Juggling Blogging and Real-Life – Some Tips on Time Management

Bloggers don’t have only their blogs to manage. They have work, school, or a family to manage too, and it can be difficult to juggle all of these jobs successfully and effectively. Time management is essential, for bloggers (Or any professional, for that matter) to succeed. Here are a few tips that can help you effectively manage your blogging and other responsibilities.

1. First Things First

Image: The Carey Fam

Seems logical enough, right?

Identify your most important responsibilities, and put them at the top of your to-do list. It’s better to get them over with as soon as possible.

These priorities might vary. For example, when you’re given a project to do by your employer, your top most priority should be to finish it off as soon as possible, and then head towards other things.

But, you have to consider other things too. I mean, you cannot just ignore blogging and work on your project all the time, can you? That would be crazy and unproductive. The key, now is to plan ahead:

2. Plan Ahead

Image: allen.goldblatt

Planning ahead is one of the most effective time-management tips any time-management book or course will teach you.

School starts in a week, and you know it’s going to be hectic. Instead of wasting time, you (prudently) decide to write up at least two week’s worth posts for your blog in advance, so you can concentrate safely on school, without being worried about content for your blog. That is called planning ahead.

Another example: You’ve got a must-attend family vacation coming up. You know it’s going to be about two weeks long. You decide to plan ahead, and write up posts in advance. Good choice.

The thing is, by planning ahead, you already accomplish a task, before it’s due. So, that’s one item cut off from your list already. Feels good, doesn’t it

A tip: Why not write the week’s posts before hand on weekends? You have free time on your hands: why not utilize

3. Buffers

I once took a time management course, and the part that struck me best, was a buffer. A buffer is like a cushion, taking pressure on itself, and decreasing the effect an uncalled for situation has on the thing that the buffer is protecting.

For example, large fermenters and the like have buffer solutions within the raw material, which prevents the pH of the overall solution from changing from the optimum, thus ensuring maximum output.

So, how does this apply to you, and your blogging in particular?

Instead of writing exactly 14 posts for two weeks, why not write two or three extra posts? What if your vacations get extended for some reason? Or school work pulls you down for another day or two. It is these two or three extra posts that prevent your schedule from getting disrupted, and allow you extra time.

So you see, by setting buffers, you allow yourself time to adapt to uncalled for situations, without messing things up.

Your Thoughts

You’re most probably juggling blogging and real life responsibilities yourself. How do you manage, and do you have any tips? We’d all love to hear