blogging & working: tips for posting regularly while working full-time

hello!! welcome back to maggie’s doodles 😍 today i’m talking about balancing your blog-work life! yaay!

i’ve been working on and off for the past 8 months. during that time, i’ve had ups and downs in how active i’ve been on wordpress! i’ve had posting streaks, little blog breaks, a shift in priorities, and so much more. i thought it would be cool to share my tips with you today!

initially, i called this post ‘blogging & working: how to post regularly while working a full-time job.’ when actually going to write the post, i changed it to ‘tips for posting regularly’ instead! i did this because i wouldn’t say i actually know how to post regularly while working full-time 😂 and false advertising’s not for me. so now the title’s more accurate!

so i’m sharing what i’ve learned so far when it comes to blogging and working! if this is something you’re interested in, i hope you enjoy 💜

blogging & working:
tips for posting regularly
while working full-time

make blog plans on your day/s off! for example, i’ll plan a photoshoot outing or setup so that on a day when i have the time to do it, i’m ready! 😍 it’s also great to plan for a morning, afternoon, or evening you’re free where you can do one (or more!) of the following:

• outline what you want to write next
• figure out what your blog goals are
• respond to comments
• read your friends’ blogs
• write a bunch of posts!

getting in a rhythm at work requires you to let blogging stay off to the side for a while. but once you have a rhythm, find how much you’re able to prioritize blogging in your life too!

use your break time at work to brainstorm/get caught up. i will say i’m distracted most of the time on my breaks haha, so don’t feel bad if you can’t focus on blogging! there are days however where i’ll respond to comments, see what my friends have been posting, and maybe work on some featured images/post designs. it helps to take a few steps forward so i can feel productive about blogging!

choose a day of the week, time of day, etc. to read your friends’ posts. when i don’t do this, i’ll just ‘do it periodically here and there.’ which means i feel like i’m always needing to get caught up on you guys’ incredible posts!! 😂 so here are some ideas for new habits you can implement as you work toward being a consistently active blogger (which c’mon, i think we’re all working on this all the time haha):

• respond to comments on friday mornings
• read friends’ posts on saturday evenings
• bulk write posts on sundays and schedule them out
• brainstorm post ideas on wednesday afternoons

outlining goals that fit into your current schedule will help a lot to establish (or reestablish!) the blog routine!

think about post ideas during chill times at work. when there’s a lull at my work (but when does that happen, haha) or i’m doing a simple task, i’ll take those times to brainstorm! i’ll think about the next posts to write, pics i want to edit, etc. when i get the chance. i mean you know you’re a next-level blogger when you’re directing traffic and coming up with blog post titles haha (i kid you not, i did this last week)

try out posting on days you work vs. days you don’t. when i first started working last year, i considered only posting on my days off. i’d be able to respond to comments and stay active on my blog that day. however, when i tried posting on days i worked, i liked that a lot too! i knew that even though i was away from wp for hours, i still had content that had just gotten published (scheduled posts are da best haha) and i could respond to comments when i got home. so it totally depends on you and what you’d like!

see if scheduling posts out or publishing them the day of is better for you. this kind of goes with my last point, haha. i tend to notice a strengthening disconnect from my content when i schedule too many posts, or when i’ve been scheduling content for too long. it starts out helpful, then kind of goes in a negative direction. i like to write posts on a routine basis that i’ve just written and published shortly after, as well as sharing scheduled content! so when it comes to balancing your blog-work life, you can find what works for you. (recently i’ve been pre-writing lots of posts, so i have completed posts but they’re not scheduled. so i can still decide that day or week when i want to share them, and make any necessary tweaks!)

don’t make more commitments or plans than you can comfortably keep. there were some series i started doing or wanted to do last summer that didn’t work out. i also had to pass on cool competitions you guys were hosting because i knew i wouldn’t have time and/or the focus to do them while i settled in at my job. (you have no idea how much i wanted to sign up for those events!!) so making sure you don’t over-commit is a big one. when you’re only setting the goals you can reach, you’ll feel so much better!

thank you so much for reading! i can share a part 2 for this post sometime, so let me know if you’d like to read that 😍 i’ll talk to you again soon!

how do you balance
blogging with working?