5 Tips to Manage Blogging Time Better

Although I hope to one day be a full time blogger, I think I can speak for a majority of bloggers who are tackling a to-do list during the day when you suddenly stop and say, "When can I just go home and blog?!"
  There are tons of bloggers who get to work on their blogs all day long. Having a full time job with the title "blogger" is a dream come true to a lot of people, but until that actually happens... there is a fine line between getting things done for school or work versus the many things to do daily for your blog. Lets be honest, I would much rather do everything blogging related before any essay or work related thing ever, but it still has to get done.
Putting a couple hours of blogging in on a busy day can seem difficult but if you're anything like me, its totally necessary. I always find myself asking How am I going to do to get everything done today and still find time to write next Tuesday's post?

 
Here are the tips I've found SO helpful in managing all the demands of every day life and your blog:

Plan and schedule posts

For your blog and social media postings, trust me scheduling ahead of time will be SO beneficial in the long run. There's nothing more stressful than having a post idea that you want to go live tomorrow but that hasn't been started yet. Whenever you have some free time when working on your blog, start and try to complete a couple of posts. This will make it much easier on the busier days or when you're having a bloggers block.

Create an editorial calendar

Before I was taking the time to make myself an editorial calendar each month, my ideas were all over the place and what came next was very unpredictable. Since my posts vary over a few categories, its especially helpful to mix up the topics and not have too many chunks of each day after day. If you're trying to post more consistently, having all of your posts planned out (for me anyway) has been my number one helpful tip in getting my content posted on time.

Promote your posts wisely

Taking the time to promote posts is one of the most important things to do after publishing a post. However this is very time consuming and you should only be spending the time on the outlets that you see are bringing you significant amounts of traffic. For me, I spend a lot of time engaging in threads in Facebook groups. I see a lot of traffic and referrals coming from engaging with other bloggers who are simply looking for engagement on their posts just like you are. Scheduling posts for Instagram and freelance writing work, I often find myself trying to decide between whether I should be getting a customers work done or getting mine out of the way to spend more time on another project. Allotting a certain amount of time per day to work on a project no matter how big or small and giving yourself a reasonable timeline is one of the most important things you can do. Whether it's your post or work for a client, setting aside a certain amount of time helps tremendously in not stressing yourself out about getting it done.

Have monthly goals that are attainable

This is another thing I recently started doing a lot. Looking back, I wish I would have set monthly goals months ago, but now that I've started I realize how important it is! When you have a goal set for yourself, you're much more likely to achieve it. Not only have I been working hard to achieve the monthly goals, but trying to surpass them is an amazing feeling. Don't just mentally think of your goals either, write them down and put it somewhere you'll see it and constantly think about what you need to do to reach your goals.

Have guest posters on your blog

If you're posting a lot throughout the week, often having guest bloggers create a post for your blog is a huge time saver AND a nice change for your readers once in a while. Have a place on your blog telling people that they can submit ideas or submissions - I've had quite a few requests for guest posts and if they're the right fit for my blog, I love taking them! That's the most important part though, deciding whether a submission fits your blog and is a reflection of your brand that you want your readers to see. It's perfectly okay to be picky - it's your blog that you put time and effort into. That being said, the right guest posts can be great for you just as much so as it is for the blogger submitting the post. Chances are that the writer of the post will help to promote the post, thus bringing new readers to your blog.

Make sure you add submissions accordingly to your editorial calendar even if that means moving some things around. I like to put a guest post somewhere in the middle of the week to create a nice break up between your own posts. Also, always have guidelines you want them to follow; formatting, images, word count, etc. to help keep the flow of your blog going.

What do you do to manage your blogging time?
XOXO