Concerned with time management?

Posted on by ben Alexander

Checking in with you

Ever since I published a series of blogging tips, I’ve started receiving questions from other bloggers and requests for more posts.

This particular post is not part of that series, but, rather, it’s related to that series.

I hope it is clear that I am no subject matter expert, but, rather, just a casual blogger like many of you. Also, I am not a professional blogger, which means I do not make a living off of selling products or giving blogging advice. However, I have accrued some blogging experience; and that gives me the confidence to share my personal insights with you.

To be honest, like many of you, I am learning the ropes as I go along. Often, when I’m working on a ‘blogging tip’ post, I learn something new, which is helpful to me. There have also been times when I’ve learned something new from your responses to my posts, which I greatly appreciate!

So, first of all, I would like to open this discussion up to you – is something in particular that you’re wondering about when it comes to blogging on WordPress? Most of us create our blogs with little to no guidance from anyone else… but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Potential topics for blogging tips

I would also like to share my current thoughts on potential topics for ‘blogging tips’ posts, which I’ve yet to start drafting but have been mulling over for some time.

1. Time management for bloggers

My friend Cindy recently wrote a post, in which she expressed her frustration with finding enough time to keep up with all of her fellow bloggers.

I’m really trying to keep to a schedule which is challenging with a full plate. As much as I LOVE blogging, I may have to limit my time here. Does anyone have a good reading schedule? It is my goal to see and read all of you who I care so deeply for everyday but I just don’t know if I can sustain that. I would love to hear if anyone has successfully figured that out where it doesn’t exceed 2 hours a day.

–Cindy Georgakas

The concern about time management vis-à-vis keeping up with other people’s blogs is closely related to the issue of how often we publish blog posts, which I’ve touched on, and it’s also related to our efforts to maintain consistent blogging schedules. In fact, I recently received the following comment:

In her comment, Julie brings up another facet of this challenge: scheduling of [quality] future content. In other words, active bloggers must not only determine how much time to spend reading one another’s blogs. They must also apply time management strategies to content creation.

How much time should we devote to figuring out what we should write about and then writing it? A lot goes on behind the scenes, so to speak, that goes into our blog posts. Sure, it takes time to type up our posts; but it also takes time to envision them and think them through. Sometimes we may even need to do some online research.

And, as Julie highlights, blogging is not just about creating content right now. It’s also about creating content the next day and the day after that. How can bloggers best manage their time, while ensuring that they are producing appealing and meaningful content?

2. Comments, likes, notifications, spam, etc.

I have also been thinking a lot about the notifications bloggers receive whenever somebody likes or comments on one of our posts.

First of all, there are different kinds of notifications – do you want to receive them by email, for example? If so, which notifications do you want to see in your inbox? And – which notifications would you like to receive on your blog? Which are most important, and which can you ignore?

Also, unfortunately, there are a lot of people on WordPress who are merely trying to promote themselves and market their products. Such individuals are not interested in interacting with us. They are only interested in leaving links to their websites somewhere on our blogs, be it as a ‘like’, or, better yet, in our comment sections. So how do we deal with this? What’s important to know?

3. What would be helpful to you?

I’d be curious to hear from you – what additional topics should be included as blogging tips that would be most helpful to you?

37 thoughts on “Concerned with time management?”

  1. sorry…let me add my tip here- what I do is sit in front of my laptop and tell myself that it doesn’t matter what I write, as long as I write. 🙂

  2. I love how this post lead me to think more about how much time to out into blogging…and the fact that, we’re all really trying to figure it out as we go along 🙂 Uhmmm….as for tips: my big tip is

  3. Great post!

    I think an excellent tip would be where you can source ideas for blog content (Quora, FB groups, etc.). You may have written about this before, so I apologize if you did.

    I love your point about how you learn some things on your own while you’re research for a “tip” blog post. This is one of my favorite parts of researching for my blogs posts. I get correct information about something that I was wrong about, I learn and connect old and new information, and it goes toward making me more well-rounded in my field. Great points.

    Keep up the good work!

    1. 💜 Thanks, Kyle! 💜

      I think an excellent tip would be where you can source ideas for blog content (Quora, FB groups, etc.). You may have written about this before, so I apologize if you did.

      The truth is – I’ve never done that… I do not have much to say about it 🙂
      Have you?

      -David

      1. I will check quora and Facebook for what people are asking about in travel or running. Great way to know what information people are looking for.

  4. I am on track with Ron’s statements. I am retired. I blog for my enjoyment and the satisfaction I get from a give and take with some amazing bloggers. It is good for my mental and emotional health to blog. I often spend more time reading other blogs, than writing my own. I am not good at time management. When I enjoy doing something, I do it for hours on end. I can sew for 24 hours straight. I can scrapbook my photo albums in the same manner. I often blog when I can’t sleep. It is a peaceful activity.

  5. I’m a planner. I rely heavily on future posts. As a matter of course I maintain an excel spreadsheet with blog titles and ideas. This allows me to jot down inspirations and then after mulling (from a day to a year) write a post. I post on a set schedule M-W-F and have my posts publish around 6:00 AM. Currently I post poetry on an every other post schedule. I currently maintain a 3 post buffer so that I’m not pressured to post…

    Because I follow so many people outside my time zone, I try to read/respond to blogs in the morning (after getting up and dressed) for about an hour and again in the evening (after dinner). Of course like this post response – real life intervened and I missed out on my regularly scheduled sessions… So now I’m playing catch-up!

  6. Time is always my biggest problem.. I believe I will never manage it, but I do limit the amount I spend on WordPress. Otherwise I would never do either writing or art to post. (K)

  7. Ones who try to sell their products or services despite it having no relevance at all to the post I might have put up are the worst. It annoys me so much when I see that, I almost always report that as spam. What these people don’t realise is that no matter how amazing their products are, if they drop it by interfering like a nuisance, that’s exactly how they will be treated, as a nuisance. Thanks for bringing it up and I would love to see other polite ways of maybe handling this situation! 🙈

    1. they annoy me too – it’s the downside of getting more followers on WordPress. I’ve learned to “block” them so that their subsequent comments go straight into my trash folder.

      1. Yes! I do the same, the amusing ones are people who try to spread their own religious beliefs on my posts about depression. I respect what others believe in but if someone tries to impose something on me that’s kind of irksome no matter their intention. 😅😅

        1. surprisingly, I’ve gotten less of that (despite me being very publicly Jewish) and more of people just trying to promote their products, ranging (I kid you not) from Ukrainian wives to Islamic spiritual healers.

          1. Oh no haha! I had a very strange fellow writing long poems in German once. Everytime I thanked him, he responded with even more passionate poems. While I had trouble understanding what the poems were, since I don’t know the language, after translating a couple of those, I had to add him to the spam list too. They were disturbing to say the least. People have very weird ways of showing their appreciation sometimes. 😅😂

  8. Thanks so much for bringing my comment and my site up David. It’s very much appreciated. I really love your blogging tips that you offer. I did hear creating a W.P. Reading list of peeps is helpful too and as soon as I get some time, I’ll look into that as well as re-reading your other posts.
    I actually started out for my own clients sometime ago but when I decided I wanted to write a book, I thought it would be a good place to build a platform (which they say you need… I hate social media in general but I do use it occasionally for bus purposes) and it took on a life of it’s own. Now I love blogging and the relationships, knowledge and insights I gain and I’m in the I don’t know phase which I know well. It’s always an uncomfortable place to be but I’m just trusting it. I will continue learning as I grow. Again, I really appreciate you addressing this David.
    Oh my, I can’t imagine 3 sites.. 💖💖❣️🙏🙏🙏🙏🤗🌷

  10. I believe it is important to understand your goals and objectives. I hosted/published a free blog for more about 15 years, although it was part of my job. Its purpose/objective was to establish/confirm credibility/expertise and provide leads for my paid services. So yes, it was a job. There was very little interaction as the communication was primarily one-direction. I would typically post one article per day and send out an email newsletter (to all who opted in) once per week on Wednesday afternoon . My paid services had an extremely rigorous publishing schedule. I operated under a deadline-driven publishing schedule for 25 years (starting before the invention of blogging). I repeat….IT WAS A JOB.

    I am now retired from anything resembling a job, and the last thing I want is to be involved with anything resembling a job. To me, this means no obligations, no deadlines, and minimal expectations. I currently run three websites (with blogs), but I only post anything on them WHEN I WANT TO. I have removed HAVE TO from my activities.

    I am not blogging with an objective/goal of making money, friends, or increasing subscriber counts, although any of those might be a great additional bonus. My current goal/objective is to be happy in my life and activities. I derive happiness from my creative outlets, my research activities, challenges, and in helping/teaching others. At this time of my life, these things typically involve photography, poetry, genealogy, and travel.

    TIME MANAGEMENT (for me) = doing things that I want to do, when I want to do them. Anything else starts to resemble a job with obligations (and contribute nothing to my happiness). My advice is to ask yourself why.

    1. Ron, I totally feel you.

      I am not blogging with an objective/goal of making money, friends, or increasing subscriber counts, although any of those might be a great additional bonus.

      This describes me too, although I enjoy the human interactions a great deal, and they seem to increase in proportion to subscriber count… and they take time! 🙂

      ❤
      David

  11. for time management reasons I keep it brief:
    1.) I start my wish to increase meaning/output/conversation not by numbers, but by rapport built with other bloggers
    2.) I realise that this may be fickle/change for them/they may disappear (back into their own RL)…
    3.) I return to my RL intentions/calling and share that as digested through 1.) and 2.)
    cheers, 🙂

  12. There are two types of notifications, one way and two-way, by which I mean that some are presented fyi, and others might elicit a response.
    Follows/likes are one way, so I ignore them.
    Comments, posts etc. are two way, so I read them all.
    Incidentally I also disabled all their streak nonsense. A streak of 100 days only goes to prove that I have spouted nonsense, daily, for the last 3 months. It is no indicator of any quality whatever.

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