Ways To Time Block As A Blogger

23 September 2022

The question I get most often as a blogger is…

How do you have time to do it?

You see, there truly is no magic equation that is going to ensure that you do what you need to do when it comes to blogging. There just isn’t.

It comes down to a few important things.

  • Dedication
  • Consistency
  • Time Blocking

Things happen and things come up. Believe me, I understand how hard it can be to juggle all the different pieces of your life BUT if blogging is something that you truly want to do then you will need to figure out how to do it with the time that you have BECAUSE time is something that we just can’t make more of.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME BLOCKING

We all live lives that seem to be bursting at the seams. Now, I am not saying this to brag. I am saying this because it is the truth. Most of us have a full-time job, maybe you have kids, maybe you have pets, maybe you have a spouse. With each of these different things comes different responsibilities.

Time blocking can and will be helpful to your everyday life. It will help you stay organized with all the things you have going on and it will help you to plan out your day.

Here are just a few of the benefits of time blocking

  • Enhances your concentration
  • Can replace your to-do list
  • Showcases your priorities
  • Keeps you organized
  • Keeps track of your time better throughout the day
  • Keeps you on track

When you first begin time blocking, it may feel a bit overwhelming. You aren’t going to really know where to begin or even how long tasks are going to take but time blocking isn’t set in stone. You can always rearrange it if you find a task didn’t take as long or took longer than expected.

In this blog post, we are going to specifically cover time blocking as a blogger.

We are going to talk about what you need to have for time blocking, what you should include when you are time blocking as a blogger, and tips and tricks that I have learned throughout my years as a blogger.

Are you ready to dive in?

THINGS YOU NEED TO PROPERLY TIME BLOCK

What do you actually need to start time blocking?

There really aren’t that many things that you are going to need but depending on how you are time blocking here are some materials that will help you.

The daily layout in the Ultimate Blogging Planner

Daily Planner

This is going to help you create a daily plan. If you don’t have a daily planner, you can download the one that I created here. This is the daily planner that is in Your Ultimate Blogging Planner.

You can also take a blank notebook and you can create a daily planner that way as I did below. It is easy enough to set one up to your liking.

Highlighters

You will want to grab a package of different coloured highlighters. This is a great way to break up your day. Each colour will represent something different. Since we are talking about time blocking as a blogger, these can be the categories that you will use your highlighters for.

  • Blog writing
  • Graphic creation
  • Content planning
  • Blogging outreach
  • Client work (if you work with clients)
  • Learning

Different Coloured Pens

Instead of or in combination with highlighters, you can use coloured pens. You would just do the same thing that you do with the highlighters. Choose specific colours to represent the different categories that you want to time block for.

Time Tracker

This is a great place to start when trying to figure out how much time a certain category will take you. I use Clockify and love it. I just type in what I am working on and start the timer. I can then work on planning my day and week around how long it takes me to complete tasks.

So, now that you have everything you need to time block, how do you create your schedule?

SETTING UP YOUR TIME BLOCK SCHEDULE

Now is the time that we dig in and get that daily schedule made for you. Before you can create your time block, you are going to need to make sure you know what you need to accomplish for your blog for the day you are planning.

Step One: Know what you need to finish or get started on

You can’t get anything done if you do not know what you are working on. This happens to me. The other day I took my daughter to a creative writing program at the library. It was an hour-long program and so I brought my computer to get work done.

When she was done, she asked me if I got any work done. I laughed and told her that I went to the library without a plan and didn’t get as much done as I should have done.

I had so much that needed to be done and without a plan, I just didn’t know where to start and so I did a few of the things that needed to be done BUT not nearly what I would have finished if I had a plan in place.

Step Two: Know when you want to start and when you want to finish

Honestly, my daily plan normally includes meal times, housework, and anything else that is personal. If it is on my plan, I will make sure that I focus on it. That means that I include meditation, meals with my family, and other things that are important to me.

I am not a morning person and will never claim to be so I don’t plan to start my day on weekends before 8 am. That said, anything, before 10 am, is usually for me.

Since I have a full-time job on top of my business, Sundays are my full working days for Creative Purpose. This is what I planned for and I will show you in the blog post.

Step Three: Start with the most important thing on your list

What do you need to get done first? Focus first on the most important thing. This way you get it done with and it takes a bit of the pressure off for the rest of the day. You will feel relief when you finish this task and it will allow you to focus on the other tasks at hand.

Creating a daily plan using a notebook.

Step Four: Estimate how much time you will need for certain tasks

Now you are going to start mapping out the rest of your day. If you don’t know how long certain tasks are going to take you, estimate. Give yourself an hour to work on something and see what you can get done. If you can, leave yourself notes on your daily time block then when you time block for another day, you can use that estimation.

I would recommend starting with one to two-hour increments. That way you aren’t rushing with thirty minutes and you have some time to actually complete the tasks that you need done.

Step Five: Take your coloured pens and start writing in your plan

There is nothing better than seeing your plan come to life. Put everything into your daily time block. Once you have your plan finished, you are ready to go!

Just because you have the plan created, doesn’t mean that it will happen. You still need to do the plan that you created.

If you don’t get everything done off of that list, that is okay. As long as you are showing up and building the habit of working on your blog, you are moving forward. Do this every day.

When you give yourself the chance to show up, you will start to build the habit of blogging and everything that comes along with it.

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