I started my blog prior to going to university and alongside my studies I had a lot of free time to work on my blog and attend events. Lectures and laboratory practicals only took up 10 hours of my week, even with factoring in study time, I still had full days to create and market my content. Post university, I took some time out to find the right career for me, which sadly wasn’t the Biochemistry degree I got my Bachelors in. That allowed me 6 full months just to focus on my blog and social media between job hunting and it’s spare time I became accustomed to. February arrived and I landed my ideal and perfect job – naive as I was, I thought running my blog alongside would be a piece of cake. Wrong. The past month has been a bit of a struggle, which is why you have seen less content on Fresh And Fearless. Also, during that time i’ve also worked on ways to perfect my strategy in order to keep providing you with fresh, content and now i’m sharing my secrets with you.
Blog Plan
Planning is the most important thing when you have limited time. Without my diary, I would be lost. Keep a track of when you’re posting and try and keep it consistent. Have a rough title of what you’re going to post on what days and try and stick to it. When you’re looking back at your diary for other reasons, it will trigger your memory to think about the title and content subconsciously. Producing content is a lot more easier when you know what you’re going to write about it and when. It mentally prepares you to be ready to hit publish on certain days.
I spend my journey’s into work with my notes app on my phone open, drafting blog posts and putting potential post ideas together. It’s all about making the most of the time you have and using it efficiently and effectively. It is a great way to wake your brain up too.
Prioritise
I will always prioritise paid work over non-paid, I think it goes without saying too. If someone is providing me to with budget to produce some content by a certain date I will ensure it takes number one priority. Especially as a perfectionist I need to leave myself enough time to ensure the quality of content I produce is at its best and worthwhile for the client providing the budget.
Scheduling & Social Media
Scheduling is the biggest life saver when it comes to working. You certainly don’t have time to be tweet every so often especially when you have work deadlines to meet, it doesn’t become a priority and often gets forgotten about. However, you should not let your social media suffer as it is a huge part of your blog and contribution to traffic and exposure. My personal favourite scheduling platform is Buffer, however there are many others such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Schedugram. Some of these platforms offer free and paid services, but I definitely think the paid services are worth it. You will always get your return on what you spend monthly, trust me.
There is nothing stopping you taking a few photos on your lunch break and sharing them on social media as you go along. I often do that and have made it into a lunchtime routine with a hashtag #AftabsLunchtimeAdventures on Instagram. Remember though, social media should be fun – not a chore.
Most blogging platforms will also allow you to schedule your blog posts to be published automatically at a certain time and date set by you. It also means you don’t have to worry about getting up earlier just so you have time to publish your content. Also, if you’re like me, when you’re busy those important things slip your mind, therefore messing up your blog plan.
Events
Never be afraid to say no to events. I learnt the hard way when I was at university, because I could not say no and was at events 6 out of 7 nights of the week. It resulted in me being ill regularly as I just could not handle the late nights and early mornings everyday. Make sure you are picky about what you attend, at the end of the day it has to be beneficial to you too. I have limited myself to only attending a couple of events and reviews a week and of those it will be ones I really want to attend. Most PR’s are very understanding, especially as they have full time jobs themselves.
Emails
I usually answer my emails during my lunch break. I am fortunate to get an hour for lunch, so I often spend 15/20 minutes of my hour actually eating my lunch and then I wonder out for some fresh air, mainly to the park and wander around. During my walk, I make my way through my emails and reply to as many as possible. Generally I get through my whole inbox for the morning during the 40 minutes and then spend 30 minutes after work doing the same for the afternoon set of emails.
I hope my tips on how to keep up with your blog whilst working full time helps. Most of all though, remember to have fun with your blog. It should not be a chore, creating content should be enjoyable. Happy blogging!
Until next time…
