Staying productive as a blogger can be a real challenge. Some days the ideas are flowing like a river, other days you’ll feel as if you’re stuck and have no idea what to do. It’s for these days that I’d love to provide you with some tips. Here are my productivity tips for bloggers, all of them I use myself!
My name is Chloë and I blog about lifestyle, career, blogging and social media over at chloe does life. I combine my blog with a full-time job in e-commerce and I absolutely love sharing my experiences with you!
CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR
On the days where you have an abundance of ideas that you would like to get started on, take a piece of paper and a pen, or the notes app on your phone and write them down, one by one. At first, it might only be five ideas or so, but as you continue to grow as a blogger and continue to add new content to your blog, new ideas will come automatically. Maybe in the form of follow-ups on previous posts, or maybe even completely new ideas.
Always keep this list close, because it will be the base of your content calendar. I personally use one for both my blogging and my social media content. By planning out what you want to post when, you’ll never run out of ideas of what to write next! Content calendars can easily be created in a Google or Excel Sheet, which also makes it super easy to follow up. I like marking the days in a different colour when they’re over, to keep the best overview. Content calendars also make it really easy to schedule your content. If you know what to post when, you can schedule this ahead of time, and never run behind your calendar again. These are also super helpful when you want to take some time off, yet keep your online presence.
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MAKE A TO-DO LIST
This is probably one of the easiest but best productivity tips for bloggers. Write down everything you need to do on a daily and/or weekly basis. Take your time to do this, because it will be the base of my next tip as well. By putting everything on a to-do list, you have a visualisation of all of your tasks, which will also help you never forget anything you need to do again. It’s a super helpful tool.
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SET UP A WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Blogging takes up a lot of time and involves a lot of tasks. From writing your posts, to scheduling out your social media content and creating pins for Pinterest. Sometimes it can be hard to still see the forest for the trees. That’s where a weekly schedule comes in really handy. Write down all the tasks that you need to do on a weekly basis and assign the amount of time you need to complete them. Then, take out a calendar and start planning all of them in. You can easily do this in Outlook or Google Calendar, which will also send you a notification when it’s time for something new!
By visualising all of your tasks, you’ll know exactly what to do every day, which will help you become more productive. What I also like to do on top of my weekly schedule, is make a daily schedule. I write down exactly from what time to what time I am supposed to do a certain task. It motivates me to work hard on it and finish within the time frame. It makes me more productive when I have everything written down.
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TAKE REGULAR BREAKS
When you’re on a roll, it’s sometimes difficult to stop, but it remains important. I usually take a 10-minute break every two hours, to take my mind off what I’m currently doing for a bit. When doing this, you give your brain the time to recharge and look at your work with a fresh look. Maybe you’ll even spot a little mistake afterwards.
By taking enough breaks, you won’t exhaust yourself and be less tired towards the end of the day. It will help you concentrate for longer and ultimately this will increase your productivity, because you’ll get more done throughout the day. It’s a win-win situation!
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TAKE TIME OFF WHEN YOU NEED IT
This is probably one of the most contradictory productivity tips for bloggers, but it is definitely the most important one. You should always take time off if you feel like you need it. Whether it’s a day, a weekend or a whole week. Working 24/7 365 days a year has never done anyone any good, so it’s important to take a break every now and then.
If you’re a full-time blogger, grant yourself the same amount of time off in a year as everyone in a day job gets. I know that sometimes that’s easier said than done, especially because you depend on blogging for your income, and you might not be earning much money when you’re not working for a week or two weeks on end. But think of the long term effects: working every day of the year will eventually lead to burnouts and that will likely take you out much longer than a week.
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These were my productivity tips for bloggers, all of them I use myself too. Ever since I started implementing these, I saw my productivity increase. Hopefully they’ll help you too!
This was so helpful, saving this one for later + on my way to her blog for more!
Thanks for sharing. There’s a need for planning to be able to blog effectively and maximize on productivity. This is a helpful post.
Thanks so much for reading!
Welcome
Great tips! Certainly is not easy to blog with a full time job! The time off sometimes is really a must!
Yes for sure!
Potential tips Olivia. Loved the way how the complete thing was drawn and shown how to plan the things to be more productive. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading!
Your tips are always actionable and relatable
So glad you enjoyed this guest post!
Setting up a weekly schedule has done wonders for me because I have so much I need to remember to do now. It takes a load off when you know it’s all written down and won’t be forgotten.
Schedules are sooo important!
Keeping up that creative and productive streak as a blogger can be so difficult sometimes, like you said, the creative flow can be there one day then dry up the next! I like to write a daily to do list for my blogging tasks as that helps me achieve them quicker x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thanks so much for reading Lucy!
Oh! These are some brilliant ideas!
🤩🤩
Thanks so much!
Great! Many thanks.
Thank you!
Thank you a lot. That was actually helpful for me.
These days I feel like I am so stuck.
I don’t get ideas these days:(
Sometimes you need to take a break!
This is quite funny because our most recent post is also about productivity and success in the summer. With that in mind, would you like to share each other’s content in which we share your article within ours and vice versa. It’s all your call.
Thanks for sharing all of the tips 👍👍
Thanks so much for reading
Great tips! It’s so hard to stay productive now that life is going back to normal, but it’s nice to see that others are making it work and sharing tips!
Thanks for reading!
I love everything about your blogs!
This was such a insightful and informative post. I honestly need to sit down and take notes and start to implement these steps. Luckily I also have Olivia’s blogging schedule which I need to go over and put into practice more diligently.
This blogging community is so amazing and filled with support and great information.
Thanks for sharing.
I almost gave up on blogging Oliva, but reading all your posts gave me hope and I’m back on track again (I know this is a guest post). Thank you so much!❤
Julie! I am so glad to hear this. You can do this. we are all rooting for you!
Thank you for sharing these great tips! I need to be more regimented in the planning and execution for my blog. In my mind, I KNOW to do all of these things, but at the moment, I’m just not consistent in my organization. I’m much more trying to just get some content posted and engage when I can on Twitter. But, I do know that to gain and maintain success, implementing these tips will only serve me well.
~Cassie | letsgrowmom.com