Time Management plays a key role in success of any blogger. Every minute, enormous amount of content is created but then there are few ideas which do not see the light as well, reason, the blogger had different priorities.
I know you that these bloggers want to write, but for the lack of plan or priorities, the enthusiasm to write a post dies down very fast. So, if you’re someone who is not able to write regularly, inspite of making plans to do it, this time management article is for you.
Here are the set of rules I try to adhere to and ensure that you get a post every single week. It’s more than a 100 post on this blog now and this could not have been possible if I did not stick to a plan. And just to say, this plan has evolved from my own experience over the last one year of writing regularly.
5 Time Management Tips
Time Management Tip #1. Set Aside Time to Write
Well, I am a morning person and prefer to write my posts early. This helps to plan the rest of my day promoting the post and even responding to comments. In this post, I have said, you got to write EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not everything you write will be published. But setting aside time to write everyday will help you set a pattern and the tame the beast called “mind”
Time Management Tip #2. Switch Off all Social Platforms
Earlier, when I used to sit for writing, I had all sort of social platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ open. So everytime someone updated a status or a new tweet came up, I was inclined to look at it. And that led to cascading effect of me either engaging on that update and loosing out my valuable writing time. Somewhere down the lane, I saw that nearly 70% of my time was unproductive and that’s where I decided to switch off all the social platforms when I sit down to write.
Time Management Tip #3. Create Topic Buckets
If you look at the pattern of my articles earlier, may be a year back, they were everywhere. I just used to write whatever came to mind. That is where I was introduced to Creating Topic Buckets in one of the #BlogChat. And ever since, I have tried to set a pattern and created buckets of post ideas on my Editorial Calendar. This helped in ensuring my research follows a proper direction. I also managed to keep my ‘Top 5’ weekly post aggregated under certain buckets.
Time Management Tip #4. Use Tools
Least to say, I am a tools junkie and like to try every single tool out there. But I found it easy to stick myself to Evernote and Instapaper. Evernote has been a big companion and many of my post ideas are logged there. I also like to store the URLs of some of the interesting posts that I read and they qualify to be stored in Instapaper. A small ‘Read Later’ on the brower has been of enormous help.
Time Management Tip #5. Guest Blogging
Not all days are alike, so sometimes even I get bored of seeing or writing my content. That is where I rely on guest posts. I have few bloggers who send me their articles and while I am spending some quality time with family or other work related stuff, the guest blogger come into picture. It always helps to have few articles in your repository from guest bloggers. This ensures that your regular visitors still get their share of information while you’re not at it.
There you go, I shared few tips that have worked for me. As a person with a day-job, every minute of my time is accountable and those time management tips have helped so far to keep me away from boredom and lethargy.
Your Turn
1. How do you handle your Blog Schedules?
2. Do you follow a certain routine? How does it help you?
It would be great to hear back from you. Share your feedback and comments below.
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