Today, Tom Walker goes over a list of 10 different things you can try and improve to maximize your blogging productivity.
At times, blogging can be a time consuming, not to mention aggravating task. There are a multitude of duties and roles pulling at your attention on a daily basis. These tasks are sometimes so distracting that it is easy to lose sight of your goals and be caught up in the menial tasks of the day-to-day operation of your blog.
To keep your frustration to a minimum and make the time you spend upon your blog or blogs more effective, here are a few tips to take into consideration.
1. Choose Your Work Atmosphere Carefully
Whether you enjoy listening to ambient music, having the news on in the background or working in complete silence, we all have certain conditions that are more conducive to improving our working productivity. Choose your work area carefully and make sure that the atmosphere in which you ply your trade is helpful in maintaining your work ethic rather than detracting from it.
2. Breaks are Important
Taking a break now and then is important to staying fresh, both mentally and physically, but you’ve got to manage yourself and resist the temptation to overindulge. Take a walk, get out and take in some fresh air, do some stretching or jumping jacks, or whatever it takes to get yourself energized. Rewarding your hard work with breaks can be a great way to stay motivated, but don’t make them so long that you lose the intensity that keeps you productive and efficient.
3. Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut
Routine is often important to maintaining your work ethic, but taking your routine to the extreme can leave you feeling bored or as if you’re stuck in a rut. Doing the same thing day in and day out can get monotonous, and monotony can breed contempt for your work. While you may want to keep yourself on track when it comes to your work related duties, throwing in a bit of variety now (like working from a coffee shop) and again can keep boredom at bay.
4. Know Your Limits
There is little sense in pushing yourself to work when you know you won’t be productive. Sitting at your desk and staring at a computer screen when you don’t feel like working can be extremely frustrating and counterproductive. Understanding when and where you work best is key to keeping productivity high and being a more efficient blogger.
5. Keep Notes
There are lots of duties to keep track of as a blogger, especially if you are running more than one blog. Consider using an online project management app such as Basecamp or jotting down a todo list of tasks that need to be taken care of as well as the dates or times by which they must be accomplished. Adding a simple order of priority will mean you can get through the list of todos even more efficiently.
6. Stay Organized
Keeping notes is a great way to stay organized, but there is more to effective and efficient organization than just jotting down a few reminders. Keeping your work areas, computer, and website clutter free are easy ways to increase efficiency and productivity. You don’t have to be zen-like in your decluttering, but you do have to be ruthless. That pile of unpaid bills on your desk is a distraction. All the balsas connecting all your peripherals are unsightly. The empty but unclean coffee mugs take up space.
The point is this: remove anything that’s going to detract from your focus on work.
7. Carry a Recorder
Sometimes when you’re on the move, you’ll be hit with a great idea or remember an important task that needs to be dealt with urgently. Consider carrying a voice recorder to take notes with or leave yourself a reminder. A recorder is a convenient tool (often built into modern smartphones) that is lightweight and easy to take with you when you’re out and it can be quicker, easier, and more efficient than using a pen and notepad.
8. Have a Backup Plan
Have you ever considered how you would work if your power went out? What would you do if your computer died? What happens if the dog gnaws through your laptop battery charger? How would you keep your blog running smoothly?
If you aren’t sure of these things, you might want to take some time to develop a plan to getting access to a computer and your files in the event of an accident. If that means using a friend’s computer, stocking up on a couple extra laptop batteries, buying a UPS or getting a USB mobile broadband dongle, you should at least have a strategy to fall back to in the event of things going wrong.
9. Allocate Your Time Wisely
Sure, your emails might be important, but breaking off to check them every ten minutes might detract from the efficiency of your work. Between emails, phone calls and text messages, your workflow is constantly being interrupted. While you shouldn’t disconnect entirely from society, it will help boost your productivity if you allocate a set time to do emails and make those phone calls.
10. Set and Track Goals
Knowing whether you are being efficient with your writing might be difficult if you have nothing against which you can gauge your progress. To determine if you are being productive and efficient, consider setting and tracking goals that can help you decide whether your work is paying off. This can be as simple as aiming to write a certain number of words per day or publishing a number of posts. Just make sure you have a target, don’t get into something with no blogging strategy!
What gets you going?
What little tips and tricks can you share that help you get into a more productive and efficient mindset? I think a lot of the things mentioned above are things we do already, but I know that not everyone follows them to the best of their abilities. How do you get into the best possible work flow?
28 Discussions
The online income keeps me moving. The more the faster.
Jayce´s last blog ..Top 10 T-Mobile HTC HD2 Tweaks and Hacks
I agree with this.
Palabuzz´s last blog ..Holy Week Scares Aljur Abrenica
i too agree with this but the problem with me is…
I AM YET TO EARN SOME MONEY
Tushar´s last blog ..Use Windows Live Writer- Highly Recommended
My best investment for my efficiency is my ‘white board’. I list everything I want to do on a daily / weekly basis. I tick them off as I go and then focus on the next task.
Simple, inexpensive and make me focus.
Andrew
andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Successful Internet Business Models
I like the idea of a white board Andrew.
I usually use the traditional pen and paper and draft up a to-do list and cross out the items as I finish. I might just need to go shopping this weekend
Cemil´s last blog ..What Is Unique Content?
Plan,plan and plan some more.Find a friend in a similar position to yourself and communicate daily.It makes you accountable to someone.
I keep looking to my children,thats all the inspiration I really need.
Very interesting post.Thank you.
Kind Regards
Ray
Hi guys, I hope the post was helpful! If you feel like I’ve left anything out, feel free to mention it
TomWalker´s last blog ..Canon Pixma iP1900 – economical and fast
Great post!
These two are so applicable, and things I need to remember:
Sitting at your desk and staring at a computer screen when you don’t feel like working can be extremely frustrating and counterproductive.
Emails might be important, but breaking off to check them every ten minutes might detract from the efficiency of your work
Sometimes when I feel stuck, I don’t want to move away from my desk because I’m determined to complete my post, however because I can’t focus, I’m checking twitter, or email or my google reader over and over and this is completely counter productive.
Thanks for the reminder!
Shannon O | Confessions of a Loving Wife´s last blog ..Loving Marriage: How remarrying saved my marriage
I agree with your article. It should be necessary to take breaks for few time and we should stop posting. It should better to us analyze how much it will get result after breaks.
Nice advice man!
I don’t keep a recorder but I always do have pen and paper – will try a recorder too.
Cheers!
King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review
know your objective so you can easily achieve ur goal lol nice post bro!!!!!!
You made your point with this post, but somewhere breaks are something that you forget about. You begin an 8 and you finish at 20:00 with just one lunch break, that is not good at all…
Taking notes… always! I jot things down all the time and then transfer them into a notebook later. Anytime I’m looking for a new topic or blog, I always glance through these. Always a good way to get inspired. Nice list. Never used a recorder either. Don’t like the sound of my voice.
All of this are important but I think Taking a break is crucial. A lot of bloggers tend to push themselves too much that the quality of their posts or their lifestyle suffers. I think its very important to just set yourself in the right mood before doing work in blogging. If Im not in the mood for like 1 week, then I wouldnt certainly blog for 1 week.
Melvin´s last blog ..Making Money Online & then Quitting School
As a part time blogger, time management is an important factor to determine the efficiency of my blogging life. I failed to update my blog everyday currently. However, i wish that i manage to do this with better time management.
Kok Siong Chen´s last blog ..Genome Instability Causes Cancer
I feel the most interesting point made that I rarely hear about in the blogosphere is having a back up plan. This really struck me and I think that if we all have a strong and consistent back up plan many of these other tips will come hand in hand.
Another way to think about this is what if you were in the middle of writing a post and just completely lost what you were going to say or feel its not an adequate post for your blog. Then you need to have a back up plan and this can involve staying organized and taking notes all the time. I love post-it notes.
Derek Jensen´s last blog ..5 Proven Ways to Boost Your GPA
I have to comment on the extreme importance of #4, Know Your Limits. My first couple-few years was severely lacking due to my own ignorance and needing to do everything myself…if I couldn’t do it, it didn’t get done.
Don’t do that.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Comment Contest Continues Through April!
I like all the points above. I guess the only thing I can add is always try to have a good meal and frequent exercise. These things help me a lot in having the right mindset and energy as I create articles everyday.
Julius´s last blog ..Web Accessibility Fears and Ways to Conquer Them
Great post! setting goals is very important and you need to track your goals to make sure they are accomplished.
Thanks for the great post.
Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..Interview with Benjamin Lang of ben-lang.com
Feeling inspired is probably my #1 way to stay productive (dunno if I have the genes to be efficient). So it’s the goal and topic of the post that get me enthused enough to stop slacking and get through the research, planning, writing, editing, etc. Oh, and the Rocky III soundtrack — all bloggers need the Eye of the Tiger.
JohnFTM´s last blog ..100 Ways to Write a Better Blog Post
Great list of ideas. Common sense reigns. I’m going to make my own list this week.
Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..Write Like a Pubescent Boy in a Locker Room: Fart Blogging
Alway bring a notebook and a pen everywhere you’re going, this helps a lot when you have an idea.
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..This is blog is now Do Follow
Good list. I keep a running notes on my phone. I have it broken down into blog topic ideas and a to-do list. Seems like my mind is always working and I come up with ideas at the weirdest times so keeping everything on my phone seems to work best. Only problem is the to-do list grows faster than I can complete tasks.
Zack´s last blog ..Why Link Building is Important
After reading this article, I’ve come to realize how inefficient I am sometimes when I’m working on my blog. The sound of a new email always gets me stop whatever I’m doing and check my inbox. This is something I desperately need to change.
Thanks for the tips. I need to put these into action and start blogging more efficiently.
passion is the most important thing. If you blog for fun, great. But if you don’t you’re better off doing something else.
I was constantly coming up with great blogging ideas at times that I could not drop what I was doing and blog. I thought, “this idea is soooo good there’s no possible way I’ll forget it.” Oh, what a path of foolishness that is. Now I keep a spiral notebook nearby and jot down ideas and comments for blog posts. Works great! Now if I could just find the time to work up all of the great ideas that I’ve been collecting.
Michele´s last blog ..Label Your Work
Jot down comments?
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..New Updated Long Detailed Comment Policy Coming very SOON! Among Others…
Nice article I special like the 1. Choose Your Work Atmosphere Carefully part it is very important to be in a good ambiance when you start a job.
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