5 TIPS ON TIME MANAGEMENT FOR BUSY BLOGGERS

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Currently I am juggling a full-time job alongside committing to a steady schedule of three blog posts per week (at least) and one YouTube video a week, whilst running a household, planning for a wedding and looking after Brody our pet Lurcher. So, you could say that I am rather busy at the moment. But, in some strange kind of way I actually love being kept busy, as I am one of those people who can’t sit still for five minutes doing nothing at the moment. But, I have to admit when I see a big list of deadlines and things I need to do I can panic, get the fear or stress out, so below are five time management tips I find helpful, which will hopefully help some of you busy bloggers out too (or anyone who has a hectic schedule).

1. Checklists Are Your Best Friend

When faced with either a number of deadlines to hit, products to review or outfits to shoot, being organised is key to remembering everything that you have to do and doing it on time. Being a ‘To Do’ list queen, I like to sit down and either brainstorm a list of ideas for my posts, clothes I will style together for outfits or just a list of everything that I need to do for the week – or the month, if I am being super organised. From this list I then put next to each a tick box for when it is complete and also any dates I would like the posts to go live for, or when I will be shooting each look. Once you can see what you have to do you can then begin to decide how best to spend your time on each task.

2. Plan Ahead

This one may sound obvious, but whether you are looking to create content that is seasonally on-time, or you want to publish your post on a new product the day of  the launch, you will have to plan ahead when you will shoot and write your post, so that it can be published on time. Say, for example, you wanted to post a tutorial on Halloween make-up, you probably would want this live at least a week before Halloween (if not before) rather than on the 31st of October, or even worse the 1st of November. So, when planning posts try to think ahead and to consider any national holidays, events or dates, to make your content more relevant, more searchable and more readable.

3. Create Your Content in Advance

I know that some of you will probably prefer to write and publish your posts in the moment, but if you are juggling a blog with a busy schedule then using scheduling apps for your posts and social media really does help. At the moment I have my blog posts scheduled in advance for at least 1-2 weeks and I also am about three weeks ahead on my YouTube videos. This also helps with the fear, as if something important were to crop up, or I felt like taking a bit of time out for myself, I don’t have to worry that I won’t have any fresh content going online.

4. Schedule Your Social Media

The same can be said for social media. Recently I have become a fan of using Hootsuite again to schedule Twitter and Facebook posts for the week. I tend to do this after each time I schedule a blog post (usually at the weekends) and I will set up a few social mentions per post. You can now even do this for your Instagram with apps such as Latergram and RewardStyle who offer a post scheduling service. I find that this just helps you to kind of have some ‘time off’ during the week, if scheduling at the weekend, so that you don’t have to worry during the week. You may even find that you get more social interactions, as you have more posts going out on your social media channels, as everyday work and other stresses can sometimes make you forget to tweet out your latest blog post!

*I am actually thinking of doing a post on my favourite scheduling apps, so if this is of interest, please let me know in the comments below*

5. Don’t Forget to Make Time for Yourself

Last, but not least, is to make time for yourself! It is easy to get caught up in working mode from the office to blogging at home and doing chores around the house; forgetting to make time for yourself. This is something I myself struggle with and need to find more time to do. But, since following the steps above of organising how I will manage my workload, writing my posts in advance and using scheduling apps. I find I have more moments of spare time where I can relax, as I am doing tasks in bulk rather than a little bit every day.

And, if you are also looking for a new time-piece to help you keep on top of the busy hours in each day, you can get 15% of at Daniel Wellington until the 30th of September with the code ‘lurchhoundloves15’.

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*Items in this post were gifted, but all opinions are my own. Read my full disclaimer here.