classes and to do lists, a diary for each of my blogs where I keep track of my schedule, a notebook for each of my blogs where I plan the photos I need to take, to do lists, and a notebook filled with blog ideas to name a few. I also use the Simplenote app on my phone to draft blog posts on the go, jot down ideas and make lists. Writing everything down makes it easier to stay on top of things!
- Don’t expect too much. We’d all love to be able to post everyday, but sometimes it’s just not feasible. Make a realistic schedule, and if you can post more often, great, but if not, don’t kill yourself over it. Two awesome posts a week is better than seven lukewarm ones.
- The reserve tank. Every blogger needs a reserve tank. In fact, I have two. I have an ideas reserve tank, for when I run dry on post ideas, and a blog post reserve tank, 5-10 ready to upload posts, for just in case I run out of time. I don’t use them often but they come in handy!
- Get on top of your schedule. When I’m posting daily, I like to have a rough idea of what sort of post is going up every day for the next month. It could be something like ‘monthly favourites post’ which is fairly self explanatory, or it could be ‘haircare review’. I like to schedule my posts a week in advance, so I know I have a few days buffer should something come up which means I can’t get a post done in time. Staying ahead of yourself is half the battle!
Do you have any top tips for fitting blogging around other commitments?