Jan 20, 2011 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Having trouble finding time to blog?

Post a Week participant Sally is a busy PhD student who’s managed to make time to blog for the past five years.

She writes, “A blog doesn’t have to take over your life, it’s perfectly possible to fit it in to the horrendous schedules we all have. It takes a bit of self-discipline and some prior planning, but after that it should become a pleasure.”

Here are a few of her tips on how to use your blogging time wisely and develop practices that will make it easier to sustain your blog in the long run:

Be realistic. Set yourself a target you think you can keep to, say a post a week – but then don’t feel guilty if you miss a week or two. A blog is supposed to be fun and useful, not a chore or something to beat yourself up over.

Don’t feel you have to write everything. Your readers are just as busy as you and they don’t want to read screeds of text – so keep it short and sweet and save the agonising for work that does require you to be comprehensive.

Don’t get distracted or procrastinate…ignore emails, Twitter, Facebook messages and everything else until you’ve finished.

Read the entire post here.

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  1. Great points. “Life trumps blogging” is the rule. But when you’re “doing life” and things happen that make you think, “I so need to blog this”, you know it’s bitten you, too.

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  2. I don’t think it is even time but fear that keeps people from blogging. Fear manifests itself into excuses and then all of a sudden, enough time is not there.

    It’s possible to fit into a schedule. It’s about overcoming the fear, stop apologizing for not having the time and just write. Just do it (Nike had a point).

    GREAT post, thanks for sharing.

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  3. It’s like you were reading my mind: Not only have I been wringing my hands over “not having the time” to fit blogging into my day; but, of course, I have been “beating myself up” for failing to do so. Frankly, however, it comes down–at least for me–to not giving my blog its sufficient priority. (Or, as to paraphrase Trudy’s earlier comment, “Just doing it.”)

    Thanks for the encouraging words. I’m heading for the “New Post” key right now.
    Steve

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  4. I think the second tip in her blog (“collecting ideas”) is the most important tip. You can’t be creative if you want to! When I’m at school or I travel by train, the best ideas come to me and I immediately type them into my smartphone 😉

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  6. You are right … Fun and useful! If you approach writing a post as something fun then it will not become a dreaded chore. You don’t have to be serious all the time … have some FUN!

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  7. I love your second point – I like to keep my posts short and sweet as I know I simply don’t have time to read other people’s long posts.
    Great advice! Thanks!

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  9. Thank you for reminding me I am doing this for fun! I was starting to get all stressed out over missing my blog time this week because of other commitments and I really needed to hear your advice 😉

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  19. I agree with the poster. I am a participant in #postaday2011 and #postaweek2011. Although I agree that writing begets good writing, I don’t necessarily agree that quantity should be given more value than quality. Very few are gifted in that special way so as to be able to fulfill both attributes of quality and quantity in their writing. So, I strive for quality. If I can post more than once a week, so be it. If I only post once a week, may it be a good read. 🙂

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