Getting Sh*t Done | The Blog Schedule

I'd say I'm a pretty organised person, what with my love of to-do lists and ability to study for my degree from home (I'm a whizz at managing my time while in my PJs!). Yet when it comes to blogging I often fall at the first hurdle due to wanting to write EVERYTHING, all at once, which often leads to overload and a sad case of blogging paralysis. 

 I've been trying to come up with a manageable blog schedule for a while but was finding it hard to resist penciling in a new post every day. As much as I love writing, I don't always feel I can write 'under pressure' and I kept making myself miserable by setting ambitious targets and 'failing' to meet them. Blogging is supposed to be fun! 

Over the past few days I've spent some time devising the blog schedule above, based on what I feel I can best handle blogging-wise throughout the week. How exactly do you go about creating a blog schedule that suits you and your needs? Here are my top five tips:

1) Brainstorm ideas

I brainstormed the topics I really wanted to focus on and that I focus on already, and came up with the following: tarot, beauty, anxiety and personal development. I figured these make up the core of my blog, as they're the topics I most frequently find myself penning ideas for and writing posts about. It makes sense to shape a schedule around the topics or types of posts that are most meaningful to you and that you're already focusing your energy on. 

2) Be realistic 

 I find writing and publishing new posts every day a little intense and overwhelming at times, so I decided to set myself the target of blogging every other day. I figured this will leave me with time in between posts to edit and refine what I've written, as well as to post other non-core topics should I feel like it, and to rest! I work best when I have a little downtime to gather my thoughts and sift through ideas. Of course, you might find you prefer blogging more or less often than this, and that's totally fine. It's all about creating a personal schedule that works best for you (with this in mind, you might not even want to create schedule at all, and that's OK too!)

3) Time your topics

I decided to get a little strategic with my scheduling in order to tap into the times I'm most likely to be thinking about certain topics and the times people are most likely to swing by my blog and have a read. Not that it's all about readers, of course, but there's no harm in wanting to gently nudge people towards your hard work, especially if it happens to focus on a topic that might interest them. 

I decided to post Tarot Diaries on Monday because Monday marks a fresh start and this ties in with my Tarot Diaries aim (check out the first post in the series next Monday!); beauty on a Wednesday to tie in with the #bbloggers twitter chat which I love getting involved in; Anxiety Diaries on a Friday (which I've been posting for some time already on Fridays) to coincide with winding down for the weekend; and Sunday Gratitude on a Sunday, because, well, duh, it's Sunday (!), and I've been writing these posts for a few weeks now. If you spot any patterns in your posting from the get go, consider popping them straight into your schedule.  

4) Take care of blogmin

The other benefit of blogging new posts every other day is that I should have a little more time to see to 'blogmin' in between. Tasks such as tweaking my blog design, creating new badges, editing photos in Picmonkey, taking photos of products, replying to comments and brainstorming post ideas can be reserved for non-posting days. Alternatively, if I'm writing post content on the 'off' days, ready for the day after, I can complete blogmin tasks the day posts go live. I've found in the past that blogmin often gets bumped to the bottom of the list if I'm trying to post every day, but of course that's very much down to the individual. Whatever works best for you!

5) Flexibility is key!

Don't be afraid to review your schedule if you feel it needs adjusting. I've been through various schedules in the past and it's through a process of blogging trial and error that I've devised a schedule that feels manageable for me and that should ensure blogging remains a fun and exciting experience, which is what we all want it to be! No schedule is set in stone, so if you want to make changes go right ahead! The key is working out what feels most comfortable for you, regardless of what anyone else's schedule might look like. 

I can't wait to put my schedule in place properly next week! I've got a couple posts lined up already and I'm feeling confident that I've devised a schedule that meets my needs. What are your top tips for blog scheduling? Do you have a timetable or do you prefer to go with the flow? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Baci e abbracci, 

         

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