How to: manage your time (better)

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today, we’re talking about how to manage your time!

Time management is hard, let’s be honest. I get it. BUT I managed to do my honours thesis and graduate with first class honours, work ten hours a week, horseback ride for ten hours a week, and still run and grow my blog. So I get being busy, honestly (just go back and read some of my posts from when I was writing my thesis). So I thought I would share some of my time management and blog management tips.

Quick disclaimer: I’m not trying to say that I’m an expert or the best at this, by any means. These are honestly just things I’ve found work for me, and that I wanted to know when I started my blog.

Write posts when you have spare time so you can have more spare time later!!

So for example, when I’m writing this post, I’m on summer break and my job has slowed down quite a bit, so I have spare time at work and at home in the evenings. So I’ve been writing a ton of blog posts and keeping them in a folder on my laptop. That way, when it’s school again and I’m busy, I can just copy and paste a post and have it all ready.

It honestly helps so much. During the school year, I tend not to write my book reviews or discussions, as most of them were written or at least heavily drafted beforehand, and it saved my life.

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Schedule your posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is single-handedly the most useful thing for me. Scheduling your posts ahead of time means you don’t have to think about posting them or worry about getting a post up the day of. On WordPress, you can set it to post your post on a certain date at a specific time. That way, your post will be posted automatically on that day. For example, say you set aside two hours everyday to blog (or 10 hours a week, or whatnot). One day a week, spend those two hours writing and scheduling your posts for the next week. Then, you can use the remaining days and time to blog hop instead of writing posts.

I have heard, though, that for some people, the scheduling function doesn’t always work. I’ve found that if I have too many posts, WordPress gets slow sometimes. But, generally as long as I don’t try to schedule more than 20 posts (which would be a lot), it’s okay. Just keep an eye on it for the first few times you try it.

Similarly, have a schedule or a plan. I use an excel sheet to plan everything, and I try to stick to a rough schedule. More to keep me organized than anything, but it really helps. Kaleena has an incredible book blogger spreadsheet you can download (honestly, it’s amazing and so useful).

That being said!!!! Make your schedule flexible so you can tailor it to your week. For example, my schedule is every Tuesday and Friday, then either Wednesday or Thursday and either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. That way I still post four times a week, but I can post more or less depending on how busy I am.

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Things like TTT, T5W, and T5T can usually be planned at the beginning of the month or a few weeks in advance, since you know the topics ahead of time

Use this to your advantage!! When I’m super busy, I like to schedule those ones all at once. If there’s two TTT topics I want to do for a month, I’ll write those and schedule them at the beginning of the month. Then I have less to worry about during those days, and you can devote more time to reading other people’s blogs.

Get the WordPress app if you have a smartphone!

I find the app super useful for blog hopping. I can read and comment on everyone’s posts while I’m waiting for the bus or in line for coffee or eating lunch. I love the online version for writing posts, but the app is so useful for reading.

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Set realistic goals. No really

Like I just mentioned, my goal is to post four times a week: every Tuesday and Friday, and then Wednesday/Thursday, and Saturday/Sunday/Monday. That is manageable for me. I also have a goal to post two book reviews a month, which is also manageable because I don’t tend to read a ton. Don’t set yourself goals you know you’ll fail. Blogging is your hobby (presumably). It should be fun. Don’t make it unnecessarily stressful.

In the same vein, try not to stress about it too much. Like I just said, it’s a hobby! No one is going to be mad if you miss a post, or have to stop blog hopping for school (at least, no one that you would want to be friends with). It’s okay to take time off if you’re busy. Real life (school, friends, family) are more important than your blog!

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Reply to comments as soon as possible

This doesn’t necessarily need to be right away or even the same day you receive the comments. But I try to respond to comments within a week and I try responding to comments twice a week, generally once on the weekend and once during the week. It helps ensure they don’t get too overwhelming and I don’t miss any. I also find it less daunting to reply to ten comments instead of 30, and find that my replies are more sincere when I’m responding to fewer.

So those are some of my tips for how to manage my time! I hope they were helpful! Do you do anything similarly to manage your time? Do you have any tips? Definitely share them below!

If there’s anything you want me to cover, let me know and I can do my best!

Thanks for reading! xx