Just like any other job or profession you need to manage your time while blogging.
It is an issue with most bloggers that they don’t have enough time to do all the reading and writing they would like to do regarding their blog and the blogs they follow.
Time management is the key.
I struggled a lot in the beginning as it was a whole new ball game for me. I had never even read a blog before I made an account on WordPress. And that was to just read the blog of a friend of mine. Even then her’s was the only blog I would read. So when I started to write my blog and also started to follow a number of blogs, things got very hectic. I would be playing catch on the whole day and at the end was too exhausted to write my own posts.
In the beginning I would post ones or twice a week and the rest of the time was spent in reading and commenting on other blogs. It would mean that I was on WordPress pretty much most of my waking day.
It was a stressful situation.
But gradually I have devised a formula, following which I have simplified my blogging life.
I will let you on the secret but there is no guarantee that it will work for everyone.
1.I start my day by opening the notifications. The first priority are the blogs which I follow for the prompts. I either save these posts in the reader or make drafts of the prompts and from there I read the comments, glance over the likes and follows ( with a feeling of pride and awe!).
2.The next step is to write my posts for the day.
My usual pattern is that I post 4 posts every day, in the morning. After intervals of two hour each. Starting at 8 am and the last one at 2 pm in the afternoon. Typically I write the first two or three post on the previous evening and schedule them for the first posts of the next day. It takes the pressure off the immediately writing of a post for the day. I usually keep the daily prompts post for my 2 pm post and write this while I have my breakfast, scheduling it for 2 pm.
3 Then I leisurely read and comment on the blog posts that I follow. There are two ways of following blogs which I do. For a medium number ( almost a third ) I have notifications on. That way I am sure not to miss any of them and the others I follow through my reader. Since I follow around 250-300 blogs, reading every post from every blog that I follow is not possible every day so I have to pick and choose from my reader but I try to read a post from the blogs I follow, every once in a while.
The rest of the day I follow my regular routine, glancing at WordPress a few times a day.
4. In the evening after I am done with the day, I open my WordPress and repeat the morning routine. Saving the prompts, and these are the weekly prompts at this time. After reading the posts of other bloggers and comments etc, I write the posts that are to be scheduled for tomorrow.
5. Another important step in organizing yourself is to make drafts of future posts. Write a few, ready for posting. This is a very important prep, just like preparing food for a dinner party a day in advance. It take a lot of pressure off you and then when there are days when you are busy with life, and there will be those, just pull them out of the draft folder and publish!
6. Always remember to follow a schedule that you can keep up with. Never do so much that you become a slave to it. Keep your writing a fun thing. It should serve you, not the other way around.
This is how I have managed to keep my blogging life organized and in control.
I hope this post helps new blogger some idea as how to manage their time while blogging.
Let me know your thoughts through comments.
Waiting for your feedback!
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