Four ways to make blogging a sustainable part of your life
By: nicole
If you are just starting out blogging, here are four ways you can incorporate blogging into your life that will help make it sustainable:
1. Set a realistic posting schedule
If you have done any reading of ‘how to blog’ blogs, you will often come across the advice that to build your blog, you need to be blogging every day. When I first started blogging I aimed to post Monday to Friday. It was exhausting and unsustainable for me – it took too much time away from my family. After a while I set myself a more realistic schedule of three times a week. My blog may have grown slightly faster if I had kept up posting five days a week, but it would have burned me out. Work out what is your realistic posting schedule for the time you want to spend blogging and stick to it.
2. Try batch writing
Batch writing is the process I use each week to schedule my posts. I will set aside time where all I do is write blog posts. I turn off all other distractions and focus purely on the content for my blog. Once you find your writing rhythm it can be very easy to keep going and write all your posts for the upcoming week. I batch write on weekends when my husband is home and he is available for the kids. Having the posts scheduled throughout the week takes the pressure off me when family life is at its busiest. Prior to batch writing, I would write posts the night before they were to be published. But if the kids were sick or I had meetings to go to, I used to find I was feeling under pressure to get a post out on time.
3. Set time for visiting blogs, social media and forums
Blogging isn’t just about writing posts; it’s about interacting with an online community. Commenting on other blogs, adding to discussions on forums and using social media can very quickly eat up your blogging time. Try using a tool like focus booster and limiting your time with these activities. There will always be more you could contribute, but to keep the number of hours you are online to a manageable level, setting limits is vital.
4. Write a content plan
I have a content plan for my blog that goes forward at least six months. As with any plan I can change it as the mood sees fit, but having a plan allows me to continue blogging when my home life hits its busy peaks. Try spending a couple of hours planning-out your posts for at least a month. Start by defining the style of your posts: for example, Mondays will be a craft post, Wednesdays will be a anecdote and Fridays will be a book review – this will help you think of topics that fit the scope of your blog. The real beauty of the plan is how I can look forward and see what I will be writing about next. I then have the topics rattling around in my head and over the week I start to almost write the blog posts in my head. By the time I sit down to write them, they take much less time to write than if I had sat in front of the computer with a blank slate.
Blogging can have a fantastic impact on your life when you allow it to fit in and not take over your family life. How do you make time to blog in your life?
If you haven’t already downloaded your free copy of Kleenex Mums’ eBook Blogging 101: The Mum’s Guide to Starting a Blog now’s your chance.
nicole
Nicole is the mother to five gorgeous children aged from 11 to 1. She is slightly obsessed with to-do lists, spreadsheets, music and playing with her kids. You can also find her blogging at Planning With Kids, where she shares ideas to help put organisation into the happy chaos that is a family with young children.
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