Like most of you, in addition to my blog, I have a pretty full life. I am active in my church, I volunteer weekly with an urban youth ministry, I am planning a wedding, I have the sweetest dog ever, I have fantastic family and friends that I try to stay connected to, I run (a lot) and oh yeah…I also have a day job that often takes me out of town for days at a time. With all that is going on, it can be a struggle to find time to blog, as much as I love it. With my current blogging schedule (five days a week, M – F), it means I have to be very intentional about writing or else posts would never get written. Here are my three tips to balancing your blog with your day job.
You CAN figure out how to balance blogging with your day job!
- Plan ahead. I’ve already highlighted the benefits of using an editorial calendar. I highly recommend that, but I also recommend thinking about times you’ll be traveling for work or the like. Will you have time to blog while traveling? If not, then either seek guest posts or have your blogging done before hand! If you plan ahead, it tends to not be as overwhelming.
- Utilize down time. I spend most of my lunch hours drafting or editing blog posts. I also blog while on the train (using the wordpress app on my phone) and I’m quick to start a post that just has the basic hint of an idea. I find that blogging during lunch works well for me because it’s down time but doesn’t affect my productivity during the work day.
- Think carefully about your blogging schedule. Don’t feel like you have to commit to blog 3 days a week, 4 days a week or any certain number of days a week. I think what is more important than the number of days a week you blog, is how consistent you are in your blogging schedule. If people know they can find a new blog post on your website on every Thursday, then they will check back on Thursdays. However, if you blog 5x a week one week and then don’t blog again for 2 months and then blog 2x a week for one month…you will probably lose readers because they won’t know when they can find your posts. Set a schedule that works for you and then do you best to stick to that schedule.
How do you maintain consistency with your blog and day job? Any tips that I missed?
Fantastic post! I have recently been struggling with keeping up with posts when I have especially busy weeks at work. I too am super involved in my church, friends/family, dog, of course running….. But finding time to blog is important too, it always makes us feel positive so I think it helps to not necessarily think of it as something else we HAVE to get done, but something we want to do!
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I also think it’s important to remember that the most important thing is that you are living life well. The blogging is great, but I make sure to focus on what really counts. It sounds like you do as well 🙂
Thanks for this post, exactly what I needed to read and I’m going to commit to a schedule for my blog!
Fantastic — I hope it’s able to help you find balance! It definitely helped me!
Thanks for this! It is definitely hard to do as much as you want at times! For me, I get up early, like today, to work on things before the kids are up…. and as I type this, I hear one coming out of bed now…. 🙂
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That is smart! I usually run in the mornings so I typically don’t blog then, but I do sometimes get to work 30 minutes early to work on the blog 🙂
Great post! I honestly have no idea how you post 5 days a week. You’re awesome! haha. 3 days a week is what works best for me. At the most. My full-time job’s been going for over 2 weeks now, and I’m finding it hard to fit in blogging with my regular life! I’ll work it out eventually 🙂
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I plan out a lot of post ideas in advance with the editorial calendar! I do what I’m doing now — drafting posts while I’m on a train to NYC for work. I try to take advantage of down time but I also don’t stress about it. I thought 5 days a week would be hard, and it is sometimes but having things like the Friday Five each week makes it easier! I think 3 days a week is perfect 🙂
Great post. It’s definitely a challenge that sometimes I’m better at meeting than other times. Planning is key for me and in my ideal world I try to crank out a week’s worth of posts over the weekend and schedule them to load. Life often gets in the way of this so I try to fit them in whenever I can – late at night, on a lunch break, etc. I’ve also learned to relax about it. Yes, my blog means a lot to me, but I started it because I love writing and it’s something that is fun for me to do. When I start stressing about it I just remind myself that this is something I do for fun and it’s not the end of the world if I have a bad week with getting posts up.
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“When I start stressing about it I just remind myself that this is something I do for fun and it’s not the end of the world if I have a bad week with getting posts up.” <------ KEY to remember! It's supposed to be fun 🙂
Good tips! It is hard to balance life with blogging for sure! I have found that taking breaks from it when life is too crazy is a big help too!
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I am more sporadic and not consistent with a schedule, but I also can’t put too much pressure on myself. I try to write when I have things to say and things I want to get out, and not just as a chore. Since I go through phases where I want to write all the time, what I’d like to do is write several things and have them in the draft folder, and be able to publish consistently. Thanks for the tips!
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Ah, yes, the eternal question. I post 2-3 days a week. I don’t think I could be a daily blogger, I’d run out of things to talk about!! Since mine is mostly about running and experiences associated with it, I just don’t have enough on the topic. I like my posts to stay up a couple of days to give people a chance to catch up. I appreciate those bloggers who do deliver fresh content daily!!
Mar @ Mar on the Run! recently posted…13 in 2013: Mission Complete
Hi There,
I’ve been posting 5 times a week (M-F) but have been thinking of cutting back because I admit, I do streee about it sometimes. Does it make it easier if you stick to theme posts every week ( like “motivational Monday”,” Wordless Wednesday”, “Five things Friday”…etc…) I try those once in a while but am not consistant. I might do a Wordless Wednesday one week, and then another week my Wednesday post is about something totally different. know what I mean?
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I do a Friday Five (you should link up tomorrow!) and that’s great because I know each week, I’ll be making a list of 5 things. I also try to make sure I spread out topics (i.e. not running every single day :)) The editorial calendar helps a BUNCH with this!
I try and get a few days ahead, that way if life gets in the way, I know I am okay on the blog front =)
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GREAT post! I still have not fully mastered balancing blogging with my day job. I often blog at lunchtime, too 🙂
My goal is to blog 2-3 days per week, but I also try to not force it if I don’t have anything to talk about. I’m trying to focus on quality, meaningful posts as opposed to just writing something for the sake of putting it up online. With that said, I agree with your tips, especially in utilizing downtime. I too try to take care of editing, setting up tweets through Hoot Suite, and responding to comments by getting to work a bit early. That way, I have time to ease into the workday while doing something ai enjoy.
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That is a perfect plan, Kathryn. I totally agree with not forcing it just for the sake of having a post up.
These are great tips! I know what my New Year’s Resolutions are!
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