Friday 12 February 2016

How I: Stay organised when blogging.



My blog is my baby in that I love it but it also occupies all of my time. Social life, I hear you say? Ha, good one. Posting daily on a blog is something I personally love, but it does take a lot of my time. I take it all pretty seriously though, and really think that you get out what you put into your blog. I do also work full time, so time management is pretty important to make sure things keep ticking over. In the interest of hopefully providing a little insight, I thought I'd share some of my tips on how I attempt to stay organised whilst I blog. 

I plan things out in advance. I have a diary where I jot down certain posts I want to go on certain dates, and I like to plan things out at least a fortnight in advance. At the moment I'm using the blog domination planner from my babe Hayley. Things can get shuffled around easily, but most of the time things stay the way I plan them. When you organise that far in advance with daily posts you can try and make sure things don't get too repetitive, so it's not haul haul haul, lipstick lipstick lipstick, eyeshadow eyeshadow eyeshadow and so on. 

I bulk take photos. I try to take a week's worth at a time, in theory, but this rarely happens because I often want to change photos at the last minute because I am forever unhappy with them. I do try though, and take them all and edit them all in batches so I can add them into blogger and then write the post. I have to have the image before I write, or I find it so awkward and clunky. 

I like to keep a couple of posts pre-written and in my drafts in case I am not in the blogging mood or feeling particularly uninspired. 

I schedule everything. I schedule my blog posts to go out everyday at 8am, and I schedule social media in advance as well. I use buffer, which I find so easy because it auto-schedules things, shortens the link for you automatically and adds an image so it takes about 5 seconds. It also analyses your account and sees which are best times to post at to gain the most interaction.

I keep a notebook with me at all times. You never know when inspiration might strike, and I like to have a brainstorming session every week where I think about new posts and do a little brain storm. I have a little moleskine notebook and it's small enough to fit into most bags so I can always carry it around. I also use little sticky notes on my mac and my computer at work so I can quickly type things in one place and then write them down later. 

I use lists a lot. I write to-do lists for posts, lists for photos to take, lists of samples I've been sent, lists for editing to do, and lists for everything ever. I just love ticking things off my list. 

I track my stats. Hopefully not obsessively, but I do check my stats every week to see how they compare using google analytics, and I like to see if my social media accounts are growing. I just jot everything down on a google doc sheet on a Sunday night. I like graphs and stats, yes I do. 

I try and use my time effectively. If I'm at lunch at work and have a spare 5 minutes I might schedule in some tweets.  I tend to write my posts in the evening and try (key word, try) to work two days in advance, so I will write Monday and Tuesday's posts on a Sunday night. Sometimes I write 3-4 posts in one go, but this is rare. I do like writing when I get home and before my brain has switched off for the evening. I like to reply to comments on my phone whilst I'm on the go. 

How do you stay organised and on top of blogging?

Follow

If you liked this post you might like this post on how I take my photos or this post on what's new from Zoeva. 

SHARE:

No comments

Post a Comment

Blogger Template Created by pipdig