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How to Stay Productive with Your Blog While Working Full Time

How to Stay Productive With Your Blog While Working Full Time

Most bloggers would love to work on their blog full time. Unfortunately, very few are able to realize this dream.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a successful blog. I know plenty of bloggers (myself included…) who have full-time jobs and still put a lot of time and effort into their blogs.

So, how do you stay productive with your blog while working full time? Here are my tips.

Find Out Your Blogging Priorities

You could have a ton of free time to work on your blog, but if you don’t know your blogging priorities, you can’t be productive with that time. Find out what your priorities need to be, and stick to them. If your priority is coming up with great content five days per week, make sure you’re always writing down ideas and spending plenty of time drafting, proofreading, and designing those posts. If your priority is to create an engaged audience on your blog and on social media, make sure you’re constantly checking out what people are saying and responding to them.

Utilize Your Work Breaks

Once you’ve figured out your blogging priorities, it’s time to find every snippet of time you can in your day. If you’re able to, really utilize all of your breaks at work and focus on your blog during these times. Use your lunch hour. Use the pomodoro technique and work on your blog during your five-minute breaks. Keep a notebook around and write ideas down as you work. But, as always, make sure these blogging breaks are kosher with your boss.

Use an Editorial Calendar

Planning is major when it comes to blogging productively while working full time. When you get home from work, the last thing you want to do is try to figure out a blog topic, write a draft, and have to edit it all in one night. Plan your posts ahead so you always have a good idea of what you’ll need to write and when. Plus, it helps your blog stay organized.

Take Photos in Bulk

If you need to use a lot of original photography on your blog posts, take them all at once. Depending on the season, you might only have good light on during the day, so you might need to do all of your photos for the upcoming week on Saturday or Sunday. It’s always easier (and faster) to get everything out once, so save yourself some time and take all of your blogging photos in bulk.

Use a Graphic Template

I’m a big supporter of creating a template for blog post header images in Photoshop. They save me a ton of time, because I just need to open the template file, plug in the photo and text, and voila! I’m done with the design part. Plus, all of my blog post headers are branded consistently and look good together.

Outsource Mundane Tasks

While we typically want to focus on the fun stuff of our blogs, there are some mundane tasks that have to be done no matter what. If you’re strapped for time as it is, you really don’t want to spend time on them. So don’t. Outsource these mundane asks to a virtual assistant or software / online services like CoSchedule. I really love social media, but scheduling posts can be a pain. So I use CoSchedule to schedule everything at once, and it does the rest for me!

What do you do to stay productive with your blog while working full time? I’d love to hear your tips in the comments!

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Comments

  1. wow! I struggled keeping up with the blog while I worked full time (12 hour night shifts no less!). I quit my job two weeks ago and have no plans even looking for a job until after the summer and then will certainly use your suggestions!

  2. I try to keep on top of my blog when I can. I started my blog with a bunch of guest posts that I’d done in the past. That way I could stay on top of my blog by posting. I try to post 3 days a week. These are all great tips! And I already using some of these tips!

  4. I don’t “work,” but I stay at home with my three boys…which is actually harder than any job I’ve had 🙂 I try to sneak in a few minutes every once in a while, then I also work during nap time and as soon as they go to bed. It’s hard! I still need to work on a calendar because I think that would be really helpful. Thanks for all the tips!

  5. This is so relevant to my life right now! I’ve been struggling so bad with balancing working full time, blogging, and having a social life. I constantly feel like I have a never ending to-do list. I am definitely going to try out having an editorial calendar and see if it helps. Fingers crossed!

    Melody // http://www.marevoli.com

  6. You are truly a B.O.S.S lady! I am a stay at home mom and at times I find it challenging to keep up. This was a good post even for those who do not work out of the home.

  7. Great ideas! I’m a working mama but I’m off for the summer since I’m a teacher. During the school year, I blogged in the evenings and scheduled them to post the next day – that made things easy. But then I was blogging every night and I was going crazy! Now I stick with just 3-4 posts a week and it’s much more manageable!

    • That sounds difficult! It’s never worth sacrificing your well being for a blog, so it’s always important to keep your priorities in check! 🙂

    • Definitely! I’m lucky that I don’t have to balance everything I have PLUS kids. I’ve got a puppy, who sometimes acts like a child, but that’s still easy peasy in comparison. 🙂

  9. I don’t work outside the home, but do have two small children and figuring out how to balance everything in a way that doesn’t neglect anyone or anything is difficult. I’m starting to use a calendar more and more and see the benefits. CoSchedule is next on my list. It’s a good “problem” to have, but it does take deliberate effort to manage.

    • Definitely! CoSchedule has been a major time-saver. I don’t have the experience with children, but I can’t believe it wouldn’t help! 🙂

  10. Love this post! An editorial calendar is a MUST for me, but I have to make sure it isn’t set in stone. That way, if a great idea comes to me I can write on it without feeling tied to the schedule, but if there’s a day where I can’t think of something, there’s already a predetermined topic there for me!

    I definitely SHOULD be taking more pictures in bulk, but I am seriously the worst at it. That’s the thing I space out on the most. How do you pre-plan your photos? Awesome blog, by the way. Found you from the comments in The Nectar Collective – your title pulled me in!

    http://www.callitadventureblog.com

    • Thank you, Torie! I use my editorial calendar to plan out my post. I figure out which posts I can use stock photos for (like this one) and which ones I need to take photos for. Then, the weekend before, I’ll take all of the photos I need for that week. Or, if I’m feeling super ambitious, I’ll do two weeks at a time. Does that make sense? 🙂

  11. When I was in school, I would try to write al the blog posts for the week the Friday before (I had a three day weekend). Now that it’s summer, I want to stay ahead, but the truth is, I’m not worrying if I miss a day or two. Editing my book is top priority right now.

    Laura

  12. I cannot survive without my editorial calendar (and a very understanding husband)!! 🙂