© timnewman

Happy hump day, folks!

Yesterday, I asked on Twitter if there are any questions I can answer about blogging and Chelsea asked me this.

Time management. I.e. how to work and blog and not feel like it’s a chore.

Paris B wrote a very good post on how she did it with a full-time day job. It never ceases to amaze me how she works full time AND keeps to a regular, almost-daily blogging schedule. In fact, all you bloggers out there who has a full-time job and blog daily or almost daily, I salute you. It’s not an easy feat. Not at all.

It’s different for me now because blogging has become my day job since last year. However, I did start blogging when I used to have a day job as an engineer and while I didn’t blog as heavily then as I do now, it still wasn’t an easy thing to keep up.

I started blogging about beauty when I was still working as a R&D engineer in Malaysia. At that time, I was in between projects so I had a bit more time than I did before to blog at work. I’m not saying that’s what you should do; it’s just what I did. As I had to wait for instructions on how to proceed with the next project, there really wasn’t much to do at work except paperwork and attending useless meetings. We weren’t allowed to use the Internet willy-nilly either because whatever websites that were accessed would be logged by the IT department. So what was I to do to pass my time? I blogged but not online. I wrote all of my blog posts on Microsoft Word. People thought I was writing reports back then but truth be told, I was actually blogging. Mind you, those were only done after I had finished all of my work. 😉

Again, I’m not telling you to go blog during working hours. It was just what I did to pass my free time at work back then.

When things started to pick up and got busier, I blogged (again, on Microsoft Word before transferring it to Blogger when I got home) during lunch and tea breaks. It was a break for me to destress and write about fun things like makeup during that short 45 minutes to take my mind away from circuits and reports. I didn’t take many of my own photographs back then and relied a lot on stock images. Unfortunately, these days, stock images aren’t enough anymore. In the sea of a thousand beauty blogs, you have to have good images to stand out. At least, that’s how I see it.

I would also blog during the weekends and take whatever photos I did use back then. I didn’t have editorial calendars or notebooks just for blogging. To be honest, back then, I didn’t take it all that seriously. It was a hobby and didn’t take up a lot of my time at all.

Cut back but be consistent

It’s difficult for me to preach time management with a day job because it is now my day job but I’ll say this: if blogging is overwhelming you and is becoming a chore, take a step back. I’m not saying to stop blogging altogether but cut back on the number of posts per week. You can blog 1-2 time a week and still be consistent. Set days that you’ll be publishing blog posts. E.g. you’ll blog every Tuesday and Friday. It gives you something to work towards but it’s not a lot of posts that it will overwhelm you.

Write on the go

Nowadays, with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, it’s also very easy to blog on the go. If you commute to work, whip up a blog post on the Notes section of your phone or tablet. Don’t write full sentences; just write the core of your post in point form while you’re waiting to go to work or go home. When you have time, rework the notes to proper sentences. Email those notes to yourself and voila! You have a blog post done, right there and then. As I’m always on the bus and train, I do this very often. I write down whatever that comes to mind in broken sentences and point form. When I’m back at my desk, I email those notes to myself and rework those sentences. I don’t have to worry about what to write because I already have the basis of my content done.

Have an editorial calendar

It doesn’t have to be a fancy calendar. It can just be Google Calendar where you write down the topics you want to blog about that are to be published on certain days. Having a macro view of your calendar (I love the monthly view) gives you an idea of how to plan your content in the month. Knowing what I want to write about and when I want to publish the post helps me greatly in my planning process and time management.

Don’t rely on just photographing during the weekends

I know of a lot of bloggers who do their product photography during the weekends. Be careful about spending too much time doing this because it can eat your weekend away. I’ve read a lot on Twitter about bloggers’ partners complaining that the girlfriends or wives are taking up too much time on blogging and not spending time with them! The same goes with not being able to catch up with family or friends because you feel that the only time you can photograph products is during the weekend.

Try a lightbox. Personally, I don’t like using lightboxes simply because I have access to natural light during the day and would prefer to use that. However, if I have to photograph products at night, then I’d use a lightbox for it. Yishan blogged about her photography setup and I recommend you check it out. All you need are two high-powered lamps and a good white background which can be easily set up. You may not end up using much of it but at least, it doesn’t restrict you to just the weekends to take the necessary photographs for your blog.

Take a break, have a Kit Kat

At the end of the day, if you’re tired from work but still feel as though you need to blog, don’t. Stay away from the computer. You’d want to write your best and you aren’t at your best when you’re bone tired from work. Take some time off blogging and then come back refreshed. A tip I have for bloggers who take time off and come back refreshed: fire away at the keyboard and write when the inspiration is still there. Write till your hands are tired and write some more. Write on Notepad, Microsoft Word, etc. Once you’re done, keep those posts. Don’t publish all of them at once. Stick to your schedule of 1-2 posts a week (if that’s what you’re going for) and take your time publishing those posts. This way, you won’t burn out so easily and will still have content for weeks and weeks to come.

Let it go

Once all’s been said and done, and you still find blogging a real chore, it may be a good idea to stop blogging, at least for a few months. You don’t want blogging to become your second job (as if the first one isn’t hard enough!) … well, unless that’s what you’re going for. When it stops becoming fun, feels like harder work than your day job and you’re really resenting the blog, it might be time to let it go.

These are just some tips I have on time management for bloggers with full-time jobs and I hope you found them relevant and helpful. Telling you of my previous experience on blogging whilst holding a day job may not be so useful given that the dynamics of blogging have changed significantly since I first started. Still, I hope that some of the tips may help you in how to manage your time better and not find blogging a chore.

How do you manage your blogging with a full-time job? Do you have editorial calendars, notebooks, etc to help you out?