How To Manage Your Blog When You Work Full Time

As bloggers, we know just how crazy our schedules can get. And when things get crazy, our blogs tend to be a little neglected. A week between posts turns into a month and while we desperately want to work on our blog, life kind of takes over. The ability to manage our blog becomes a distant memory.

Many of us work full time, we are mothers, we have family commitments and we have a life that we want to keep living. After all – it gives us all the fantastic ideas for stories and content for our blogs.

So how do we juggle it all?

I’m not perfect at making this balance work all the time, but I do have a few key ideas that work for me. And maybe they can work for you too.

Schedule In Time To Blog

Just as you would have rostered hours for work and you set time to see your friends, schedule in time for your blog. You may have to work around your family’s commitments and work hours.

Perhaps you need to get up an hour earlier of a morning or set time aside every Saturday morning for a few hours to work on your blog. Either way – scheduling in time not only gives you something to look forward to for your blog but also means you’ll be less inclined to be distracted by something else in that time.

Rally Your Supporters

When we are passionate about something, the ones we love tend to be our biggest support. Use them! Let your hubby know your dreams and goals and use him to encourage you along the way. Tell your friends and family, even if they don’t quite understand (because as bloggers we tend to speak a different language) they will understand your passion and how important this is to you.

You can even recruit them for help! Set up play dates with other families – they can take your kids to the park for an hour or two while you work on your blog then you return the favour. Let the kids have sleepovers at the grandparents and send hubby out for a walk with the kids.

Find Snippets Of Time

Snippets of time can be found everywhere if you just look… what do you do on your daily commute? Do you drive to work? Can you listen to a podcast then? What about while waiting in line for your morning coffee? Or while you’re sitting eating your lunch?

These are all perfect opportunities to get little tasks done. A Facebook update, an Instagram share, a Tweet, a few notes about blog post ideas – all the little tasks that only take a few minutes each but add up really quickly.

Make Sacrifices

Sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve our goals. Perhaps you’ll have to pass on your weekly Tuesday Night Trivia at the pub, maybe Friday drinks with the girls will have to go or maybe you can swap your evenings watching your favourite TV show for time spent working on your blog.

Another area I’ve found valuable to make sacrifices in is switching a few indulgent pleasures for investing in my blog. Rather than spend $15 a week on take away coffee, I invest it in services that will help my blog grow and that will make processes easier for me.

Outsource When Needed

This is a new concept for me and one I’m starting to look into a lot more. Outsourcing doesn’t always mean paying someone to do work for you. You can recruit help from those around you.

Perhaps your hubby is really good at graphic design. Maybe he can create graphics for you. Do you have a friend who has a flair for photography? Maybe they can take some stock photos for you? Want to create a wider variety of content on your blog? Perhaps you could open it up to guest contributors.

Focus

Ah… the ‘F’ word… Focus. A lot easier said than done. I am so easily distracted by the simplest things, this is definitely a work in progress. But I have found that when I am able to focus I achieve so much more. This has meant only trying to do one thing at a time – not all the things at once. If I only have 15 minutes to work on the blog then I have a clear focus on what I want to achieve in those 15 minutes and I make it happen. It might be as simple as scheduling some tweets to go out or just spending 15 minutes writing. Focus during these short opportunities to work on your blog is imperative.

If I only have 15 minutes to work on the blog then I have a clear focus on what I want to achieve in those 15 minutes and I make it happen. It might be as simple as scheduling some tweets to go out or just spending 15 minutes writing. Focus during these short opportunities to work on your blog is imperative.

Working on your blog while you work full time is a lot of effort – but it is possible. It takes time, commitment and organisation but it is so rewarding.