06 | Blog Scheduling Tips to Get More Done

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Whoever said “blogging is easy” definitely fooled me to come into the blogging world, but I’m really glad they did.

But the truth is, blogging is A LOT of work and it’s definitely NOT easy. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it easi-er or that we can’t simplify our processes so that we can get more done.

So in today’s episode, you’re going to learn blog scheduling tips that are going to help take away some of the blogging overwhelm and help you get more done in less time.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Download your Free Effective Weekly Planning Starter Kit

▶ Listen to episode 3: 9 Productivity Myths Busted

▶ Listen to episode 4: How To Prioritize Your Weekly Biz Tasks

Connect with me:

Website | FB Group | Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Introduction

Whoever said blogging is easy definitely fooled me to come into the blogging world, but I am actually really glad that they did.

But the truth is blogging is a lot of work and it’s definitely not easy. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it easier, or that we can’t simplify our processes, so that way we can get more done.

So in today’s episode you’re going to learn blog scheduling tips that are going to help take away some of that blogging overwhelm and help you get more done in less time.

Sound awesome? I thought so, so let’s jump right in.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye.

Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner.

It’s your time to shine! So let’s get started.

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, episode six. Now this one is for all of my bloggers out there, or if you’re interested in adding a blog component to your current business as an additional income stream, because you know, blogging is actually a lot of work.

And before I became a blogger, I truly thought it was going to be a walk in the park. I figured it would be incredibly easy. I mean, I was pretty good at writing essays back in school so that’s probably where that idea came from.

And honestly, all of the pins that I came across on Pinterest were also leading me to believe that blogging was easy.

But I was fooled. And maybe you were too, but either way, I’m glad because that’s why and how I’m here now, so if it wasn’t thanks to those pins that said that, this was going to be an easy ride, I would probably still be working at my corporate job in America and being super stressed and burnt out all the time.

And if you’re a blogger, you know exactly what I’m talking about because you know that it’s not easy.

Blog Scheduling Tips to Get More Done

So today I want to share some scheduling tips that’s going to help make your blogging life a little bit better, and hopefully a little bit easier too, even though we know blogging isn’t easy, but doesn’t mean that we can’t make it easier on ourselves, and help you get more done in less time.

Before we get started, know that if you feel like you’re constantly not getting things done, you’ll definitely want to head over to cheerstoproductivity.com/pdf to download my free, Effective Weekly Planning Starter Kit that’s going to share my three secret strategies to help you focus on the right things each week.

Now onto the blog scheduling tips.

#1 – Schedule your blogging tasks ahead of time

So tip number one, schedule your blogging tasks ahead of time. Yeah. I know this one sounds pretty obvious, but unfortunately it’s too easy, it’s just too easy to get caught up in the middle of doing that, we forget to slow down to plan and schedule what we’re actually supposed to be doing.

And then even when we think we’re scheduling, we’re actually just throwing a bunch of random tasks onto our calendar with no real strategy or thought behind it.

In episode four, I actually talk about how to prioritize your weekly tasks, but today we’re going to focus on scheduling your blogging tasks.

So if you want to go back and listen to that episode, that was episode four, but for today, here’s what I want you to do.

Pick a frequency that works for you

So one, pick a frequency that’s best for you. So whenever you’re scheduling your tasks, whenever you’re scheduling your blogging task ahead of time, I want you to think about how often you’re going to be working on your blog, for how long, what hours or time in the day.

Pick something that works best for you. I actually debunk one of these myths, I think it’s episode three, where I’m talking about how you don’t need to follow what these other gurus are telling you to work in like the dawn of the day, or work late at night or get certain things done at a certain time.

No, ignore all of that. And pick something that works best for you. Okay.

But I do want you to think about how often are you going to be working on your blog? And I want you to get specific.

Are you going to work every single day? Monday through Sunday? Are you just going to work, Monday through Friday? Are you going to take Fridays off?

How often are you going to work on your blog? Okay. That’s number one.

Then how long, how long are you going to work on it each day?

So each day that you’re going to work on it, how long are you going to work on it? And it doesn’t have to be the same amount of hours every day.

If you said Monday through Friday, you don’t have to work on your blog for three hours, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It could be different hours because maybe you have something going on Wednesdays.

So on that day, you have to work only one hour or whatever the case is, but try to pick something that is going to be a general idea of how long you’re going to work.

And then pick what time of the day or what hours you’re going to be working on this stuff. Usually for you it might be in the early morning. It might be in the middle of the day. It might be late at night. Pick a time.

Set deadlines

The next thing I want you to do is to set deadlines for yourself. So you’re still running a business. Okay. So even though you’re not working for someone else and someone else isn’t the one telling you that, hey, I need this done by a certain time, you are the boss.

You are your own boss. Then you’re running a business, so you need to set deadlines for yourself.

So whether that’s, I need to get this blog post done by, you know, before I close my laptop on Friday at, I don’t know, 2:00 PM or something.

This is going to really help hold yourself accountable whenever you set deadlines, because if you don’t, then these tasks are just going to be kind of open, and never ending.

And then you’re just going to keep adding tasks, keep adding tasks, and you’re not really going to know how much work you have given to yourself within a certain period of time.

So set deadlines for yourself, mark them on your calendars so that they’re easy to see. Okay. That is what I want you to do when scheduling your blogging tasks ahead of time.

#2 – Schedule writing time based on your energy

So number two. Schedule the writing time based on your energy and focus windows. This is for the actual writing piece of blogging.

Blogging takes a lot of brain power as it typically requires you to get pretty creative with your own words.

So instead of trying to schedule the actual writing task, whenever you have time, wherever you can squeeze it in, or even worse, maybe not scheduling this task at all, plan to write your blog content whenever you’re the most energized in the day and whenever, you know, you’ll have a good focus window time.

So, what does this actually look like?

So here’s some questions that can maybe help you figure out the best times to schedule your writing specific blogging tasks.

So when will you have less distractions or minimal interruptions? If you’re like me, you have interruptions all day long because you’re at home with your kids.

Whether you work on this full-time or not, maybe you work full-time from home with your day job. But we have distractions, no matter what you have going on in your personal life, there’s always going to be distractions.

There’s always going to be minimal interruptions. Maybe you order something from Amazon, and now they’re going to be ringing the doorbell and boom, you just lost focus.

So when will you have less distractions? Is it after your kids go to bed? Is it before they even wake up? And when do you feel the most energized?

So not just when are you going to have the most focused time, but, it has to be in alignment with when you are also going to feel energized. Is there a certain time in the day that helps you feel more energized?

Maybe it’s after a workout. Maybe you know that every time you work out, you always get this burst of energy. And so that is what you want to think about.

You want to say, okay, well, you know, my kids are going to go to sleep at eight, they have a pretty good bedtime, once they’re in bed, they’re in bed, so I can work on this after they go to bed.

And I also know that I get a burst of energy after I workout. So maybe, maybe you should work out after the kids go to bed, get your burst of energy and then get to writing.

Now that is just a suggestion, you know, yourself best. Okay. But that is what you want to do whenever you’re actually scheduling the writing aspect of blogging.

#3 – Time block your tasks

So tip number three is to timeblock your tasks. So before I go on, just in case you’re not familiar with what time-blocking is, it’s basically where you would group similar tasks or one task into blocks, like literally calendar blocks of time.

So let me try to paint a visual picture for you here instead of, you kind of trying to figure this out.

So instead of your day going something like this, write email, respond to DMs, blog posts task number one, write another email, post on social media, blog task number two, you’re kind of, you know, bouncing around from different tasks throughout the day.

So instead when you’re time-blocking, you would be combining the tasks that are the most similar or giving bigger, longer blocks to the same tasks so that way you’re avoiding task switching.

So this exact same list that I just mentioned could instead become something like this, write emails, respond to DMs, post on social media, blog task number one, blog task number two, and then you wrap it up with a plan for the next day, because if you’re going to be doing the time blocks, then you need to plan it ahead of time. Right?

But before you even start, time-blocking, it’s incredibly helpful to know how long it takes you to complete certain tasks.

This way, the time blocks you assign yourself are more realistic and more likely for you to be able to complete them and to actually follow through with them.

So you can set yourself reminders for whenever a time block is about to end or start, so that way, you know, that it’s getting time for you to start wrapping it up and move on to the next task.

And if you’re finding yourself that you’re constantly not finishing what you scheduled for yourself during the specific time block, then that’s a good signal that it’s time to revisit how long you’re setting aside for that task and changing that time block the next time around.

Blog Post Workflow Mockup Banner with a button to Grab Your Copy

#4 – Batch your blogging tasks

Tip number four. Batch your blogging tasks.

So similarly to time-blocking, you want to ensure that you’re batching similar tasks together. Sometimes this can mean that you’re doing the same thing for several hours, or it could be that you’re only focusing on doing this one thing for an entire day.

So for example, once I’m done recording this episode, I’m going to go record the next two to three episodes. And then the editing for all of the episodes will all happen in the next batching session. And then all of the promo content will be done together etc.

But because we’re focused on blogging in this episode, what does batching look like for a blogger? So it could look a little bit something like this.

So you’re doing your planning for all of your blog content for the next month. Maybe after that you started doing all the keyword research for all of these different blog posts that you scheduled out for yourself for the month.

Then you write the outline, you know, you do the research and you do the outline for all of the blog posts, not just one by one. And then you write all of them, then you edit all of them.

So you’re really, basically combining all of the content that you planned out. I like to be a month in advance so whenever I’m writing emails is the same thing, I’ll batch write all of my emails in one day for an entire month.

I’ll batch write my blog content or a blogging task for the entire month and then go through it that way. That way you’re not doing that constant task switching.

You also want to not edit as you’re writing. I know that can be hard to do but you want to just write and then write the next one and then write the next one, because you’re in that creative mode, you’re in that creative state and then you’re going to go back and edit them all separately after you’re done writing. Okay.

Because now that is using a different part of your brain. And another, just little bonus tip that you could do when you’re writing your content is you can start by writing the easy stuff first.

Like I usually completely skip over the introduction, even though that is like the beginning. I do that last because it’s a little bit hard for me to create an introduction to a blog post that I haven’t written yet.

So you can start with the easy parts first. So if it’s a, how to, maybe you’re just getting straight into the how to, maybe you’re not focusing about these extra fillers and stuff.

If it’s a recommendation post or a comparison post, maybe you’re just doing all the easy parts first, whatever is easy for you, write that first. And don’t forget to add these batch sessions into time blocks on your calendar.

#5 – Take breaks and schedule them in if needed

All right, last tip here. Take breaks and schedule them in if needed, okay.

So often, I hear members inside my Facebook community mention how burnt out they get and sometimes how demotivated they feel while other members will ask how to overcome these along with writer’s block.

And the truth is that if you’re feeling this way, more than likely it means it’s time for a break. And sometimes this break could be longer than just 15 minutes.

Sometimes it means that you’re done for the day or maybe even the week. And look, I know that it might feel like if you stop working, your business won’t continue to run without you.

And if you’re newer, this, this kind of might actually be the case. But if you’re tired and you’re demotivated and you have like all these blocks, like writer’s block, then you’re not going to get much done anyways if you continue to work.

So, this is actually your body’s way of telling you that listen, it’s time to step away and take a break. Okay.

But let’s say you’re kind of like me and you’re this energizer bunny and you feel like you never need a break, like you can just do it. You can just go and do all of this stuff, you never need a break.

You need them. Okay. You need these breaks In this case, though, you might need them less.

You might need them for less time, perhaps just a few minutes here and there throughout the day. Maybe that would be good enough for you. But if not, or if you feel tired, if you feel like you’re just slowing down, then it’s a sign that you need a longer break.

And set boundaries for yourself and stop working when you said you would. Set reminders if you need to help you with all of this, even if it’s just to remind you to take a break or a reminder that says, hey, close your laptop.

And you can even set just little alarms or little timers on your Fitbit watch if you don’t want to actually add this to your calendar.

Episode Recap

So to recap, the five blog scheduling tips to get more done are:

Number one, schedule your blogging tasks ahead of time
Number two, schedule writing time based on your energy and focus windows
Number three, time block your tasks
Number four, batch your blogging tasks
Number five, take breaks and schedule them in if needed

The great thing about these tips is that they build on one another and are even more powerful when combined.

Now it may take some getting used to whenever you’re implementing these tips, but stick with them and they’ll eventually become second nature for you. Okay.

And while blogging still won’t be easy, these should at least help minimize the overwhelm that comes with it and therefore allow you to stay motivated in this blogging journey.

People need you. They need you and your content. So keep blogging and keep making an impact.

Thank you so much for listening to Cheerful Productive Chats with me, Lucy Reyes. For more planning strategies, I invite you to download my free, Effective Weekly Planning Starter Kit to help you schedule your weekly tasks in less than 30 minutes.

You’ll find this along with the complete show notes and all links mentioned in today’s episode at cheerstoproductivity.com/episodesix.

And before you go, make sure you subscribe wherever you’re listening so that way you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!

References