You’ve probably heard of the old housewives’ system for managing housework and other chores.
It went like this:
Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.
That routine helped those women stay organized and focused on their chores so that they could get everything done — and they had a LOT to do!
As bloggers, we too have many different things to accomplish, and although I typically hate the thought of following a schedule, I do find it helpful to have some sort of plan to help me stay focused and on task.
Take blog post writing for example.
I prefer to write two or more blog posts in a sitting to queue up for later delivery. The day of the week and time of day I write depends primarily on the time of year. In the winter, I write first thing in the morning; while in the summer I like to write in mid-afternoon when it’s too hot to be outside. I also like to group article topics by season and will start working on my Christmas season posts as early as July.
Granted, that doesn’t look much like a daily writing schedule, but it works for me.
Create your own schedule.
Consider what works for you and your current schedule. Here are some points to ponder as you create your own blogging routine.
- At what time of day do you feel most alert and motivated? That’s probably the best time to write articles.
- On which day of the week do you have the most time to write?
- Does your job allow you time during the day to write? This can be a great escape from the drudgery of work too!
- Do you work nights? I used to write my best University essays while on midnight shifts.
- Can your partner take the kids to a weekly class to free up time for you to write?
Figure out what schedule suits you best and set that day and time to write.
You should also consider that the day you publish your articles will be busier than others with reader responses to your post, so make sure you can set some time aside for comment moderation on those days. The days you publish are also good days to comment on other blogs with links to your new post.
Provided you don’t work in the online business opportunites market which is rife with weekly product launches and ‘extra’ writing, you should schedule a separate session for product research and review writing. You can do this bi-weekly or even monthly when you have sufficient products to promote on your site.
Avoid distractions.
I tend to be easily distracted, so I’ve set things up to make sure that I’m not (usually) interrupted when I write.
I go into my office prepared to write, so I bring a beverage and clean my desk of paperwork that might change my focus. I refrain from checking my email, Google Reader and other sites by keeping programs and browser windows closed. I prefer a quiet room for writing, so I’ll shut my office door and/or the windows depending on the noise levels inside and out.
My affiliate managers know that I prefer to be contacted by email – not phone. If the phone does ring while I’m writing, I just don’t answer it.
Make your schedule and your environment as distraction-free as possible to minimize work interruptions.
Now commit to your blogging schedule.
You won’t need to work your schedule for too long before you notice that your workload becomes both easier and more fluid.
The key to getting to the point where it is easy is committing to your plan.
For example, when you know that you’re going to sit down between 9AM and 11AM every Tuesday to write a few blog posts, you’ll start thinking about your topic ideas and article flow well in advance. Maybe you’ll jot down a few ideas on paper or create a rough draft on your blog when you have a few spare minutes during the previous week. In that way, you’re already prepared to write and you can get the job done faster.
Once the writing gets easier and faster, you might also be inclined to write more posts which always makes the search engines happier and more productive on your behalf. 
Try working a blogging schedule for even just a month and see how good you feel about what you’ve accomplished in terms of content creation and increased revenues!
Don’t feel that you have the self-discipline to set a schedule?
Then check out Brian Tracy’s “No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline”.
Learn how to apply Self-Discipline to: Goal Setting; Time Management; Health Habits; Relationships; Sales; Business Operations; Physical Fitness; Personal Development; Negotiating; Communications; Character Development; and many other areas.
With Brian’s training, you’ll accomplish more in a month than most people accomplish in a year and take complete control of your life.
So, do you have a blogging schedule or a strategy that you to stay motivated as a blogger? Please share your tips and ideas with us in a comment below.
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About Rosalind Gardner
Sounds like a good Habit to get into Ros. Thanks, will give it a go.
It definitely works having a schedule, but I really struggle keeping to it… must be that entrepreneurial thing, easily bored
Rosalind,
Great post. My mom ironed on Wednesdays, I guess that day just worked better for her. My point being that we should all try to create a schedule that works for each one of us, individually. I’ve been trying to do that but I get distracted easily, mainly by the phone. I need to set up some rules to deal with that.
Thanks again,
Eunice
I have a schedule for just about everything else in my live, except my blog. Ouch! I haven’t been at it for very long and usually I find myself blogging whenever I find some spare time. It makes sense to set a specific day and time aside for my blog as well.
Thanks for the great post and the reminder to stay organized.
Hi Rosalind,
Yea I sometimes have a schedule and sometimes I don’t the facts show me that it’s better when I do, so slowly I’ve started to fix that. Thanks for sharing some tips on this.
As someone who has run his own companies and is currently trying to build a blog, this is very good advice.
I found if I didn’t have a schedule for my eBay and amazon business, it didn’t run very well.
thanks for the reminder to always plan for success.
dear ros
your blog is very interesting and good tips,looking forwad to hearing from you.
Hi Ros,
I say I have a schedule, and I try to stick to it, but doesn’t always work out unfortunately. Being an incredibly early riser is a plus for me. Very motivated at 4 or 5 a.m. Biggest pet peeve/distraction? Tons of paper and mess all over my desk, and things not filed. Feeling disorganized doesn’t help the thought processes. Everything has to come to a grinding halt, until all of that is put away.
Hi Roz,
Good article and good advice for us to follow. I haven’t done anything with my site is too long. That is going to change now. Thanks for the article.
Bill
Hi Rosalind,
this is a great advise. somehow it´s much harder to stay focused in webbusinesses. i have one day to work on my site – and that´s each day of the week lol – because i have more than one site (my other one is a digital scrapbooking site which started out as a hobby site but grow a lot over the last two years http://www.digidesignresort.com). i usually start my day with checking and answering emails, getting out the newsletter and “cleaning”, organizing or simply doing the most necessary things. here i really should add the things which repeat each and every month to my calendar to remind me – doing that would avoid to be always late!
my problem is that i do not seem to have enough time to divide through my sites – i need to work every day at digidesignresort and sometimes i just don´t make it to post at the other sites (or just set them up)
so here i could definitely use some more self-discipline!
thanks for the great article!
Hi Monja,
I’m not sure that the issue is self-discipline because I know as an Rosalind Gardner’s Academy member – you work very hard to succeed.
Could it be that you are biting off more than you can chew at the moment?
I always advise people to get one site making money that they are happy with — THEN go onto another.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Roz, I’m enjoying your newsletters. The little rhyme about washing and cooking etc., certainly brings back wonderful childhood memories of my Mum, especially the baking days!
Thankyou on the tips. Organisation is not one of my strongest points but I will take up on the advice offered and see if I can improve my schedule.
Thanks for another interesting article.
Hi Lyn,
Thank you for the thumbs-up on the newsletters.
Organization isn’t my strong suit either… wash on Monday, iron 2 Saturdays later — if at all.
But I keep working at it, just like you.
Cheers,
Ros
As a housewife, I also have a daily schedule to get things done. As early as 5am I already busied myself in the kitchen preparing breakfast for my 2 kids for school. By 7 am I drive them to school. I clean up the house as soon as I arrive and of course take a bath after then start on my online job. Then at 5pm I pick up my kids in school. In between working online, I have a schedule monday and friday to do the laundry, tuesday general cleaning of bedrooms, wednesday and thursday for doing errands, saturday time for my family, sunday go to church and rest.
Hi Ros,
Another good article. When the kids are home for the summer break, I jot down article topics during the day, and write at night after they are asleep, and the fighting and incesent mom,dad had stopped until morning.
Thanks, Ken
Hi Ken,
Glad to hear the incessant fighting has stopped.
So nice when you can spend your day doing what you like then work at night… or vice versa as the case may be.
I think it is SO important to put life (family, friends, exercise) first and do the work when it suits all. Sounds like you got it right.
Cheers,
Ros
WOW!! I never thought of setting up a schedule for blogging, because I always had a problem putting everything together at once. Once again your the answers to my prays you ROCK!
Thanks Ros!
Hi Lois,
Thanks for the thumbs-up.
Now… tell me why are you on blogspot and not your own domain?
Cheers,
Ros
Great article Ros. I agree on the importance of a schedule. Personally, I have a weekly checklist for what I want to accomplish on each of my sites. This has really helped me to make sure I am accomplishing what needs to get done so that my business continues to be successful.
hi ros,
i guess you are not too wrong
i want it, i want it all and i want it now – i know though that it´s wrong. but seeing it´s possible with my scrapping site (i mean if it´s possible with a hobby site) then my conclusion is that it MUST be possible with most other sites you can launch.
) so i feel behind, i feel that i didn´t manage my goal and that i try to find excuses why something didn´t work.
i had set myself a deadline – sept, 1st – to get my-wordpressworld.com completely up and running. problem is that too many personal things happened in my family (we had 3 death
i guess i simply set a new date, a new goal and keep doing
thank you for your nice words!
I guess I’m half and half. I don’t have a schedule per se for the posts on the blog, but I do have a weekly newsletter that keeps me busy on the Tuesday before it goes out (goes out each Wednesday). I suppose a schedule would be good to write posts, and maybe submit articles to the directories to get more traffic.
But usually success is crafted, studied and planned, it doesn’t just happen, so these tips are definitely needed if you want to be top tier.
Yes, I have schedule on everything I want to do for a day. I think I’m just being organize even if I am not. Having schedules make me put things in my perspective and its easy to get things done.
Hi, this is a great tip especially for a busy mom like me.
Great tips Ros. (It was so simple how life was back then.) You’re totally right about making time for everything in order to be organized about your everyday life.