boost blogging productivity

 

Are you one of those people who can sit at your laptop for two hours, and come out the other side with half a badly drafted post? Do you wish you could be more productive with the time you have, but find that it just slips away like grains of sand through your fingers? Don’t we all! Here are a few simple things you can do that will boost your productivity and help you to blog more efficiently.

1. Do it even when you don’t have to. Even if you have posted something today, and there’s another scheduled for tomorrow – if you have the time, write. You never know what will happen tomorrow; you might find that your usual allotted time for blogging is taken up by a crisis or perhaps you even have some sort of social life. Get as many posts in the bag as you can, just in case.

2. Take notes. Carry a pen and paper with you everywhere; keep one next to your bed; get some sort of notepad app on your mobile. Whenever you hear something interesting or unusual, or you read a good quote, make a note of it. Never allow yourself to think “oh, I can remember that til later” – trust me, you can’t.

3. Have a schedule. I’ve written before about my blogging schedule; having a schedule helps you to avoid that initial “oh crap, what can I write about” feeling. And I usually find, once I’ve flexed my writing muscles writing one of my regular weekly posts, I find it easier to come up with another post.

4. Make a list. Actually, make several lists. List the posts you want to write, the photos you need to take, the reviews you need to write, the sponsored posts you need to write. When you’ve written your lists, prioritise them. Anything that will take you fewer than five minutes, do it now. Ticking those things off your lists will make you feel hugely productive and hopefully give you something to work with for the other points on your lists. Lists also help you to ensure you don’t forget anything – durr.

5. Be strict with yourself. Being more productive is less about working harder than working smarter. Part of that is having a dedicated time to work on your blog. That doesn’t have to be 7-9 every Tuesday, but if you say to yourself “right, I have an hour this evening and I’m working on my blog” then work on your blog. Close that Facebook tab down, switch the TV off and get on with it!

6. Have a ritual. We are all Pavlov’s dogs; by creating an “I’m about to work on my blog” ritual, you can get yourself into the right frame of mind for blogging. That could be having a mug of coffee, sitting at your desk and laying your laptop and notebook out neatly in front of you, taking a walk with the dog. Whatever gets you into that blogging frame of mind!

7. Research all the time. Just because you’re not blogging right now doesn’t mean you’re not researching your next post. And having an idea is half the job when it comes to writing a great post. Reading other blogs, keeping up to date with the news, trawling the gossip columns. Whatever you want to blog about, you should also be reading about. I love apps like Flipboard and NewsWhip but als StumbleUpon and Reddit are great for this.

8. Allow time for distractions. If you have to write a post tomorrow about your day at the theme park, and you know that will involve editing photos, getting quotes from your children, researching the background of the park, editing a video together, whatever else – plan for that. Don’t sit down with only 30 minutes to do a 2-hour job!

9. Write to your reader. Actually spend a little time imagining who your audience is for this specific post. What do they want to get out of it? What do they hope to achieve or learn through this? Writing to that person rather than to “the internets” in general will help you to focus and hopefully therefore work much faster – and smarter.

10. Unplug. So many people walk through town with their headphones on. They get on a train and immediately get out some sort of device for watching a movie or listening to music or just Facebooking friends. It’s nice to have a distraction from what you might see as boredom, but there is a lot of blogging material to be found if you just listen out for it. There are people all around you, all of the time, carrying on conversations. They might sound mundane to begin with – and a lot probably are – but every now and then you will hear something that makes your ears prick up and you know will make an excellent premise for a blog post. If you were listening to your iPod, you never would have heard it!

 

If you have any other tips for blogging productivity, I’d love to hear them! What do you do to help yourself get the most out of your time?


Vicky Charles

Vicky is a single mother, writer and card reader.

9 Comments

The Monkey Footed Mummy · 16/05/2015 at 14:09

I love this post! Just recently I found my perfect desk! I’ve been searching for months for one and now I’ve found it I have a lush space and my productivity has increased ! You just need a dedicated organised space I think.

    Vicky Charles · 16/05/2015 at 21:27

    Ooh where did you find your desk? My “desk” is my sofa – there’s a desk in the corner of my room but I don’t like it!

Littleoandme · 16/05/2015 at 15:59

Great post. I have been struggling with productivity recently but have started to set a timer when I’m writing a blog post and it has really helped me to focus.
#weekendbloghop
xx

    Vicky Charles · 16/05/2015 at 21:26

    Ooh good thinking! I might give that one a go – I sometimes find I get distracted by things while blogging and take hours to write one post! A timer might help me avoid that!

Pen · 16/05/2015 at 21:47

Hi,

Thanks for your blogging tips. They are really useful. I particularly like the one about writing even when you don’t have to. Sometimes I am in the flow of writing but stop when I have finished a post and then switch to twitter and facebook etc. I know that I should just carry on writing the next post rather than forgetting all of the ideas that I have.

Thanks again x

    Vicky Charles · 17/05/2015 at 12:02

    I know what you mean; I try to make the most of it if i’m “in the flow” – but sometimes Facebook and Twitter do take over!

A Cornish Mum · 16/05/2015 at 23:00

I so need to follow a lot of your advice here! I need to really condense my blogging hours and be more productive in the hours I am working as I’ve completely lost the balance with home life lately eek my house is a mess!

Stevie x #WeekendBlogHop

    Vicky Charles · 17/05/2015 at 12:01

    ha Stevie you’re not the only one. The last few weeks my housework has become more of an “only if it’s urgent” thing!

Tim · 22/05/2015 at 10:31

Good tips, Vicky. Juggling a job, three kids and four blogs means that I have to be ruthless with my time so that blogging doesn’t take over the rest of my life. Unless I’m doing dull admin stuff, I lock myself away with no distractions and parcel out my time. So if I know I am settling down for a 10pm-2am session (my standard Friday night – I’m SO exciting!), I will subdivide that time. So maybe I will allow myself two hours minutes to write two posts, 30 minutes for responding to comments, 45 minutes for reading and commenting on linkies and the final 45 for catching up on other blog reading. No Twitter, no Facebook, no ambling in and out of the kitchen for snacks and drinks – just four hours solid focus and moving on from one task to the next when my allocated time is up. That may seem very regimented but it works for me, as I know I have a terrible tendency to procrastinate otherwise.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.