Have you ever had those days where you just sit in front of your computer and the next thing you know, the day is almost over?! We’ve all been there! Sometimes, it can be hard to be productive every single day when you’re in charge of your own schedule. It’s important to find a routine and find the little things that help you stay productive each and every day. Here are a few of my favorite tips to help you stay on track when it comes to blogging.
Stop Scrolling
It’s easy to get sucked into your social media feeds and the next thing you know, a few hours have gone by. If you find yourself constantly looking at your notifications on your phone, turn your phone on silent and exit out of your social media tabs on your computer. It’s important to notice what is distracting you from your work and try to stay off of it for a while. Once you accomplish your task, take a few minutes to reward yourself and let yourself scroll. But, don’t get too caught up in it. Put a time limit on your break so that you don’t find yourself getting sucked down the social media rabbit hole. And if you’re having a hard time controlling yourself, try installing the HabitLab extension, which can help you reach your goals!
Set Times for Email
Just like social media, your inbox can be a huge distraction when it comes to getting things done. Try to set times for yourself where you will check your inbox. Once that time is over, get on to your to-do list and try your best to stay out of your inbox. It’s easy to fall into the routine of always keeping an eye on your inbox. As productive as that may feel, it makes you switch tasks a little too often. If you are constantly getting emails and checking them, you may find that it is taking you all day long to write that one blog post.
Keep Your Ideas In One Place
Ever have those days where your out and about and you come up with an awesome idea? Sometimes, you end up writing it down on a random piece of paper and then that awesome blog idea could potentially be lost forever. I love keeping all of my ideas in one place. I know it may seem like common sense but I swear this helps me so much when it comes to writing. If I ever have days that I have no idea what to write, I can pull up my idea list and look back at what I’ve written and what I haven’t. Even if I don’t write something specifically off of that list, it usually sparks another great idea just from looking at that list. I recommend keeping all of your ideas in one place, whether that is on your phone, in a notebook or even on your computer. Find what works best for you!
Batch Writing
Instead of writing a blog post the morning that you want to post that same day, try batch writing ahead of time. Schedule in some time on your calendar to set aside for writing. Turn off all distractions during this time and just write as much as you can in the time allotted. It is so beneficial for your blog because you can write blog posts ahead of time and schedule them out on your website to post automatically. This will help you stay on track and not miss any posts. One of the worst things you can do is to tell your readers you will post twice a week and not live up to that. Batch writing will help you create content ahead of time and plan out what you want to write about before the post is due on your blog.
Repurpose Your Old Content
When it comes to your content, I always recommend repurposing your old blogs. Just because you’ve already written it, doesn’t mean that it needs to be forgotten about! Don’t be afraid to reshare those old posts, not everything has to be a new idea.
If I ever find myself stuck on what to write about, I always like to go back to my blog and see what I’ve written about in the past. Is there anything that I have missed? Is there anything that I can expand on? See what your blog needs that your readers will love. This will help you plan out content based on what you’ve already written about without even exploring your idea list.
Take Time to Look at Where You’ve Been and Where You Want to Go
As the brain behind the blog, you are the one who is in charge of every decision. If you just write content and schedule social media posts without ever having a clear direction, you won’t get anywhere. It might seem counter-productive to spend all day looking at your analytics and coming up with business ideas, but those will help you down the road. You want to make sure you create content that is aligned with your brand and your readers, which means you need to take a good hard look at your data once in a while.
Take a day or two every month to make sure you’re going in the right direction, and set goals for the next 12, 9, 6, and 3 months. I love setting my goals backward, so I’ll always start with where I want to be in 12 months, and see what I need to do to get there (and set the goals for the 9,6, and 3 months accordingly).
These are just a few simple ideas that will help you be more productive when it comes to your blog. Find that things that work best for you and try to mesh them into your daily routine. What are your favorite productivity tips that help you stay on task?
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