One of the major blog goals I had when I started was to have a consistent post schedule and be more organized. While I have things in control, it took me so long to reach this place of peacefulness. Let us talk about a few tips that can help you create a blogging schedule that you’ll stick to easily.
In our next post we will talk about the blog schedule that I have been following for a while, so that you can use it as a guide to make your own.
Set your blog time aside
Everybody’s life and routines are different. So to start with, identify the best time for you and your blog and set aside a few hours to spend only on your blog. When I say blogging it may include everything that you do for a blog from researching a topic to scheduling your social media or answering your DMs.
Next, you have to make some tough calls. Note that there is no magic number or correct answer to these questions. You just have to choose what works for you. Remember we are aiming for consistency, so think of the long term when you choose your blogging schedule.
How often do you want to publish on your blog?
Who are your target audience?
What are the broad topics that you will write on and does that match with your audience’s interest?
What are the items that you depend on someone else’s input?; and
Which ones can you outsource or automate?
Once you honestly answer these questions you will have a realistic idea on what you can and what you can’t do.
Create an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar is the correct place to start with while creating a blogging schedule that you’ll stick to. A blog schedule and editorial calendar are closely interlinked.
An editorial calendar will act as the backbone of your blog and will keep a track on what is being published and when, and also what are you planning to publish in future. Usually it is filled for a month and I know bloggers who do it for a year even.
I use Spreadsheets for marking down the special days on the calendar and the blog content for the month. If you participate in any memes or link ups, you can put them down on it too. This will ensure you won’t forget what is pending and what’s written up.
Build an idea tank
How many times have you sat in front of the screen and waited for inspiration to strike to write a post? Not knowing what to write is one of the major reason why we do not post as per schedule.
And that is why you need to build an idea tank. Yes it is exactly how it sounds. You need a place to dump all your ideas without judgement.
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I use Evernote for that and any topic that remotely feels like it can be a blog post topic goes into a note. It is not the right time to think if it is a good idea or not, just dump it there and stop thinking about it.
A quick tip to get things done faster – batch similar tasks. If you are designing header images for a post, do it for the entire week or even month at a time. Work on SEO research for all the posts at a time instead of repeating the same task for each post.
This is one of the best things that I learned in the last few years and it only saves me time but ensures I don’t get bogged down by small tasks repeatedly, and thus keeps me on the blogging schedule that I have been following religiously for a while now.
Social media time
Like it or not, we spend a huge amount of time on social media, especially for our blog. We try to be everywhere at the same time. Promoting our content and responding to our DMs and mentions are just a tiny speck when it comes to blog promotion.
So ensure that your blogging schedule includes time for all these social media activities like following your peers posts and engaging with them. And these activities should not be affect your other blog schedule.
Get a partner or ten
Another quick tip to ensure you stick to your blog schedule is to rope in a partner or two to keep you accountable. Or you can quickly join a Discord or Facebook group of like minded bloggers who are also working towards similar goals.
While all the above tips might help you to create a blogging schedule that you’ll stick to, I believe everything starts from your inner self. So when the going gets worse and it feels like the blogging schedule is getting out of your way – slog through it. Because slump begets slump.
The more you procrastinate or cancel things, harder it gets to go back to your routine and schedules. So as much as possible push it through and get yourself on to that discipline of following the schedule.
Of course that doesn’t mean you have to overwhelm yourself. Just take one step at a time and get things done.
How hard is it for you to create a blogging schedule that you’ll stick to? What are the challenges uou face when you make a blogging schedule? Let us talk.
You have made the plans and post schedules for the blog. You have great ideas for new posts. You are ready to soar high and make blogging successful. But why does your enthusiasm wane and you struggle to stick to the blog schedule in the long run?
So when things get hard or the initial enthusiasm to blog starts to dissipate it is natural that you let yourself off the hook easily. You start thinking what am I losing if skip once, and end up in a blogging slump before you know it.
Tip: Reward yourself for every successful streak, say weekly. Create a calendar and mark each day you blog on it, and try not to break your streak.
You are not accountable to anyone
Yes, not all of us have millions of monthly readers in our blog. Or maybe it is just your mother and her cat. And they are not gonna judge you if you post once in a month or NEVER.
Before I moved to Elgee Writes, I had had my blog for almost five years and never told anyone about it. I assumed I was writing for myself and that I was blogging pretty consistently. But guess what?
Within a year, I had published more posts than I published in the first five years. The difference? I had begun talking to others (bloggers, friends and even colleagues) about my blog and I started getting regular readers and engagements.
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Sure, you can hold yourself accountable too, but has it worked previously? If no, it is better to involve a friend or better, another blogger friend to hold you accountable.
Tip: Announce your next post topic to your readers. Put up an blogging schedule on the sidebar so that your readers would know when to expect your next post and hold you accountable to it.
You are waiting for perfection
I am no stranger to this flaw. I am not perfect and my blog posts aren’t either. But I can wait for the perfect word to flow, the perfect blog topic to spring in my mind and for the perfect time to write it out.
But they rarely come and my blog can’t wait until then.
Starting with an imperfect plan and then continuing to make it better, is so much more productive than to wait for the perfect plan.
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Tip: Aim for good, not perfect. Write down everything in your mind or draft an outline, and then you can edit and perfect it.
You are waiting for motivation
You cannot expect yourself to be always motivated and full of enthusiasm. The going will get tough and your initial enthusiasm will definitely wane.
But if you had planned to work only when you are inspired, then you will be working only for about 30% of the days. Following through any plan or goal, needs inspirations but most critically you need determination.
I am sure everyone has days that they don’t wanna work or go to the gym, but only people who step up and do what is needed to be, even when they don’t feel like, become successful.
Tip: Don’t look for external motivations – just hitting the publish button on your blog or being to be able to stick to the blog schedule itself can be motivating enough. And even if it, just do it because you are professional.
You want instant gratification
Often we want to see the effect of our hard work almost immediately. And when that doesn’t happen, it is natural to feel disheartened and we may even want to stop our hard work.
Sure the SEO techniques benefit the ranking of the blog, but you can’t see the page visit counts spike the very next day. Likewise you are going to not get your leads right away, because you posted on your blog for two weeks as per your schedule.
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But this lack of patience and attitude towards instant gratification is keeping from being able to stick to the blog schedule.
Tip: When you make plans, get into a mindset that you won’t see any tangible benefit right away. And have a visual reminder to see how many days you stick to the blog schedule to quench your thirst for instant gratification.
So go on, let me know what other blogging challenges do you face? What’s stopping you from achieving your blogging dreams?
Social media is fun and entertaining. Unless you are a content producer or a blogger trying to use it for your business. Well, then it is a chore and is definitely soul sucking. The balancing of your social media presence and your blogging schedule is a constant struggle.
But you do see so many big accounts do this so seamlessly and still are on top of their blog. It is an absolute sorcery and mere mortals can’t achieve it.
Blink twice if you have tried to balance between your goal to get a huge following on social media, churn out content as your calendar and trying to breathe, and failed miserably. Well, you are not alone and this post especially for you, naïve one.
Balancing Act of Social Media and Blogging
It is hard to balance social media and blogging, when your work and business are mostly online and it is exhausting to say the least. There is no way out, in this age and technology but you can still try to stay sane by following some of these techniques.
With all that is going on in life and your blogging schedule, it gets harder to sit down and do things that require your focus and deep work.
The more your sweat over small things and your routine, the harder it gets to any planning or focused writing done. And that is why it is important to set aside a particular time block each day, away from distraction from the pesky social media messages or Netflix binges.
Use this time to create, write and do things that require your uninterrupted attention. Extra points if they add up to your long term goals.
Create a social media strategy
Keeping up with the news and staying relevant is one of the vital points as a blogger and a business. But doing that all by yourself is definitely impossible.
And that is why you need a social media strategy that includes
The social media platforms that your blog will be active
The number of times you will post per week
The number of hours you will spend engaging, re-sharing and commenting on the platform
What is your goal for each platform – short and long term?
How will you track the progress?
Creating out a social media strategy might seem too pretentious if you are a micro blogger or a small business, but writing out them in detail would hold you accountable and give you more clarity on what you do.
Automate whatever you can
Once you have set your goals and task lists in stone (or paper) automate, automate and automate. Use a scheduler like Buffer or Hootsuite to send out your posts on premeditated time.
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You can allocate a specific time to schedule posts for the following week. Scheduling for a week will reduce the amount of time you spend on social media for promoting your blog/business.
Batching similar processes
Another great time saving technique is to batch similar processes together and get them done together. For example, instead of spending time creating graphics or images for each social media separately, batch them out together and do it when you are designing the header image for your blog post.
As you automate things and spend time away from social media creating and building your business and blog, keep an eye over your analytics and traffic. Watch out for what kind of posts work and what performs better.
You may even spend a dedicated time every week (or whatever works for you) to analyse the data and tweak your posts.
Put yourself first
This is the single most important thing I learnt in creating a balance between social media and blogging is putting myself and my mental health first.
How much ever we plan there are going to be days when nothing goes as per our plan and that might overwhelm us. We should have to understand that and keep ourselves prepared for unplanned breaks.
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Also, plan for some self care routines into your day and don’t forget to take some breaks.
What my social media schedule looks like
What my social media schedule looks like
As a book blogger, I try to be active on Instagram (though it offers little to no traffic to my blog), Twitter and Pinterest. I also schedule posts on Facebook, but I am not active on FB, personally or for blog promotion.
I post four times on my blog per week and share the posts on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest as soon as the post go or some time on the same day. To be honest, I am not really strict on the time for this process.
Weekly once I spend an hour or two to choose the posts from the book blogger community to reshare on my social media platform during the following week.
Next I spend another 15 to 30 minutes to choose posts from my blog to promote all through the next week.
On Monday I schedule these links (both from my blog and the ones I loved from the blogging community) to publish over Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest at different times with customized messages for each platform.
Every day I spend about 15 to 30 minutes on each platform to talk, engage and make friends. Usually I spend about 60 to 90 minutes on the whole each day.
That is it. This is my minimal schedule to allow me to stay on top of social media and blog promotion and breathe as well.
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Well, sometimes these schedules don’t work and that is okay too. I stopped worrying too much about it, because I know I have a routine that works for me, most of the days and I can get back to it soon enough.
The trick to balancing between social media and blogging is knowing what you want and when to say enough.
If you like my posts about social media and blogging aspect of it, you should try some of these related posts.
How do you keep balancing social media and blogging content? Does it ever get overwhelming for you? What does your social media schedule look like? Let us talk.
Like many other trends, I joined Instagram for books and reading a bit later than everyone else. I genuinely thought it was another platform that bookworms, among other people, use to procrastinate while the books in their TBR shelves collected dusts. (Am I wrong or am I wrong?)
I joined the bandwagon with much innate skepticism, thanks to the peer pressure and the allure of getting more free books to review from the publishers. Let us face it, we bookworms are all greedy for free books!
And boy, am I a convert! From someone who didn’t even have the Instagram app on her phone, I have become a person I hardly recognize – especially when I took 25 minutes to buy a coffee mug, which is now visible on every alternate photo I post on Instagram. It just not that.
Bookstagram has changed so many things for me including my reading habits. Oh let me tell you how!
Positive Changes –Instagram for books
Finding book clubs and more discussions
Thanks to Bookstagram, I met some amazing people online and one thing lead to another. And BAM! I am now a member of four book clubs in Instagram that are actually active.
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We have book of the month, and most of us religiously read and DISCUSS them, which is what I was craving for like any book worm would.
Keeping up with the challenges
I have always been meaningto read more classics and revisit the novels of the queen of mystery Dame Agatha Christie. And while on Instagram I found the book clubs that have members who want to do that as well, and that has helped me keep up my resolution.
I have read seven Agatha Christie books and six classics since joining the group in 2019, which is quite a feat for me. But all thanks to reading Instagram and the book clubs that keep me on my toes.
Understanding the importance of representation
I cannot stress enough how much I depend on social networks on keeping me updated with the current state of affairs and issues. As someone who is living out here in the deserts of Dubai, I need all the help I can get.
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Bookstagram and Twitter are the sole reasons that I have been finding out diverse representation in books. Without them I would not have known what to look for and mainly why they matter. I am still learning y’all!
Reading more regularly and rigorously
I am generally a mood reader which means I either read ten books a month or read nothing for the next two months. And choosing which book to read next usually took a lot of time in general. It still does. But joining bookstagram helped me keeping track of what I read and updating my reading progress regularly has made me more accountable.
Having to talk about books on a schedule has made me read more rigorously and regularly. I think the pressure(?) that the bookstagram schedules has been putting on me and it works well on me.
Falling for the book covers
I think I was one of those rare bookworms that never gave a second thought about the book covers. Especially since I have a weird habit of not reading the synopsis (or blurb) before reading the book, I didn’t really take much time to appreciate the beautiful cover of the book.
Then bookstagram happened. Now the first thing I see about a book is the cover. I appreciate the designs, fonts and colors of the cover lot more and I am enjoy doing that.
Reading more Young Adult books
Bookstagram plays a huge role in the books I read and since the young adult books are the most popular ones I have been picking a lot of them recently.
It is a good thing because I don’t usually reach out for them and they are a great alternative to the classics and mystery novels that I read for the book clubs. Also because YA is where most representations and current issues are being addressed currently.
Negative Changes –Instagram for books
Looking out for popular book
Let’s face it. At the end of the day it is the numbers that matter, even in Bookstagram. And it may not come as surprise that posting about popular books is inevitable to gain popularity and engagement.
So I have been reading so many popular books of late, many that I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for Bookstagram. Not that I haven’t enjoyed them nor all of them were bad, but I am sure I could have spent the time better, knocking off some book of my TBR list.
I hope sincerely that more Bookstagrammers started posting about books from Own voices, POC authors and independent publishers as well, which is becoming rare due to all the number games.
The feeling of being left out
Continuing the above theme, I have come to realize that ‘doing our own thing’ is more difficult with Instagram than book blogging.
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I generally do not read much of fantasy and SciFi genres and they constitute almost half the new releases these days. So it is kinda inevitable but to feel left out seeing all these beautiful books that I might never read.
It is really a short ride from the fear of missing out to feeling guilty about the reading choices.
Giving in to the schedule pressure
I am trying so hard not to do this and I hope the day never comes, that my Instagram feed will consist of so many books that I never have read before.
The pressure of having a schedule and the need to talk about new books shouldn’t end up in just adding a picture and not forget the existence of the book.
Yes I know I have a lot of them currently on my shelf but I hope Bookstagram doesn’t add more to that bunch.
Giving up lesser known books
We book bloggers want it all. We want to read so many books in so little time. The cost of reading the most popular books comes at missing out the other great ones.
I sometimes miss giving in to the mood and picking a random book off the shelf. And the pleasure of buying never heard of books based on the quirky title off a second hand books shop.
Pin me!
Let’s Chat
Are you on Instagram for books and reading and more importantly, are you following me? And has it affected your reading habits at all, or is it just me? I would love to hear from you, in the comment section. Let us talk.
I am sure feeling lost when it comes to starting new conversations is pretty common – be it online or in real life. I hope these bookish questions would be help you kick start new topics. Let me know if these bookstagram questions are helpful.
Here are some bookish “question of the day” (qotd) that you can ask your followers on social media like bookstagram or just write a blog post on. I will keep these bookstagram questions coming if they seem helpful to you. So let me know in the comments.
25. Do you read dystopia? If yes, name one dystopian fantasy that you can relate to our current world.
It is no secret that I love talking about books, writing and everything in between. Of course I talk about it on my blog and all over the social media. And in real life, to whomever would listen, including the book club meetings.
So if you are ever looking out for bookish question of the day (qotd) to talk on your bookstagram or blog, you know whom to ask. * wink wink*
Are you on Instagram/bookstagram? Do you ever get stuck looking for questions of the day (qotd) or captions to post? Would these bookstagram questions be useful? Let us chat.
