Blogging: Keeping organised & motivated
I nearly scrapped this post out of fear of being misinterpreted but decided I still wanted to post it. So please don’t think I’m setting any blogger rules, we all know there are no rules…
I get a lot of tweets and emails though about how to stay organised when blogging so it seems like something a lot of people struggle with. It’s taken me years to get into a routine and even now I still get overwhelmed with it all. I have a few tips though for those of you who want to put more effort into your blog without sacrificing other things. It’s all about utilising the time you have and being prepared.
So here are some of my tips…
WRITE IT ALL DOWN //
Any idea is a good idea. No matter what time of day an idea comes into your head, no matter how basic or complicated it is, write it down. I keep a page on the ‘notes’ of my phone filled with random ideas. Sometimes I wake up the next morning and my notes page is filled with useless rubbish, but sometimes there will be a great idea for a post which I later go on to plan. If you’re on the tube and you see someone with a nice pink lipstick on, write it down, if the tan on your legs starts to rub and go patchy around your sock line, write it down. I know it sounds ridiculous but the more you open your mind to new ideas, the easier it is to think of new ideas to post about.
PLAN //
Blogging can be a time consuming hobby and I know how overwhelming it can feel, especially when you want to put more time into it than you actually have available. Try planning a bit ahead to give yourself more time to gather together everything you need. Plan what your post is going to be and write down everything you need for it. Do you need to pick up any products? Do you need to take any photos or do any research? Allow yourself some planning time and you’ll feel less rushed. Alternatively, spend ten minutes pouring your heart out and just press ‘publish’, that works just as well sometimes.
LISTS, LISTS, LISTS //
I’m a big fan of making lists, but it’s important to set yourself realistic goals. If you work on your blog in the evenings then set yourself a list of things to do prior to that evening and make sure you have everything you need to be able to tick everything off the list. If you work on your blog at weekends, set your list on a Friday and work through it on the weekend. I like to split my lists into categories. Photos I need to take, text I need to write, links I need to add in and any social I might want to schedule. Lists aren’t everybody’s thing but for me it makes me feel calm getting it all out of my head and onto paper.
SET REMINDERS & ALARMS //
If, like me, you have an embarrassingly bad memory you might want to set some reminders on your phone. If you feel overwhelmed with things to do and forget to check your to do list, I sometimes set a reminder on my phone and it really helps keep me to keep on top of things.
SCHEDULE //
When working on your blog part-time learning how to schedule is really handy. If you’re not able to put your blog posts live when you’re elsewhere, most platforms allow you to schedule the posts. You can also schedule your tweets and Facebook status’. Noone wants to ruin the ‘realness’ of Twitter so I only ever schedule tweets promoting my blog posts. It means I have more time to focus on writing posts and writing ‘real-time’ tweets about what I am eating, because that is just too interesting to miss. It saves you sneaking out the office to tweet about your blog post that just went live and it’ll put your mind at ease when you’re not on ‘blog time’.
Writing a blog is meant to be fun, so take these tips lightly. The top priority is that you enjoy it, but if you like to keep organised then hopefully these tips should help. Let me know if they did and good luck with your blogs!
Here are some other blog related posts I’ve written…
How to start a beauty blog
Here are some other blog related posts I’ve written…
How to start a beauty blog
