Looking for helpful ways to stay productive with blogging? Or want to reach your blogging goals?
Then you’ve come to the perfect place.
Since I’ve started blogging, days seem to fly by in no time. Sometimes, I even wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day to be more productive.
Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen, but I’ve found these 10 tips to be super helpful with my productivity and time-management skills.
There’s never going to be one solution to fix all of your productivity issues, but hopefully, you’ll be able to implement at least a few of these tips to help.
Let’s get started!
10 Ways to Stay Productive Blogging
1. Stay consistent
The first major tip to staying productive with blogging is to have a consistent posting schedule. Staying consistent and creating a plan is the best way to see positive results over time.
Whether you want to write 1 post a week or 4, choose certain days to write and stick to that schedule.
For myself, I often write 4 to 5 posts a week on this blog. I aim to write to about 60 posts before slowing down.
I’m staying consistent by writing content daily and sticking to a schedule of 4-5 posts a week.
Helpful tip: If you’re free a lot during the week, plan and write a bunch of content. After you have multiple blog posts finished, you can schedule them weeks in advance. This will help you maintain a consistent posting schedule, even if you’re busy in the upcoming weeks.
This goes hand in hand with the next tip.
2. Plan content
Planning content has to be one of the best ways to stay productive with blogging. You can plan content over a month and not have any worries about what to write on.
I often write an extensive list of topics in a notebook that I think would be good to write about. Next, I’ll do keyword research and come up with the title, headings, and overall post layout.
This works great for me because I can come back to the post at any time during the month and get started straight away with the writing.
A great content plan to follow could be 3 posts a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Saturdays or Sundays, you could do keyword research and plan your content for the upcoming week.
Remember Quality over quantity. If the post is under 500 words and isn’t valuable, there’s not much reason to post it.
Free keyword research tools:
– Wordtracker
– Ubersuggest (4 free searches a day)
– Wordstream
3. Set SMART goals
An excellent way to stay productive with blogging is to set SMART goals for your blogging journey. These goals are really targeted and specific. They will also help you to track your progress as a blogger.
SMART goals explained:
S – Specific: Be as specific with your blogging goals as possible. Instead of “I want more website traffic,” try “I want to get [number] page views per month by the end of [year].”
M – Measurable: Be able to track the progress of your blogging goal. It’s pretty easy if you’ve got Google Analytics and Google Search Console connected to your blog. I also recommend doing monthly traffic and income reports in a notes application to track your progress.
A – Attainable: Is the blogging goal you’ve chosen actually achievable? For example, I wouldn’t set myself a goal of making $100,000 per month by the end of 2021, as it’s definitely not doable.
R – Relevant: What is the benefit of achieving this goal? And, does it align with your core beliefs?
T – Time-bound: Set a target date for the specific goal to be completed. Giving yourself a time frame will allow you to really focus on achieving the goal. I would set a plan with a time frame like 6 to 12 months. This is because it’s not too far away, and you can adjust the goal if you don’t reach it in time.
4. Stop multi-tasking
A big piece of advice I’d give to all bloggers is to quit multitasking when it comes to blogging.
I always thought of multitasking as a way to be more productive, but it can actually be the opposite. Instead of multitasking, I recommend monotasking. This is where you only focus on one task until it’s finished or a lot of time has elapsed.
Why?
Because then you aren’t spreading yourself too thin. If you’re writing a post, commit to it and try to finish it. This will allow you to entirely focus and become a lot more productive.
I found that when I started blogging, I was trying to do too much at once. This included writing, taking photos, and posting to social media at similar or identical times.
I now only focus on one thing at once and try to complete it before moving on to other tasks.
5. Don’t always write
Doing other blog-related things is also another way to stay productive with blogging. Some days I cannot be bothered writing, and that’s 100% okay.
Instead, I’ll spend the day doing keyword research, finding images, creating pins, customizing my blog, or even creating free printables (get some below)
The point is that you don’t always need to be writing to still have a productive day as a blogger.
As long as you’re achieving other tasks related to your blog, you’re still accomplishing something. So don’t be too harsh on yourself 🙂
6. Work regular hours
Working regular hours like a 9 to 5 job is easy to convince yourself that blogging is an actual job.
I usually try to work on my blog for at least 6 hours a day. This reminds me that it’s more of a business than just a side hobby.
I also like to work regular hours as it can keep my day more organized and productive.
7. Turn off all distractions
Another way to stay productive with blogging is to turn off distractions like your mobile phone, email, or YouTube.
Getting distracted is the easiest way to lose time as a blogger. It’s challenging because we have full access to the internet.
You may also find it easier to put your phone in another room while you’re writing or working.
Tip: When writing on WordPress, press ‘F11’ on your keyboard to go full screen. This minimizes distractions and takes away the possibility of opening a new tab and getting distracted.
8. Bookmark frequently visited pages
By far, the easiest and best way to organize the pages you visit frequently is to bookmark them into different folders.
I’d recommend organizing your frequently visited pages into folders by category. A similar layout like the one I use below will help keep your bookmarks neat and tidy.
It sounds like a stupid tip to include, but it’s been the biggest lifesaver for me as a blogger.
9. Don’t aim for perfection
A tip I learned from Eric Kim is to not aim for perfection with your blog posts; around 80% perfect is a great point to post the article.
Too often, as bloggers, we want to make everything perfect, but I’ve come to realize that it’s often impossible to achieve the ideal post.
So don’t stress it. Read your posts out loud after they’re finished, and if they sound good and clear, post them.
The great thing about blogging is that you can always go back and fix old posts, rewrite the content, and add or take away images.
10. Take a step back
The last of the 10 tips to stay productive with blogging is to take a step back occasionally. Try not to think of blogging 24/7 or spend all of your free time on your blog. This can be an easy way to burn out.
I know it can be exhilarating as a beginner blogger, but make sure to leave time for yourself.
If you’re ever feeling burnt out and unproductive, rejuvenate yourself by taking a step back for a couple of days. In this time, you can reflect on yourself and your goals, and you’ll probably bounce back better than ever.
If I ever feel lost or unmotivated with this blog, I simply leave it until the next day, forcing myself to blog when I don’t want to is an easy way to begin disliking blogging.
Another way to take a step back is by going outside or walking for an hour or two. Soak up some sunlight, and you’ll probably feel better too!
Wrapping Up
So there we have 10 tips to help with your productivity in blogging.
I’ve implemented these tips over the past few months and have found great success with them.
Let me know of any other ways that you have found to stay more productive with blogging; I’d love to hear them 🙂
Which was your favorite productive blogging tip?
Read next:
– How to Have Fun Blogging [5 Easy Ways]
– 70 Blog Post Ideas for Beginners