how to stay motivated as a blogger when you’re busy

Hey, friends!

Alright, I’m going to be honest here: I’m writing this post just as much for myself as I am for all of you. Blogging is hard in general – consistently creating content, coming up with new ideas, responding to comments and emails, taking and editing photos, allll of it – but especially when you’re busy. This isn’t to say it isn’t fun but it is a lot of work.  I think this post can be helpful for you if you’re working on your blog, social media, book, business, etc. If you have anything else going on in your life (aka. if you’re a human) you have to find life balance somewhere. I thought I’d share a couple of ideas on how to stay motivated as a blogger when you’re busy!

Note: I’ll be using the word blogger’ throughout this post. These tips also apply to being an author, small business owner, influencer, or even just a student!

be realistic

Realistically, I don’t have enough time to blog more than once a week – sometimes even that’s a struggle – between school, running, writing, my business, my podcast, church, family, and doing fun things with friends. So be realistic with what you can and can’t do. Because you definitely can’t do it all. (Except me. I definitely can do it all if you see the list of things that I’m doing. 😂) Don’t schedule yourself too much that you can’t ever take a break and don’t have any downtime. Instead, be realistic with yourself and what you can accomplish and go crush it!

be okay with sacrifices

Like I said in the first tip, you can’t do everything. And in order to focus more time on your blog, social media, book, etc, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices. This will be different for everyone and could mean waking up or staying up later to work on your blog, skipping watching youtube to write a post, or spending those 10 minutes you usually scroll Instagram for responding to comments. Think of creative ways you can use to make more time to blog, and it doesn’t have to be two hours. If you set a timer for 20 minutes, you can get so much done. Remember your priorities and be okay with making sacrifices for things that aren’t on your priority list.

utilize the time you do have for blogging to it’s full potentional

Maybe you’ve already cut down on things that aren’t necessarily on your priority list but you still don’t have enough and have things to do for your blog. This is when you need to make the most of the time you do have.

You can do this by putting your phone in a different room so you don’t get distracted by texting friends while you’re writing your post, or making sure you have a to-do list of exactly what you need to do to publish a post.

Another key to doing this is finding where and when you work best. Maybe you love to be in a buzzing area with lots of people around or you love a quiet room by yourself. Maybe you’re a night owl and you’re most productive writing posts in your bed at 2am or you love to watch the sunrise and work on a post. Find what makes you most productive and do it whenever you need to get a lot of work done.

use a schedule

Before you find your cute planner and write down what posts you want to publish and when, actually consider how much time you have to spend on your blog. For example, school usually takes me around 2 hours every day, I also try to work on my fiction writing projects for 30 minutes to an hour each day, which usually leaves me a little less than an hour to work on blogging before lunch. I need around 2-3 hours to write a post, so I’ll work on a post for four days every week. One day I’ll write the post, the next day I’ll take and edit photos, on the third day I’ll add tags, categories, edit, and schedule the email, and on the fourth day, I’ll work on other projects to maintain my blog (responding to comments & emails, updating pages, changing the design, etc). This schedule has worked really well for me and I usually can consistently post every week.

Figure out a time that you can consistently fit blogging into your day and divide up small tasks throughout the week to that time!

(Also, if you need a way to organize your blogging tasks and schedule, you can sign up for my free blog planner right here!)

try batching your tasks

This technique is actually something I use every week for writing my posts and oh my goodness. this is SO HELPFUL! If you’re a blogger or entrepreneur or social media influencer you probably get this really well. In order to make a post or a listing you have write, take pictures, do the SEO and finally schedule or publish. What if you spent a day writing, spent a day doing pictures and then spent a day doing SEO, rather than doing a little of each every day!? That’s the concept of batching your tasks. Now I realize that you might not spend an entire day writing or doing photos or SEO, and someone might schedule a week or several months out or not at all, but I think that you can get the concept.

I think that part of the reason that this has been so helpful for me personally is because I can get scattered VERY easily. Heh. If my mind is going a million different directions, it’s hard for me to focus on one thing at a time. With the batching technique though I can just sit down and write everything, doing the photos all at one time and then do the SEO.

be flexible

Let’s be real here. You are not always going to be able to post. Even with a schedule, batching content, or making sacrifices. And that’s okay. There are going to be times when you’re on vacation or busy with school or your family needs your help. If you miss a post, don’t let that stop you. Just get back to using your schedule and you’ll be posting consistently again.

set yourself up for success

Last but not least, set yourself up for success. As I said earlier, your time and energy are finite. They’re the human equalizer. You can’t buy time and you can’t buy energy. But you can choose how you use your time and energy. So use it well. Set yourself up for success. What does this look like?

It looks like sitting at a desk, being organized, eliminating distractions, and getting your work done. Don’t just get on your phone or laptop and go down a rabbit trail of entertainment, shopping, etc. Get up and get dressed every day, even if you’re gonna be home the whole time.

Set yourself up for success and you will find success.

now, it’s your turn!

I hope this post was helpful and motivating for you, whether or not you’re a blogger. Comment below with your favorite tip from this post and if you have any ideas for what I should try!