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Easy Ways to Find Time to Blog
How to find time to blog…that is a question I hear bloggers ask all the time. I myself struggle with it. First off, as a mother, we put everything before ourselves. Even if you are treating your blog like a business you can still end up putting it at the bottom of the to-do list.
For me, I feel a bit guilty when I am working on my blog and there is a pile of laundry that needs to be done or the floors need to be swept (oh the dog hair never ends!).
Mom Duties
I am a stay at home mom and so I feel like those are my duties. My job that I get paid zero dollars for but wouldn’t trade it for anything is to take care of the house and everyone in it.
That is a lot to take care of! I’m not complaining I am stating the truth! As stay at home/work from home moms we wear many hats.
We are in charge of cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, kid’s activities, vet and doctor appointments, paying the bills, meal planning, laundry, and did I say cleaning? Because it should be listed twice because it is never ending…..(again oh the dang dog hair!).
Two Full-Time Jobs
That alone is more than a full-time job. Then what if you really do have a full-time job! If you have to leave your house and go to a full-time job plus do all of that then you are amazing! I have been there and it is extremely hard! Especially when you have to drive an hour to and from work.
What I have learned from working outside of the home is to plan and to be as prepared as much as possible to make the week go by smoother. Now that I am a stay at home mom I still try and plan everything out as much as I can.
The hard part about being a work from home mom, for me anyway, is that my boss is pretty chill…she lets me do whatever I want (that’s because it’s me). Even worse is my husband is completely fine with it too!
However, I don’t like when things don’t get done with either my chores or my blog but when I am falling behind he always tells me “It’s fine! Just relax and watch T.V.”. Not because he is going to help so he doesn’t quite understand that just makes more work for me later.
Again, I do take my mommy duties very seriously and so, therefore, I put them all before my blog.
I tell myself all day “okay after I finish this I am going to find time to blog” and then you know how it works in the middle of that project you see something else that has to be done or you keep getting interrupted.
Priorities
So, I decided that I needed to move my blog higher up on the priority list. When I worked outside of the house, unfortunately, work came first. I had to go to work. I had to be there dressed and on time. So I needed to treat my blog that way if I wanted it to be a success.
My husband is hopeful for my blog but he definitely thinks it is a hobby and so when I stress and say “I have to find time to work on my blog” he says “well you don’t HAVE to”…because he pays the bills so it’s not like we can’t survive without it…but that’s not the point right?
We aren’t doing this because we HAVE to….well maybe you are…but most I would say we are doing it because we WANT to!
We want to have something that is ours! We want to still be important and add value and be more than just someone’s mom or wife.
I want to prove that I can and honestly, I want to make more than my husband because in this world the husbands usually make more than the wives so I think that would be pretty cool! #goals
I have focused on making more time for my blog and I want to share with you how I have done it.
#1 IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN…..PLAN TO FAIL
(Or as my very dear friend calls it….get your poop in a group…haha!)
I know you have heard it before but it is so very true! I grew up with a wing it kind of attitude. My mom is very carefree and is definitely not known for her promptness or preparedness. I think because of that my older sister and I tend to be more proactive and try to be on time and prepared.
Now since we weren’t raised that way we have had to find our own path to become that way. I say that because we are by no means perfect at it.
Sometimes it feels like it is more work but it makes the week go by so much smoother.
Example #1
This weekend I planned out our meals for the whole month. As I planned it out I added my groceries to my Wal-Mart grocery pickup order online. The next day I went and picked up my groceries and then prepped our meals for the rest of the week. I prepped my daughter’s school lunches and all dinners for the week. (if you’re looking I use these containers for her lunches and when I prep for my husband and I, I use these containers. Both inexpensive and super easy to use, clean and store!)
We will have enough food for leftovers for lunch and no one is a big breakfast eater so I only need to worry about dinners.
Normally for breakfast, we all just grab a protein bar or something. Now with dinners planned and prepped, I don’t have to spend 30-45 mins trying to figure out what to make for supper each night and finally deciding to just order a pizza.
That is a fairly obvious time-saver that many SAHM’s probably already do. It did take up a big portion of my weekend but now I have saved a bunch of time and stress over meals all week. Also when I added up how much we would save by not eating out so much I was shocked!
Saving dough and dough (pizza dough and dollar bills!)
I didn’t think we were spending that much eating out because there are only three of us…but yep we will save a bunch!
My plan is to regroup each weekend and see what all I still have left and what I still need to get and then preorder it and pick it up!
If you are not a War-Mart fan then I know other stores offer this feature as well! It saves me the hassle of waiting in line and dealing with all the people (especially now during the holidays) and it also keeps me from overspending too!
Example #2
Just like planning out food it helps so much if you plan out outfits too. My daughter is NOT a morning person so she doesn’t like getting up any earlier than she has to. Also, she is at the age where she doesn’t like the clothes I pick out for her. So it makes mornings run much smoother if we pick out her outfits for the week together Sunday evening.
This way we are prepared for P.E. days when she needs to wear tennis shoes and so on. This also ensures that we don’t miss any fun activities at school like pajama day or crazy sock day. We are already ready for the week!
So you can see how planning in life then frees up time to work on your blog…so what do you think you should do with your blog? That’s right! Plan! If you can get your blog more organized then when you find time to blog you won’t spend 30 minutes of it trying to remember what you were doing before when you were working on your blog.
Also, another great thing that will help with that is to stay consistent. Then there won’t be gaps in between working on it and you will be less likely to feel so lost when you try and pick it back up!
I see many bloggers use a bullet journal to help keep them on track and organized with their blogs. I got this journal and I do love how you can customize each page instead of struggling to find a planner that works for you and your specific needs.
You can get some fun pens (these are erasable gel pens!) and get some pretty Washi masking tape like this set and design each page to your liking!
#2 MOTIVATION
Some people are born motivated and can just go-go all day and you can’t get them to slow down….*cough: my husband!* He literally jumps out of bed around 5 am or earlier and does not stop until he is forced to slow down at night and then when he stops moving for more than 10 seconds he is asleep.
He has been that way since I met him. Most of our friends call him a robot because he requires very little sleep…some times zero. I have seen him go strong and hard for almost 48 hours. Running on maybe a 30-minute cat nap.
I, however, hibernate every night and I wish that I had his motivation. Just like my daughter, I am not a morning person but I want to be!
I get up sometimes around 5am and will go for a run and that helps me accomplish so much more that day but then it takes days for me to recoup.
What motivates you?
If you are like me and you need to find something to help push you through the day then find what motivates you! That will make a huge difference! Are you goal oriented? Do you like a lot of coffee? Do you like to check things off your to-do list? Do you like to workout? Do you have an accountability partner?
Find something that will drive you to make time for you and find time to blog! What has helped me tremendously is Spark. It is a vitamin “energy drink” that gives me mental focus. It’s sugar-free so guilt free and it has helped me so much! I started drinking it in 2012 and I have rarely gone a day without it!
Spark at Disney
We recently went to Disney World for my daughters birthday then came home and celebrated Thanksgiving. I drank the rest of my Spark while at Disney but I wanted to wait to order more until Cyber Monday when AdvoCare normally has a sale (even though I already get a hefty discount).
While I was waiting to order I just decided to go back to drinking coffee with my husband. I didn’t put two and two together until I found a Spark in the cabinet a couple days later and drank it. On the coffee, I was awake and alert but I had zero motivation.
Literally not thinking anything about it I drank the Spark I found and within 30 minutes I was ready to take on anything! Then it hit me! I hadn’t realized how much it helped me be motivated and stay focused! I won’t let myself run out again!
Get your blood flowing and get some rest!
Maybe you like to workout and you could go for a run in the mornings? That always helps get the blood flow going and helps me not feel so sluggish.
Also, as I said before some people require more sleep than others. There is no replacement for sleep!
I have found that even though it takes away from the time I am awake and could be working, I get more done if I get more sleep.
If I cut myself short on sleep the next day I am slow, tired, I can’t focus, I just keep yawning, and I don’t get much done.
So what is the point in staying awake longer trying to get more done if the next day I’m too tired to get anything done?
If I just get a good nights rest then I can accomplish so much more the next day being well rested. Even though I gave up work time the night before.
I have noticed too that our new mattress has helped a ton with getting a good nights sleep. We recently made the investment to get a new mattress and wow…I never realized how much we were missing out! Now my husband and I joke about how we just want to go lay in our nice new bed for fun.
Getting the rest our bodies need helps us be much more productive the next day!
Your Passion
Find your purpose or your passion, and remember why you are doing this, to begin with. Write that on your mirror so you can read it every morning. Remind yourself why it is important for you to move your blogging business to the top of the to-do list and find time to blog.
If you had a normal 9-5 job then you would have to put work first and everything else second so make sure you do that now! Ya know, except for taking care of the kids! Or maybe you currently do have a 9-5 job and you are looking for time to work on your blog, having that daily reminder of your purpose can make a huge difference!
Find 30 minutes
Get up 30 minutes earlier than normal and work on your blog. Work on it over your lunch. If you have a packed schedule you will have to really look at your day and see where you can squeeze in time to blog but having that motivation and drive makes a huge difference. If you don’t then it’s easy to come up with excuses.
For me, I am pretty lucky my daughter goes to school all day so I do have most of the day to myself to work on my blog. That doesn’t mean that I still don’t see everything that needs to be done around the house and end up doing that instead plus I have to run errands for my husband a lot as well and that takes up time.
Oddly enough for some reason when people know you stay at home they assume your free all day to do whatever so I get asked to help let the neighbor’s dogs out and stuff although that doesn’t take long but it still takes up precious time.
My sister lives down the street and is a work from home mom with four children that she homeschools….yes, that’s right we live different lives her and I! She is home all day with four kids and one child goes to school all day.
What works for her with 4 kids
She said the best way for her to get time to work on her online business is to get up with her husband at 4:45-5am and help get him off to work and then she works on her business until the kids wake up. She said at first she woke them up around 7:30 and they did school but it didn’t seem to work for their family.
She now lets them wake up on their own which is later in the morning but it works better for them. This new schedule gives her a few hours to work before the kids wake up. It also means the kids are more rested and alert during their school time.
#3 MAP OUT YOUR DAY
Mapping out your daily routine will help you find the time you didn’t know you had. I did this and it shows I have all kinds of time but yet I was like “where is it all going?” and turns out that life happens and yes things come up (like watching the neighbors dogs) that you have to do but you can’t let that take away from your business.
By mapping out your daily routine you can see where you can make things more efficient. Maybe you like to get up and drink a cup of coffee and watch the news when you wake up but then you are struggling to find time to blog.
Well, maybe you have to give up that coffee and news time and try and switch it to coffee and blog time. Then you will see progress on your blog! Or maybe you watch TV at night after you put the kids to bed that you could cut out and make time for your blog.
No T.V.
I have met people that completely shut T.V. off in their homes because it is a distraction to their goals. I would have to agree it most certainly is a distraction for me.
I don’t have it on at all during the day so I can focus and work on my blog and then I may reward myself with a little Big Bang Theory at night. If I was looking for more time to blog then I would cut it out as well.
If your schedule is overwhelmed with cleaning (did I mention I have a dog that shreds?) then I would break it up into daily tasks so then you get a little done each day instead of feeling like you have to clean the whole house every day.
Or maybe if someone would buy me this vacuum for Christmas that would help! haha! (Update: I got the vacuum and it is amazing!!)
Delegate tasks out to save you some time
As soon as I feel I have made enough money with my blog to be comfortable with it, I plan on hiring someone to come clean my house for me. I am not a tax expert but I believe it would be a write off for my business (I am all about getting the most bang out of my buck) and my sanity would be worth it alone!
I always feel silly telling people I have one child and she is at school all day and I am short on time…but my husband is gone way more than he is home and when he is here he makes and mess and leaves again. Also, he works very hard at his job and then runs a lawn care company on the side.
I am in charge of invoices, scheduling, running errands, paying bills, all of that stuff on top of my many mommy hats I have to wear with no husband help. Oh, ya and I am trying to build my own online business. So even with one child, we are short on time.
I feel like God knew that was what was best for us. We tried for over 7 years for another child and after MANY surgeries, dr appts, blood draws, miscarriages, etc., we found out we can’t. So there is a little bit of our story.
Anyways, I think you will be very surprised how much time you can find by mapping out your daily routine!
#4 ASK FOR HELP
No one said you have to do this alone. If your husband is on board and is home more than mine (lol!) then ask him to watch the kids so you can work on your blog. If your sister, mother, or friend would help watch the kiddos so you can find time to blog then ask them!
It takes a village to raise children and so there is no reason you can’t ask for help watching the kids so you can have some time for you and your business!
Or if you are to that point that you need help with your business because it is growing so fast then hiring a Virtual Assistant to help you!
Another great option is, if you don’t already, get an accountability partner to help keep you on track or use my accountability calendar I created below!
There is always so much to do and so little time to do it that the days just go by and the next thing you know its supper, bath and bedtime! Even worse yet you realize it’s been a week or more and you haven’t even logged into your blog!
That is not being consistent and not helping grow your business. It feels like you just worked on it and then you realize it has been days or even weeks….I know it’s horrible!
So I have decided to make an accountability calendar to keep you and myself in check. You can make one for yourself that meets your needs or you can get a copy of mine below!
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On this calendar, the main goal is to help you find time to blog and to work daily on your blog. Whether that is 30 minutes a day or more that is up to you but again the main goal is to make sure you are doing something daily. That right there alone will make a huge difference.
You will feel like you are moving forward by consistently working on your blog.
Plus, when you are frustrated with your blogging business and you look back at your calendar to realize that you haven’t touched it in two weeks well then you will know why.
This calendar will also hold you accountable for not wasting your blog time. This will help to show you what you are accomplishing on your blog. If you are like most normal people that get sucked into emails and facebook then you will see where your struggles are.
I hope this calendar helps you move forward and help you find time to blog! I look forward to how much it is going to help me so I can’t wait to hear if it helps you!
Or maybe you’re still not sure if blogging is even right for you?
If you aren’t sure then I encourage you to read my post How to Tell If Blogging is Right For You and find out before stressing out too much!
My favorite saying that I have written on my fridge is “Massive action solves all problems“. I think about that when I get stuck or feel a little lost.
When I over think and analyze too much I realize that I have wasted 15 minutes stressing over what I should do next. If I would have just moved forward on something I would have accomplished more than stressing over the order of my to-do list.
When the house is a wreck, I need to do invoices for the lawn care, I need to write a blog post and try to find time to blog, but I don’t know where to start… I just start!
The more I can get done in a day whether it was in the right order or not is going to be more important than stressing about the order and wasting any precious time.
So for today, I leave you with those two reminders:
1. If you fail to plan…..plan to fail
2. Massive action solves all problems
I have heard those over the years and I don’t know who was the first person to say them or I would give them credit but they were both smart people I can tell you that!
Don’t forget to get your copy of my calendar if you haven’t already!
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Happy blogging!
Vanessa