When you begin blogging, losing an hour of sleep to perfect a post or skipping lunch to spend time commenting is a pleasure. Post ideas come thick and fast. And more published posts mean pageviews and readers, so publishing more is better, right?
Sure… until it’s not. Until work starts piling up. Or you get sick. Or a friend is in from out of town. Or you have to bake three dozen cupcakes for Sally’s class — by tomorrow. Sometimes, we all get trapped under a beam in the burning barn (metaphorically) and can’t get to the computer. When that happens, how do you find time to blog without turning your creative outlet into just another obligation?
One: cut yourself some slack
Feeling guilty about blogging never helped anyone write a compelling post. If it’s getting tough to fit your ideal blogging schedule into a newly busy life, go easy on yourself; we all have ebbs and flows.
You can take a break without starting from scratch upon your return. Give your readers a heads-up, and give yourself permission to take time off before your blog becomes another stressor. Turning your blog into an obligation puts you on the fast track to killing the fun.
Two: manage your expectations
When you started blogging, your personal goal was two long, substantive posts a week. But you didn’t realize how much fun interacting with other bloggers would be. You got infatuated with CSS tinkering. Life dropped another project in your lap. Whatever the reason, those two posts aren’t happening.
And you know what? That’s fine. While it’s true that regular publishing helps establish a blog and retain a readership, “regular” can mean lots of things: daily, weekly, monthly, whatever. Trying to enforce a publishing frequency that doesn’t fit your life leads to a tumbleweed-strewn blog. Take a realistic look at the time you can devote to blogging, and use that to set your expectations. Don’t set yourself up to fail! You wouldn’t do that to kids or dogs, so don’t do it to yourself.
Three: think about features
A little structure can help make blogging more manageable. Combining a regular feature with other posts takes some of the publishing pressure off — especially if the feature is less time-intensive, like a photo post or link roundup.
Plus, regularly scheduled features are great for keeping readers coming back again and again, and no blogger ever turned down repeat visitors!
Four: create an editorial calendar
Even if you don’t want to run regular features, an editorial calendar allows you to take control of your publishing schedule and time — and luckily for you, we just told you all about them! Since you create the calendar, it can be as flexible as it needs to be. Take your schedule into account and plan quicker, less intense posts for busy weeks.
Five: schedule time
We put out a call on Twitter asking how you find time to blog, and this was the first response:
Adding “blog time” to your calendar is a simple way to carve out space for blogging, as long as you honor that time — otherwise, re-scheduling your missed blog appointment just becomes another source of stress.
Blog time needn’t be a big chunk of your free time; ten or fifteen minutes is a great, doable place to start. As our erstwhile commenter put it:
Six: go mobile and/or write offline
You don’t have to be at your computer or connected to the internet to blog. Keep a sticky note open on your computer desktop while at work or doing other things, and sock away a few sentences or post ideas when the mood strikes. Download the WordPress mobile app and draft posts while you’re on the subway or in line at the post office (or publish short posts or photos while you’re out and about).
Heck, go totally analog and keep an actual sticky note on your desk to jot down ideas — anything that helps the words flow once you have an internet connection.
Seven: take advantage of drafts
You don’t have to pen a perfectly publishable post every time you sit down at the computer, and you shouldn’t let that fallacy — “Oh, I don’t have time to finish a post now, so I’ll just wait until later” — keep you away from the keyboard. Drafts and posts-in-progress are your friends.
At a conference several years ago, popular food blogger David Lebovitz admitted that he had 40 active drafts sitting in his dashboard at any given time. You don’t have to be an overachiever like David, but drafts are a useful tool. Have an idea but no time to write? Start a draft. Have another one? Start another draft. You can either take your daily blogging time to work on them until you’re ready to publish, or use them as a head start when you have a bigger block of time for writing (plus, you’ll have a variety of topics to choose from, and can pick the one that moves you).
Eight: give yourself an easy A
If you haven’t been able to post in a while and it’s getting to you, try a lower-effort piece to keep the conversation going and buy yourself some time. Link roundups, reblogs (with your own commentary), or a post highlighting another blogger you love can bridge the gap between other pieces. As long as you’re true to your voice and point of view and offer your own take, these can be just as substantive as wholly original content.
Anyone who tries to use blogging as a get-rich-quick scheme will be sorely disappointed: building a good blog and attracting a community takes consistent time and effort, and there’s no magic formula where publishing every day leads to overnight success.
While viral lightening does sometimes strike, blogging truly is a “slow and steady wins the race” endeavor. Use these tricks to find the balance between carving out time to create and turning your blog into a job, and set yourself up for success in the long haul.
If you’ve got any tricks for making time to blog, we’d all love to hear ’em!
Enjoyed this? You might also like:
- Quick Tip: Stay Regular
- It’s About Time: On Editorial Calendars (and Why You Might Need One)
- Going Serial: The Power of Intervals
- The Ghosts in Your Dashboard
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I just post whenever i feel like it, but what I do, is if i miss 4 days, I would post those 4 days as soon as i could in one, big post.
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I resisted blogging in the worst way for many years, even when friends and family suggested it would be a good creative outlet for me. However, once started, I discovered they were right.
Over the past several years my blog has developed into a daily image post — usually with my own photographs or paintings. As my website has developed, I’ve found that the daily process of posting is honing my creative skills to a degree I never expected. Additionally, I am now constantly on the lookout for content to feed the daily creative spark — things that I like, or know that my audience would like to see.
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hi… I’m a new blogger. thanks for this..
It’s really good advice. 🙂
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Lots of great tips here. Must get busy putting them into action. Thanks!
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Very good advice! Thank you 🙂
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I’ve already incorporated some of your ideas, and others I dismissed a while back. However, the idea of reblogging with a commentary did give me my own idea of using reblogging as a way to enhance posts of my own (more than just a commentary). Not only will this give me ideas to write about, but will create goodwill with other bloggers and give trackbacks and/or pingbacks.
Thanks for the inspiration.
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I started my blog less than 2 weeks ago, so these tips will come in handy!
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Thank you so much for the tips and encouragement! As a fairly new blogger and someone who has always been a bit shy online, I really appreciate the support. I’m inspired to stick to my posting schedule and go back to the weekly feature that I have taken a break from. Thanks for creating such a fun and positive forum!
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I definitely need to take more advantage of both the mobile app on my phone and drafts. I’m usually the one who needs to publish a post right after making it. Last night, as I was making an impromptu post while cooking dinner, I got on my phone with the intent of creating a draft. That’s a bad example, for I published said post after proofreading and editing it, but I can make the effort on future posts to draft them, let them marinate, go back and edit/proofread before sending it out into the world. Thank you for this, The Daily Post!
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Great ideas and reminders. I really don’t have a set schedule yet myself. I try to get the two a week but one is really more realistic but some weeks that does not even happen.
I do like the idea about starting drafts when you have an idea for a new post. You can add to it when other thoughts come up and by the time you get ready to finish it you will already have a rough outline.
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This post came at the perfect time 🙂 Getting married in a couple of weeks and with incoming family and honeymoon planned, one of the big things on my list is to try to get a few posts written in advance. But there just isn’t enough time! So this post has helped assuage the guilt and also inspire! Thanks
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Getting a schedule set up has been my biggest challenge. So far I am good with it because one of my classes is about blogging and we do that every other Wednesday but I would like to get on a more regular schedule. Any tips on how to keep up with it?
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Thank you for explaining this blogging -thing. I’m very new at it and reading it really helped me!
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Thank you for this post! I wrote an ‘anniversary’ post this past July celebrating my first year of blogging and was very pleased that I had managed to commit to a twice-monthly publishing schedule while never missing a self-imposed deadline.
After that it all fell apart.
My beloved cat got sick and had to have surgery. I was worried and completely sleep deprived for the next two months. Then I was wrapped up in studying for an exam to obtain a professional designation for my day job. The only blogs I managed to post were my regular monthly photo feature — Scene on Queen. I feel guilty that the content was so ‘light’ and I have been at a loss to carve out time for anything more than that. It’s comforting to know we’re universally connected by the same concerns. Thanks for the inspiring tips!
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Ah this is my life RIGHT NOW! I have crazy hours at work WHILE trying to do a DETOX and it’s a little overwhelming. I’d pick blogging and commenting back with my blogging community any day over the hustle and bustle of work 🙂 But I’ve found little tricks on how to put up a quick post, rather than my usual long thought out ones. Since I’m doing a a detox, I’ll post a picture of what I’m eating, and a little blurb or a little trick I found that’s helping me through the process. Takes me less than 30 minutes to write up which is great and having my WP app is a must so I can interact on the go.
Rakhi
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Really glad to find this post. I find myself feeling guilty whenever I fall off the wagon of blogging or vlogging. So thanks for this.
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I’m not organised enough to have a calendar for blogging. I jot down ideas in the draft section as they come up, then I delve in and finish off posts according to how I feel and how much time I have available. I try to publish once a week, twice maximum – but it’s not always the case… Spontaneity is the most important part of blogging for me.
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As a student and a travel blogger, I’ve found it difficult to manage a consistent time of blogging. These are some great tips!
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I am also one who have set the time for my blogs. Every saturday I post a blog a new one, for which I prepare a week in advance and make it stay in my draft..
T Mohenchander
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Its a relief for me to blog. I feel that I can write whatever I want and release any feelings I have in the blog. Some might not agree, find it really random or absurd. Its your blog, people will read it. Do not get all tied up in what other people say. Blogging/ Journalism. Its what I felt about the day, a way to let go of anything that is bothering me or just talking about what amazing day I have had. Its your own envisions, your own thoughts. You do not need to make anything up, its all about you. Be honest in your writing and others will feel inspired!
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Thank you for this great post 🙂 I really enjoyed reading it! I have some problems with this “obligatory writing” so thanks a lot for your tips! 🙂 x
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I completly support the “writting offline” advice. I’ve tried it a couple of times and is very refreshing to just start writting infront of a window, listening to music and watching the moon instead of doing it infront of the computer.
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I’ve been blogging every day since I started over a year ago. I think I may have missed one day in the 500+ days. To me, it’s not a chore but more like a daily meditation that I write before I go to bed every night. Throughout the day I think about what I might like to share and I look for inspiration through the day’s events – sometimes a thought, sometimes a frustration, sometimes just an image that is captured. My blog started as an expat journey and has become a happiness/lifestyle blog that focuses on finding the good in every day, wherever you are and with whatever you are experiencing and being present in the moment. Maybe it’s easier (or not!!) to find something to write about daily…but I find it to be a gift. Thank you for the tips you shared to keep things fresh.
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i really love how you put it, “daily meditation”. i just started and i love doing it. i feel unburdened when i’m done, lighter.
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I hope you enjoy writing and blogging. All the best to you. – Adriana
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Agreed; that’s a lovely way to think about it.
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Thank you!
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As a grad student I find it hard to remember to blog sometimes or that all a sudden my blog has been neglected and I have no idea where to pick it back up. These tips would help any blogger because they display common issues that every blogger is most likely going to face. My favorite tip is “take advantage of drafts”. I always have so many ideas but once the actual blog is due I sometimes find myself struggling to get a finished product together. Drafts are a great way to help that and having ideas on hand already.
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kenang opo omahe bro.,
dobong po.,??
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I find that making a schedule is a great way to stay consistant when blogging. I post new content once a week, but hope to increase posts as I am ready to provide more photos on my blog.
Happy Blogging Everyone!!!
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so poor house ;(
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Thanks for this. I’m only 4 posts in and I’m starting to run out of ideas. I need to figure out how to jot down the ideas I have while driving or in the shower.
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I especially like #7 – several times, I’ve cued up half a dozen things in the publishing queue and then left my blog to its own devices while I study. I try to post daily, so I’ve come to love haikus: they’re quick, bite-sized bits of text. Fun to write, not heavy reading.
As for when to post, I sometimes compose a short poem on the bus and then copy it to my blog when I get wifi. Other times I’ll be waiting for class and come up with something. I tend towards late evening posts, partly to allow for the time difference, and partly because I’m a night owl.
Thanks for the advice 🙂
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wowwwww amazing
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