Blogging can be very time consuming with all the tasks you have to do regularly to keep your blog running and growing. So, knowing how to spend your time productively can improve your stress, so that blogging is much more enjoyable.
If you are not careful, blogging can really take over your life. You have so many tasks, blogging can be something that seems never ending and it may feel like you don’t have enough time to master it. I am sure that no matter how much time you have available for your online business, you could do with more time, right?!
These are my best 11 time management tips for bloggers to help balance all aspects.
1. Set Specific Goals
Setting goals in all areas of your life is really important. A goal provides you with direction and intent. When you set explicit objectives for your blog this allows you to create content with a focus and prevent you from wasting tie on other tasks that provide any benefit or relevance. Having goals gives you something to work for and it also motivates you to work smarter to achieve them.
Read: How you can achieve your goals using a goal planner
2. Time-Blocking
Time-blocking is used to devote a specified period of time to a task or group of tasks. As a blogger, you need to promote your content, engage with your audience, pitch to brands, write content, take photographs and much more besides! Therefore, using the time-blocking strategy can aid you in being the most productive with the time you have.
As there are many tasks to complete as a blogger, allocating time to complete all the same tasks together like writing all content you have planned, or take and edit photographs will help keep your mind focused on similar tasks, so you ca stay in the flow.
3. Create A Blogging Schedule
It is super effective to have a blogging schedule for planning and posting. When it comes to blogging activities and tasks you need to decide how many hours you need to get your tasks done each week. You can then break those down by day and you have your schedule. This set amount of time will force you to focus and get things done in a timely manner.
When it comes to posting, you need to make sure that you have a plan on what day(s) and time(s) you wish to put your content live. This makes planning your content ahead of time easy and you can schedule them to save yourself time.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
4. Work When You Feel The Most Productive
We all have points in the day where we feel more productive than others. Do you feel more productive in the morning? Or, do you get more done in the evening? Once you have found your most productive time, you can use that motivation to work through your important blogging tasks.
5. Avoid Taking On Too Much
It can be hard to say no especially when it means turning away blogging work; however, you may need to, in order to manage your time effectively. When you have too much to do it can become overwhelming. Being overwhelmed can lead to procrastination, or you not creating your best work. You should not take on every paid blog gig just because it is paid.
6. Remove All Distractions
Trying to get all your tasks done can become difficult when you have distractions such as: TV, your phone or even your pet(s)! To have the most successful work day means eliminating those distractions, so your focus is solely on the task at hand. Actions like muting specific notifications or having the TV switched off will stop your mind wandering.
7. Ask For Guest Posts
If you are struggling to balance all of your blogging tasks and responsibilities, it can be a great use of your time to seek other bloggers for guest posting. Not only will you save time on researching and writing posts, but it will also enable you to create credible back links to your blog as well as engaging with other bloggers.
Check out the guest post I shared: 12 Smart Travel Tips
8. Track Your Blogging Activities
Using a notebook or a bullet journal to track your blogging statistics is a great way to highlight patterns. Looking at where you share your posts for example are they working? Are you getting the right engagement? If not, you need to trial something different. When you regularly check your blogging statistics, you can see whether what you are doing is working well or not. There is no point wasting your time on the same techniques; you want to find what works best for your blog. I keep track of all blogging statistics and they have helped me to track my progress as well as areas I need to work on.
Photo by Ana Tavares on Unsplash
9. Use To-Do Lists
We all need a good to-do list to enable us to get things done and blogging is no different. There are so many things you need to do and track as a blogger and to-do lists are a useful tool to keep you organised with your time and completing tasks on time. Recording tasks that need to be completed on a to-do list ensures that you will not miss any deadlines.
10. Use A Notebook
Rather than staring at a blank screen and wasting time on wondering what you want to write, you should use a notebook. You can use your notebook to write notes when you are researching blog post ideas as well as to get inspiration. I write down all my research and write out my blog posts on paper, so that I can plan them out. I enjoy putting pen to paper as well as buying new stationery of course!
11. Use Social Media Tools
Using scheduling apps can be a great way to save a lot of time. You can schedule tweets and posts to stay present on social media which means you can focus your efforts elsewhere without losing your levels of engagement. Social media can take up a lot of time and can be a huge distraction when something catches your eye, or you get a notification. So, when you have all your social media posts scheduled, you will not fall into the trap of wasting time on social media.
Despite what some people say, blogging is really hard work and it takes a lot of effort and determination. You can learn so many new skills though blogging like time management which is a transferable skill for other areas of your life, including other jobs you may have. Learning how to manage your time will help you to be a more successful blogger.
How do you manage your time as a blogger? What is one tip that you would give to other bloggers? I’d love to hear in the comments.
I didn’t realise how important it is to schedule my life when blogging. It’s genuinely non-stop but I love it! Thank you so much for sharing these tips with us lovely, I’ll defiantly be applying some of these to my daily life. Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
The second tip has been a game changer to me! Its the most useful tip!
Thank you for reading and commenting. I am glad you found it useful.
Great advice here. I think taking on too much especially is one that’s so important! Excellent tips to implement, thank you for sharing!
Thank you for the timely post! I lost my blogging schedule during the pandemic but now I want to make it happen again. This post is a good start, I am sure of it!
Removing distractions and using a to-do list are two very important things for me! I’ve found a lot of different tips for time management over the years as I navigated full-time blogging and social media management and these things are definitely my top recommendations!
As someone who’s sporadic in updating her blog, this post is quite a necessity.
Can you link your blog
Great post
These are great time management tips for blogger’s. To-do lists are my biggest saviour, I try not to put too many tasks on a daily to-do list so I don’t get overwhelmed x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
this is such a helpful read for bloggers! some of these i already do & they def help keep me on track. having a blogging schedule, scheduling tweets & having the occasional guest post are some of my go to tactics.
If I didn’t schedule my blogging activities I wouldn’t be able to blog – I work almost full-time and have a family to look after as well. Nowadays I don’t blog as frequently as I used to but I definitely agree with all these tips, especially time blocking!
Thank you for reading and commenting Lisa. So glad you have a system that works for you x
OMG these tips are so great, having a to do list is my #1 must have, the others are removing distractions and working when you are the most productive. Thanks for these reminders, have a wonderful week 🙂
Fab tips! I struggle a lot with my time management so this was a really helpful post. I find having a notebook to jot down ideas super helpful but I’d really like to try out the time blocking method as well as considering including more guest posts. Thank you so much for sharing x
Some great tips. I need to look at my time management as it is one thing I could improve on. Thank you for the tips. I will definitely try some of your tips.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope you found these tips useful!
Great tips! I’m still working on the blogging schedule, but I can’t stick to it for a long time haha. Thank you for sharing!
These are really great tips! Sometimes I find myself struggling but have realised it’s more time management and motivation. I can write a blog post in one sitting if I’m motivated enough or it can take several days.
Thanks for sharing.
Soffy / https://alittlecupofus.com/
Thank you for reading and commenting. I am glad you found the tips useful.
Excellent tips. I am a big spreadsheet person so I have a planning calendar, checklists, and to do lists in Excel. They definitely keep me organized.
These are all such great time management tips! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting. Can you link your blog.
So true! These are the important things to do to stay committed to blogging. Thank you for sharing.
It definitely takes over if you let it. I’ve just started a 3rd blog (the 2nd I’ve not touched in the best part of the year), so I need to get more savvy. For me it’s about getting posts written when I can so they’re ready to go.
Thank you for sharing these helpful tips.
I think I would be completely overwhelmed if I didn’t schedule my blogging activities. I only blog as a hobby at the moment, but it is still very time-consuming. I’ve started putting my phone on the other side of the room when I blog now to minimise distractions.
Scheduling social media content is such a valuable tip! I can focus on interactions on social media now, rather than focusing on promotional blog tweets, for example.
Thank you again for sharing these tips! 😊
These are great tips. I’m trying to block out time and set a realistic to do list. I have to be quite strict with time, as my blogging time is limited, with a little one tearing around the place!
It is great you are trying something. I hope these other tips help you c
These are all such important and effective tips to use as a blogger. Using tools such as to-do lists, time-blocking, and creating a schedule is super important. I need to look into social media tools. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope this post is helpful for you.
It’s distractions for me! I find the best thing to do is make a list, and if anything else comes to mind while working, just add it to the list as I often end up trying to deal with too many things at once!
Corinne x
Good tips I’m restarting my blog and this was good advice
Thanks a lot for the tips! I’m still figuring out how my blogging schedule will be. Over the past few months, I’ve kept switching here and there. I use a planner and a to-do list so I can keep track of everything 🙂
Good luck with working out your blogging schedule. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Yeah, if I don’t get something important done in the morning then it’s highly unlikely I’ll do it haha. I prefer getting up early and working then. Great tips!
Great tips! My blogging goals have been posting twice a month and I have been good at keeping that up. I am thinking about some of your other ideas about organization-time management.
Thanks
Blessings
Lisa
.
So glad you are considering my other suggestions. Good luck! Thank you for reading and commenting.
I’ve definitely been a lot more precious with my time and not taking on too much. Especially if there are an collabs!
I need to try out time blocking as I have seen people find it very efficient, and I need all the help I can get! We’re juggling a full time job and a blog on top, so we are kinda stressed over here 🙂
These are all great tips! I definitely agree having a blogging schedule is so useful & I like having a to-do list as well as it helps me stay on track with all the tasks I have.
Thank you for reading and commenting what helps you!
Brilliant ideas! I must admit I am a morning person. Ideas pop into my head when I wake and I have to grab them.
Thank you for reading and commenting Jamie.
Great tips! Sometimes it’s so hard to sit down and write a good post when you have a lot of things going on.
Lauren, great job! This was such an informative post! Creating a blog schedule (and sticking to it!) really resonated with me. I still love using a physical planner to write down ideas as they pop in my head. Can’t wait to read more from you! Xx
I love a paper planner, I much prefer that as well. Thank you for reading and commenting.
As a new blogger these are such useful tips for me, thank you!
I am glad they are helpful. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I love blogging, but sometimes it’s so hard to find the time! I like to organize my thoughts in my bullet journal, which helps a lot, but unfortunately life gets in the way! I’m trying to be a bit more consistent. Great post xx
Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com
Thank you for reading and commenting Melina, I hope these tips help you! Xx
Thanks for sharing, these tips are useful, I’m not great at planning my posts as I’m likely to change my mind at the last minute and do something else, so setting some time aside to do some post writing is a good thing 🙂