Blogging takes a lot of work, and often, at the beginning, it comes with very little reward. Often lately, I’ve gotten frustrated with just how much work I put into my blog, something that for the time being (until I put more effort into making money into it) has been a lot of effort for very little (monetary) reward. While I’m in the process of working out some potential money making ideas (which in itself has been fairly time consuming). I read this great post by Olive to Run sharing how she balances blogging and teaching, so I’ve decided to share here how I balance work, school (before I graduated) and life.
Fortunately for my blog (although obviously, it has its own drawbacks) I work part time, so therefore I have a fair amount of free time. Unfortunately, my blog (Adult Ballerina Project), also involves me balancing dance, running, and other activities to keep it running. I also ran the blog for an entire year in school while balancing school work, internships, and more.
Table of Contents
Keeping Motivated
As I’ve stressed from the beginning, you should be blogging about something you’re passionate about. This is truly the best way to keep yourself motivated, especially when you’re not getting paid. Do it because you love it, not because you’re just hoping it’s going to make you money eventually.
If you ever stop loving it, consider changing directions or picking a new topic. I know several bloggers who “fell out of love” with their current blogging topic, decided to change to a new blog (or change the direction of their current blog) and managed to retain a lot of their audience. Don’t be afraid to make this change, because if you don’t love what you’re doing (and you’re not getting paid at all or enough) you’re not going to do it.
Schedule, Schedule, Schedule
You probably already know how much a fan I am of scheduling things ahead of time. I wrote about my use of an editorial calendar earlier, and I still use one. It’s a great feeling to sit down and write a bunch of posts at once, and then schedule them out for the upcoming week (or weeks). Find a time when you have time to write (I usually pick one of the days I have off when I don’t have too many other things to do) and schedule some time for yourself to knock a couple of posts out.
Sometimes, if I’m doing a super mundane blog task (such as updating dance studio listings on my blog, which involves a lot of copying and pasting or basic blog design) I’ll do a relaxing activity like watch TV while working on my blog. Sure it’s a little distracting and sometimes it takes me longer to get stuff done, but it’s a lot more enjoyable than just sitting around doing boring tasks.
It’s also good to schedule out your social media as well. I like to take a little bit of time each morning to schedule any additional posts I may want to publish (my blog automatically pushes my stuff to social media when its published). I use Hootsuite just like OlivetoRun, and trust me, it’s made my life a ton easier.
Make sure you leave yourself some free time though, and don’t over-schedule yourself. I make the biggest points to try and avoid doing work on Sundays, since it’s the one day I usually end up with that’s truly free and time for myself to relax. One of my other favorite blogs, Adventure Year, doesn’t touch Twitter on the weekends, because it allows her to appreciate the weekends now.
Overall, do what’s right for you, and blog and schedule during a time that makes sense. If Sundays are your work day (unlike me)–go for it!
Know It’s Okay Not To Post
I think the biggest thing that stresses a lot of bloggers out is thinking they have to post all the time in order to be successful, and therefore they try to turn out posts every day and sometimes they are of a lower quality and they don’t enjoy writing them. Post when you want to and when you have a good idea (which is why it’s good to keep an editorial calendar or a list of potential ideas as they come to you).
When it comes down to it, don’t post something because you feel like you have to, post when you have a good idea!
How do you balance blogging and life?
About Carson Derrow
I’ve been much better with balancing work and life lately. I feel like I finally have my weekends back!