We all have times when life gets busy. This time of year can be chaotic for parents who have children at home during the Summer holidays. Busy times at work, big projects, illness, holidays – all these can take up significant chunks of time and leave you with little time for blogging. So what can you do?
Firstly, don’t panic. If you are already under pressure with work, illness or childcare then you don’t want to add to it. If you don’t post to your blog for a few days or weeks then it doesn’t matter. We firmly believe that blogging should be fun and nobody likes the pressure of having to do something. Take a break and start writing again when you have the time.
Make lists
If you are still having lots of blogging inspiration or baking up treats without any time to blog about them, then keep a list of what you’d like to write about when you’re less busy. Keep a notepad (paper or digital) where you can jot down recipes or ideas and keep a folder with photos ready for blogging.
Schedule posts
Try to make a clear window of time when you can sit down and write up several blog posts at once. You may find if that is the only task you are focusing on, you can get plenty done. Use the schedule function to publish the posts throughout the week. With many twitter clients, you can set autotweets to publicise your blog posts a couple of times a day.
Ask for guest posters
If you are going away on holiday or you know you are going to have a busy few weeks, you may like to ask other bloggers who you know if they’d like to write a guest post for you. This way, you will still have content on your blog and a wide range of topics for your readers to enjoy. Ask if they’d mind responding to any comments on the post and perhaps sending a tweet or two for you.
Timetable
Some people like to plan ahead, especially when life gets hectic. If you know you’re going to be busy one month, maybe a writing a timetable will help you get organised with your blog posts. You can plan ahead what you’re going to blog about – maybe there are certain meals you are going to make that you could blog about, or a restaurant that you have already planned to eat at that month. Sometimes timetabling in a spot each week dedicated to blogging can help you focus just on that one task.
Take on less
Many bloggers love reviewing products but remember you need to have time to test, research and write about everything. If you know you’re heading for a busy patch then perhaps it might be wise to accept fewer review items. Worrying about whether you owe somebody a review is an added pressure you can do without.
So these are just a few of our top tips. How do you carry on blogging when you are busy?
Great write up. with food blogs I think it’s especially hard. I would also suggest using the reblog function on wordpress. Have just discovered it and it’s a bit like retweeting!
Great tip, thanks Urvashi!
I have seen me type them up in draft mode, adding a bit here and a bit there, but as you say ( for most of us) it is only a hobby and like any hobby should always remain pleasant and enjoyable, and should happen in our spare time, and if no spare time no hobby.
Definitely! Blogging should always be enjoyable.
Great advice – I sometimes try to store up a couple of posts when I have more time – I’ve always got a few photos of a dish or 2 that I didn’t get round to blogging at the time
Ah yes, always good to keep a few up your sleeve for the busy times.
Well you can’t blog about life if you are not living life!
Very true!