Making Time For Blogging

Making Time For Blogging When Busy

I know I'm not the only one juggling a blog with a multitude of other projects. As I wrote about in my being busy post, I am currently living a lifestyle that involves university, a research internship, working as the Social Media Editor for The Gazelle, running a peer support group, babysitting for money and, you know, having a life.

So where does blogging fall into this? Well the truth is it's a pretty low priority. It's my hobby and I adore the role it plays in my life, plus I'm proud of the way I've managed to keep up consistently posting three times a week for two months, but in the list of responsibilities above it has to fall at the bottom more often than not. Luckily I foresaw this being the case, and have structured my life to allow for my blog to run even when life is overwhelming. So today I want to share with all you busy bees my tips for running a blog whilst maintaining a job/university/insert other important time-consuming duty. 

Staying On Schedule 

I always like to be scheduled three weeks ahead, and at the very minimum two. This is because ideas come to me in waves, but I desperately want consistency. By scheduling ahead I know that I will have a weekend where I write five posts, but then not write anything for ten days and it doesn't matter because I have content coming out at the same time every week (Tuesday, Friday, Sunday for those of you who don't know!). I also find this helpful for improving my posts: if I write them far in advance I can come back several times to add and edit, and I find they improve dramatically for being thought out over a long period. 

Multi-Tasking 

I am currently writing this on my phone as I walk to class, because the idea struck me by the lift. I will go back and severely edit later, but whenever I have an idea I start writing it out as much as I can, no matter where I am. Even if it's just patchy notes that no one will understand but me, it still gives me a great springboard to write from later when I have time. Plus bus journeys, waiting in line for food at the dining hall, and all the other times of my day that would otherwise be filled with candy-crush and mindless scrolling can be a great opportunity to flesh out posts. I also use the time my babysitting children are in bed as a great opportunity to write, and I edit photos whilst watching my favourite shows so that I feel like I'm relaxing but still making progress.


Schedule

Scheduling is literally the most helpful thing to do when you're busy! Both blogger and wordpress allow you to schedule posts in advance and then I use Buffer for tweets. It means that even when I can't be active on social media I know that my links are getting sent out to people. 


Accept Your Priorities 

When I have exams and essays, blogging is not my top priority. Even though it's very tempting to procrastinate by writing, I have to recognise that I want to do well in my education and at those times LTB needs to wait. I also try to get ahead of the game for scheduling more in advance when I know I'm busy. However over the summer juggling my full-time internship, seeing friends, actually enjoying New York and holding together a relationship that was falling apart proved too much. I decided to take a six week break and it was the best decision I made. It gave me the space to write leisurely rather than the posts that become too forced, I had fun with my photography instead of thinking of everything in terms of this site, and it allowed me to focus on the people that mattered. It was having that six weeks free from posting that allowed me to get ahead and scheduled, and develop the lovely site that you see. I framed it as a relaunch, which is was, but a large chunk of that time was about improving me rather than the blog, and I'm so glad I did.


Blogging can be a big commitment, and for those that do it as a full time job it's an amazing chance to devote your heart and soul into a site and see it grow. But many of us still have other career plans and this means we have to juggle our passion on the side. I hope this can help any of you maintaining that balancing act, and if you have any tips of your own please let me know in the comments. The more we can help each other, the better all our blogs can be.


9 comments:

  1. These are some wonderful tips! I never think about writing out blog posts on my phone when I'm just waiting in line or anything like that and then ideas have a tendency to get lost. I'm definitely a fan of scheduling content. As much as I wish I could write posts the day of or the day before, working and being at university with a looming deadline means I feel so much more less stressed knowing I have weeks worth of content to fall back on. Great post, thank you for sharing! x

    Megan | http://www.meganjean.co.uk

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    1. Thank you so much Megan! It's so hard to balance everything, but it sounds like you've got it worked out xxx

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  2. Thank you for sharing these tips, I've just had a 3 week posting break which is the longest I've gone without blogging in a long time and it was mainly due to the fact that I was struggling to fit it in. There's been a lot of change in my life and I'm hoping to get back on track with my blog ASAP. I'll definitely be using my commute as time to get ideas down!

    Sophie | www.dreamsandcolourschemes.com

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    1. Thanks for commenting Sophie! Do you think the break helped at all? I hope you find the balance xxx

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  3. Lovely post. Really enjoying your writing style.
    Keep it up!

    I've just started my blog. Would you be as kind as checking it out and telling me what you think when you have some time?

    Kind regards,
    Ana
    https://anasdomain.wordpress.com/

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  4. Love these tips. It is really inspiring to see so many people managing to juggle a whole load of commitments and still find time to write. I am attempting to blog whilst holding down a full time job - hats off to ya! Immy x

    www.immymay.com

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  5. This is a really great post and really great for people who don't blog full time but actually juggle blogs AND full time jobs! I think your last part nailed it - helping each other and doing our best is all we can ask for xx

    Sam // Samantha Betteridge

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    1. Thank you Samantha! And thanks for being a part of the chat :) xx

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  6. I actually have a similar post in scheduled to go online in Wednesday.
    As fun as blogging is there are some tricks to get you there while balancing with a day job and social life/boyfriend etc.

    xx

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts with me. I read and reply to each and every one.