Jan 17, 2012 / General Advice & Pro Tips

The Art of “To Do”

A few of you have mentioned in the comments that staying committed to blogging isn’t the biggest challenge, but that time management is. While family and work will always come first, it’s important to spend time on the activities you like and hobbies you want to nurture. Here’s a few things that have helped me keep on track:

If you have yourself on a blogging schedule, or if you want to get yourself on one, make an appointment with yourself. Add a note to your Google Calendar, iCal, or even on your phone to go off 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes before you want to get down to writing. If you think that you’re likely to metaphorically hit the snooze button, consider making an editorial calendar, listing the topics you want to cover and when. This will allow you to plan in advance, rather than sitting down to a blank screen and starting from scratch. I personally keep a sticky note open with post ideas and have been toying with adding “events,” or planned posts, to my calendar. I may not be running a top-notch magazine, but why not learn from the pros?

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s good to create small goals for yourself and gradually increase them. Write 100 words for this blog post, 150 for the next. Spend five minutes typing up an article and gradually build to 30 minutes (or learn to squeeze more into the time you have, a la I’ve got 30 minutes to write this post). If I don’t have a lot of time to write, I check my favorite news sites for interesting articles and use Press This to share the link. This lets me add a few words for my own interpretation, without taking up a ton of time. When you do sit down to write write, do yourself a favor and turn everything off. That means having nothing open but your post page. If you have trouble doing this, try an app like Isolator that allows you to hide everything but the program you’re using.

Ultimately, time management is about making the commitment to blog each time you sit down to write (or you hear your calendar go off). No matter how many steps you take to remind your self, you have to actually do it. Excuses are easy, and many are valid, so it helps to be accountable to someone. And if you can’t beat them, join them — why not make blogging a family activity? Or turn it into a game among friends?

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  1. I’m definitely going to try this. And I have blog ideas at random times, so I’m going to keep a list so the next time I’m struggling to think of something to blog about, I’ll have a whole list!!
    yvettepearson.wordpress.com

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  2. I started the New Year off planning to do a post a day rotating between my four blogs. I even set up a calendar. The problem is time. I’ve decided one post per week for each blog is more reasonable. I like the idea of an editorial calendar. In a way I’ve done that for my dog’s blog by organizing photos into separate folders and naming the photos the caption that I will use in the blog. I’m four ahead by doing this.

    Process and patience and patience with process will be my mantra this year!

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  3. I think this is a great idea, and could be quite helpful to a lot of people. I make “todo” lists all the time – hey, maybe I’ll blog about that one day. 😉 But scheduling those “todo”s is something I’ve never managed to pull off. I find that especially in the areas of creativity, digital art, for example, I feel that if I push myself, whatever comes out won’t be as good as if I let it come more spontaneously. Or so my exccuse goes… On the other hand, forcing it, (well, I prefer to say nudging it very strongly) could be good for a procrastinator like myself. What I write or draw if I nudge myself into it may not be beautiful or brilliant, but at least it will get the flow going, and who knows, maybe one day i might even post something interesting! 🙂 Thanks for this!

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    1. @Judee- i find myself having a to do list but more important “Most Important Task list of things I have to do that day..it consist of only 3 things including my work and personal life which i must complete daily. Any small task can wait or be down at the end of my day. This is what I am practicing and I am developing this positive habits from zenhabits.net

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  4. Posting A Day is apart of my “To Do” List. I have made that commitment to myself. I don’t really know what I am going to write about until I click “add a post”….I agree with @Judee..i work better off spontaneity than anything else…but the article is helpful b/c it allows me to help management my time since i am a huge procrastinator.

    mannie

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  5. Great idea about making an editorial calendar. I usually go with whatever idea pops into my head—or I find a topic based on recent articles I’ve read—but sometimes it’s difficult for us bloggers to find the time when nothing is sweeping us off our feet.

    But as writers, we just do it. I find that true inspiration is the exception, not the rule. The rule is writing whether you feel like it or not. You have to almost treat it like a business, even though it’s something we greatly enjoy. Writing can feel like a chore because it’s work; once someone accepts that, it becomes a lot easier to set aside the time and write. On bad days, you’ll prod along, but on those good days … magic happens!

    I do the same thing you do and write down spare ideas on a post-it—or, if I’m really taken with something, I just pound out the post while the idea is hot and fresh. My schedule’s pretty full, but blogging is fun and has always been important to me—it reminds me that I don’t write to get paid, and it gives me a great chance to cut my teeth more on the craft.

    I’ve SORT OF done an editorial calendar before in terms of recurring weekly features, but I find too many of those can weigh you down. I was having trouble committing to them every week and still enjoy it! If anyone does routine posts, I recommend doing something that’s easy and quick and only doing one or two of them. Otherwise, make a list of evergreen or relevant topics and tackle them on slow days.

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  6. Writing a blog every day (or whenever you choose to) should not be a chore. It should be a pleasure and fun to do. I make mine a daily journal of my life, and what I do. It’s a place to share my photography and scrapbooking freebies. It’s a place to share fun things about my little dog. Every six months, I have my blog printed in book form and will leave these books to my children. I try to post in the morning, but whenever i have time to sit and post is the right time. This keeps it fun.

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  8. Terrific suggestions! My family is very supporting, and they know that if the door is shut to my office, don’t bother me. If it’s open, feel free to come in and interact. This helps me a ton.

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  9. My way of working is more or less depends on “Time” and which is more important to complete first, in other words on priority basis I carry on my work. I decide my schedule on daily basis but make it sure what is decided by me to be done on a specific day.Yes, even I note down points and work beforehand as one completely cannot depend on memory, writing it down on a note-book is very practical and helpful as well.

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  10. Hmmm. I think my goldfish ate the page out of the dictionary that contains “time management”. I write my posts starting at 9:00pm and go until the NoDoz kicks in. M wife usually has to kick me on the floor in the morning to wake me up so I’m not late for work. Then, I come home and do it all again…what a life!

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  11. My biggest struggle is not only finding the time to blog but also getting over re-writing my blog post a million times. I definitely don’t want to write sloppily, but I also don’t need to have to pull my hair out attempting to write the “perfect” blog post. Lately, I’ve been getting better about not going over a blog post to death. I don’t want my penchant to be “perfect” at times to overtake my love of writing.

    The editorial calendar idea is something I really want to try! Does anyone know if there is an iOS app for this type of calendar or perhaps a website that one can pull such a calendar from?

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  14. Very helpful tips. Thank you. I post once a week. Sometimes, it’s the topic that has me scrambling — researching it, writing, re-writing. I usually have a story done about a week before I publish. That way it gives me time to fine tune it. It’s a wonderful kind of stress.

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  15. I started a “Post a day” challenge in the middle of December 2011 and have completed 30 days with only 2 days when I didn’t post. I kept meaning to write a decent blog post each week, but found it was easier to write a daily post. Can you believe that? I am focusing on writing a short specific topic instead of broad, profound articles. I find that the more I write, the more ideas I have for blog posts.

    Will you have an official Post a Day 2012 badge?

    My aim now is to have written 30 consecutive daily posts. By then, the habit will be well established.

    Charles

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  16. It’s interesting to know how other bloggers manage their time and writing. Thanks a lot for this great piece of advice! 🙂

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  18. Really great suggestions! The calendar, for sure! My goal is to write a photo post a day, for 2012 – and so far, it’s working! I’m so pleased! I have changed the way I spot routine events, now: I see them with an “editorial eye” – “humm, it could turn into a good photopost…” 😮
    Thanks so much for the ideas and incentive… let’s keep us “all posted”… 😮 Greetings from Brazil.

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  20. I tend to spend one evening and one weekend morning a week stacking up major content and writing posts. I have a “site of the week” feature to help fiction writers get on and I usually do these 5 or 6 at a time.

    A lot of the advice on blogging seems to be “little and often”. I find the opposite works better for me “a lot, once or twice a week” and use the schedule feature to spread it out a bit. That way when you have five minutes spare you can edit your content when the posting date gets close.

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  24. “If I don’t have a lot of time to write, I check my favorite news sites for
    interesting articles and use Press This to share the link. This lets me add a few words for my own interpretation, without taking up a ton of time.” Great tip. Many thanks.

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  26. Reblogged this on Krazy Memoirs and commented:
    Time is the essence. Truly said, one wants to blog but for the want of time it often becomes the uphill task.
    May be a little time management with the help of technology can do wonders.
    I do like this new “Reblog” button on the toolbar at the top.
    C ya

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  28. I always wanted to write, and Blogging is the way I sharpen my skills. Love to write about what I have seen or heard happen all around me. WordPress gives you a wonderful canvas, no hassles and easy to maintain, so that you the writer, can focus on stringing the correct words together. The part about finding the correct topic to write about, that is the difficult part. For me it is a drop in the stats that acts as a trigger!! This forces me to think. Ideas start popping up which with minor tweaks and modifications shape up into a story which I type out.
    The first draft is always pathetic, save it on my laptop and then return some hours later. Now delete at least 40% of what I had written, and re-read it a couple of times. Finally when I am satisfied, ask my wife to read it once. She picks out all the grammatical errors that spell check missed. That done, press ‘Publish’ and that is it !!!
    That is how I blog 🙂

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  29. What you told is exactly true. biting more than what you can chew is one thing that one should never do. for first month of blogging we do all the posts and get enough readers then the interest get loosing and slowly reducing the number of posts is a bad idea.

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