Top 7 Time-Management Tips for Bloggers
by Luisa Brenton
We’ve all heard the saying, time is money.
When you’re trying to not only create high-quality content for your blog but also build a large, loyal audience, time can burn away so fast you’ll have no idea where the last six months went.
Of course, putting together a successful blog isn’t just a matter of taking a lot of time to work on it, it’s knowing how to work effectively and efficiently so that all those hours and hours you’ve put into it can lead to a payoff that makes it all worthwhile.
So how do you accomplish all this?
Good question – here’s 7 time-management tips for bloggers to help you on your way.
1)Â Have Clear Goals
Knowing specifically what you’re trying to achieve with your daily or weekly blog will allow you to focus on what’s crucial while not getting bogged down with distractions and non-essentials. For example, if going into a particular day you have a set goal of expanding your audience through LinkedIn, then you don’t want to get bogged down playing around with Facebook.Â
And if all the ideas swirling through your head makes it a little tough to settle on where exactly you want to go with your blog, simply ask yourself what you really want from it. Then write out a list of four or five goals for the year, and use it as an anchor when it comes to making your daily and weekly decisions.Â
2)Â Always Have A Way To Capture Your Ideas
Thoughts will go in and out of your head throughout the day, and for most people, their great ideas hit them when they’re doing something totally unrelated to blogging. So when those moments of brilliance hit, you want to be able to get them down before they slip away from you.  Keeping a notepad with you at all times, or even just using a note-taking app on your smartphone, will allow you to have your ideas ready to go when you sit down to write and let you use your writing time for actual writing, not trying to figure out what you’re going to write about.
3) It’s Just You and Your Blog
Thanks to the ceaseless wonders of the internet, there’s an infinite amount of entertaining distractions that can waste time whenever you sit down to write. So tunnel-vision is critical if you want to make the most out of your writing sessions. Don’t check your email, treat YouTube like the plague, and put yourself in the single purpose warrior mindset that you’re just going to write.Â
In addition, always keep in mind who you’re writing for. The last thing you want is for your writing to slide into different voices, and by keeping a laser-locked focus on your audience and the purpose of the blog, you’ll stay mentally sharp and not waste minutes or hours having to revise what you’ve done.Â
4) Â Full Steam Ahead
When you start writing a post, keep going. Don’t revise, don’t worry about sentence structure or word repetition, and don’t bother with being super clever. Every time you stop to fix something or pause to come up with something witty, you’re breaking your momentum and burning time. Of course this can be tough to do because as human beings we’re hardwired to correct mistakes while trying to do the best we can do, but if you can ignore the temptation to create perfection as you write, you’ll be far more efficient with your time and will get those posts completed without burning yourself out.Â
And remember, you can always go back and revise afterward.Â
5) Speed Up Your Proofreading
So you’ve hit the revisions stage which means it’s time to switch gears from free-flowing writing machine to careful, meticulous proofreader. However, while you might be a passionate, entertaining blogger, it’s very possible you’re not so crazy about the grammatical side of things. Luckily, we live in the modern age and there are apps that can save your proofreading time, not only identifying mistakes but also actually making the corrections for you.Â
6) Don’t Force It
While you’ve got to churn out posts to build an audience, if you’re one of the independent bloggers who’s new to the game, you’re most likely not under the thumb of advertisers or demanding readers to put out a set amount of articles per week.Â
What this means is that if you’re not feeling that writing spark when it comes time to start typing, don’t bang your head against the wall. It’s perfectly okay to put the blog on hold for a while until you get more in the writing groove. Forcing yourself to bang out posts when you’re not into it will only cause uninspired writing which will lead to uninspired readers.
And that will most likely bring a fast end to your blog.
7) The Power Of “No”
There’s a certain thrill a blogger feels when they’re approached for the first time to guest post on another blog, but the thrill can turn to irritation real fast when you start giving up your time for other people’s websites without any real tangible reward.  However, this goes for anyone else who is caving – although probably not realizing it – in on your blogging time.Â
By figuratively – or literally – closing the door to others when it’s time to write, you’ll keep your eyes on the prize and not risk wasting the precious time you have to build your blog.Â
 Host blogger’s commentary:
Readers, please share, so other bloggers become aware of these time-saving tips.
What time-saving tips do you follow that you recommend for others? I look forward to your views in the comments section.
To save even more time on your blogging tasks, click here to get your own downloadable PDF of a free blogging tools list.
Related Posts:
How to Blog Productively: 16 Experts Reveal Their Secrets
Warning: Your 24 Hour Day is Shrinking
How to Easily Find Time for Stress-Free Blogging
19 Strange Ideas That Will Amplify Your Productivity
How Six Bloggers Went From Zero to One Million Unique Visitors Per Month
