Working full time and blogging is tough but let’s face it, it’s what most people are doing when they start out on their blogging journey. It can be so easy to make excuses for why you can’t seem to find the time to invest in your blog, but I promise it’s far more rewarding to shut up and put the work in. Here’s what I did once I finally decided to silence my excuses and put the work in to balance working full time and blogging.
Streamlining my process
I turned to sites like Co-Schedule, which automatically send my posts out to my linked social sites for the dates I select while choosing the optimal time to post.
I connected Boomerang to my Gmail account, which acts as a virtual slingshot of sorts, sending emails back to me that hasn’t been clicked, opened, or responded to by a certain date.
Plann is great for preparing my Instagram account and getting an overview of how everything is going to flow together. They recently added a desktop partner, which I love because it makes it easier for me to see and type out my caption.
I use Hootsuite to see everything in one spot on all my other social accounts. This is great for things like checking in with certain lists of people and making sure I’m purposefully reaching out and socially networking daily.
Batch writing and shooting
Batch writing is when you take the time to write several posts at once. I used to start everyday with writing that day’s post. Eventually, that fell off for many reasons – I couldn’t think of what I wanted to say, I didn’t have time, etc … Now, I make sure to jot down ideas whenever I have them and then come back to those ideas on Sunday to write out my posts. Sometimes, they’re strictly for the week ahead and other times when I’m sticking to my editorial calendar they for a week out.
I do the same with shooting content. I think up my idea, get all my props/clothes/etc … together, then go out and shoot for the different things I have coming up. With the use of my calendars like Plann, I’m able to create content at once, usually over the weekends, and schedule it in advance to be posted at the same time every day.
Planning ahead
Honestly, it all boils down to planning ahead. Having an editorial calendar for blog and marketing calendar for social media helps you see ahead and know what’s coming. With that in mind, it makes it far easier to even incorporate gathering content into a regular day with minimal interruption – at least the picture aspect if you post images you shoot yourself.
