So, the brand new year is in and the celebrations are over. And if you’re making a real conscious effort to stick to your resolutions, then good for you.
Being a blogger or work from home solopreneur means you have to be organized. As if you didn’t know that already. In fact, it is crucial to be organized if you want to succeed and reach your goals.
It can be tough, though. After a nice few weeks of celebrating and relaxing with friends and family, getting back into the grove after the Christmas period is not always easy.
Throughout November and December, I spent a lot of my blogging time promoting the message of getting prepared and organized for your new year as a blogger.
It’s one of the things I’ve always done myself. Getting prepped, setting goals, scheduling content, adding all-important dates to my calendar, and planning ahead.
Did you plan ahead?
Routine, an essential habit
One thing I want to highlight before we start. Getting into a routine is also very important. I get it, you live a busy life and that’s OK. You’ll have to figure out what kind of routine works best for you. Like anything, a new habit takes time to become second nature.
For me, as I’m a work from home dad, it’s convenient for me to schedule all of my work between 9am and 3pm. During the school hours. I rarely work when the family is home.
OK, so in this post, we’re going to look at 5 quick and easy ways to kick yourself into gear, and become the most organized blogger you can be.
Are you ready? Let’s do this.
Become An Organized Blogger With 5 These Killer Tips!
Focusing first on YOU!
1. Get your quota of sleep
I’m starting with something that you might think that’s completely irrelevant, but it’s not. In fact, I can’t begin to tell you how important this is. It’s so important to get the right amount of sleep each night.
You see, the output comes from you. No one else but you. You are the one responsible for building your blog. If you’re tired you can’t focus well. And if you can’t focus well, you’ll get very little work done.
On top of that, your motivation will almost be non-existent. You’ll begin to feel drained, lethargic, and will not want to even think about getting yourself organized.
Solution?
It’s simple. Get the right amount of rest and sleep each night. Unless you’re sleep-depriving yourself, you don’t need more sleep, just better quality sleep.
A great way to get the right amount of quality sleep is to start tracking your sleep with your smartphone app or a fitness watch like the Fitbit Versa 2. I started managing my sleep a few years back and I’m so glad that I did.
Feeling drained, lethargic, and demotivated? Sleep!
2. Fuel your mind (And not just with food)
Yes, it’s important to focus on healthy eating and drinking plenty of water every so often. Because keeping your energy topped up throughout the day is critical for increased focus and concentration. And yes, you can do this without overdosing on sugary energy drinks and chocolate bars.
In addition to eating healthily, feed your mind with knowledge and wonder. A knowledgable mind is powerful. I find when I’m reading a great book or learning something new to improve my skills, my motivation increases and this is good. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?
Now let’s shift the focus onto your blog!
3. Get a blog planner
OK, so I’m just going to say it out loud.
You cannot become an organized blogger without a plan. You cannot build a successful blog without a plan.
To understand just how important a plan is to your blogging strategy, you have to remember that you’re responsible for everything when it comes to your blog.
Bloggers don’t spend their time only creating content. There’s so much involved in running a blog. Let me list some of those things for you right here –
- Blog post research/planning/writing/scheduling (Takes a lot of time)
- Guest blogging
- Blog comment/spam management
- Blog post promotion
- Content creation/scheduling for social media
- Blog maintenance and management (Back end stuff)
- Connecting and building relationships with peers
- Endorsing products and services
- Creating and providing products and services
- Creating other web-based content such as videos and podcasts
So, as you can see there’s a lot involved in blogging and being a blogger, and to do it all without a plan would be crazy.
A blog planner can help you plan every aspect of organizing, managing, and planning your blogging business and the time spent on your blog.
Check out my Ultimate Pro Blog Planner Workbook here.
4. Focus on one thing at a time
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of multitasking. My wife has tried to teach me but I fail every time.
Here’s the thing –
When I write a blog post, I do nothing but write. I don’t write a post whilst trying to schedule content on social media, whilst trying to reply to emails and whatnot.
Don’t get me wrong, for some folks multi-tasking might work. For me, it’s a productivity killer.
Here’s a famous quote from one of my favorite authors of the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller – You can find it here on Amazon.
Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.
Gaary Keller
Very true, wouldn’t you agree?
When you focus on one thing, you’re more than likely to complete that one thing fairly quickly too.
Ask yourself this –
How many times have you focused on more than one thing? And how many of those things were you able to fully complete?
If you tell me you’re able to complete all the tasks you start on and work on at the same time. I would say to you, you’re a genius and ask what’s your secret.
Otherwise, schedule your time to write blog posts and stick to doing just that. Then schedule another time to focus on your social media marketing and do nothing but that. I think you get the drift.
5. Use smart productivity tools
When it comes to productivity tools, we’re inundated with them. Every day I discover a new tool, whether it’s a web or mobile app, or online service. Every tool also looks very tempting.
But…
The key is not to go and use every tool you can find. The key is to make use of only the ones you really need in your business.
For instance, just over a year ago I discovered CoSchedule. After a few months of using it, I realized that I couldn’t run my business without it and so I stuck myself to using it.
CoSchedule is not part of my strategy. Every Monday morning, I get onto the web app and begin scheduling my social media messages and marketing for the week ahead.
Now that I manage a blog and a freelance web design business, I don’t have the time to sit on social media posting messages daily. 90% of my marketing on social media is automated.
So, once again, find some tools that are free or not too expensive and make use of them. But don’t be tempted to pay for something you’re never going to use just because it looks good. Check out this power post I created with over 50 tools to help you blog like a pro listed.
So, there you have it. I hope you found this post useful and resourceful. Getting organized and staying organized as a blogger takes discipline. It won’t be easy, but if you can be persistent with it, you’ll soon fall into a good habit. Best of luck.
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