Blogging with a full time job – how to do it well

When I left uni and began working full-time, I wish I had known these blogging top tips to help balance my time. I’ve been blogging with a full time job for almost three years and yet until the beginning of this year I did not give it, or my social media, the time it deserves.

In those years I have trained to be a journalist, interned for six months and then spent the last two years in full-time employment as a feature writer, as well as freelancing in journalism and copywriting.

I hope you can understand how, with such a busy workload, blogging with a full time job means I have struggled to get my blog and social media following off the ground.

(NOTE that I said understand why I have struggled, not why I have failed.)

My failure comes from poor time management and lack of motivation (A.K.A making excuses). That stops now. Anything is possible and this is how I am going to make it work.

Step one: Use my lunch hour effectively

I never take the full hour’s lunch I am owed. I have started taking this time to go on Twitter and Instagram but I am going to spend this time planning what I need to do for my blog.

I love bullet points (at some point I will start a bullet journal, but baby steps ok?) so I will begin by bullet pointing everything I need to do and coming up with ideas.

Step two: Don’t leave work on time

As a journalist I work to deadlines so in the office, my time management is brilliant and I very rarely work late. However, there is no pretending I will work on my blog when I get home. I just never do. I go to the gym most days and by the time I have returned home, had dinner and done any boring household chores that need doing I don’t have the energy.

So instead of waiting until I get home and failing as per usual, I have decided that from now on at 5.30pm I will close all work related items on my laptop and spend the next hour at my desk working on my blog.

Step three: Wake up early

I don’t have to wake up until 8am to get to work, but I realise now that by sleeping in I am taking this time for granted. I know that if I wake up an hour or two early I will get s**t done. I am a morning person, so why waste it sleeping?

Step four: Set reminders

I definitely don’t utilise my work calendar and phone reminders like I should. After completing this post I will set daily reminders on either my work calendar or personal phone to ensure I do the following:

• Post blog links in Facebook groups and Pinterest boards (I’m pretty good at posting on Twitter/Instagram already)
• Attend Twitter chats (I’ve never done this before!)
• Set myself an insta-schedule – I read an advice post on roboweb.com that said it was good to post at the same time every day but as I am yet to discover a place on which you can pre-schedule posts so I will set myself reminders.
• Check my Bloglovin and interact with more others there
• What would you add to this list?

Step five: When at home, work at my damn desk!

I’m sure most of you are guilty of this as well. I spend too much time attempting to blog from my bed and getting sucked into distractions because I do not have the right frame of mind.

It is time to dust of my desk and take working from home seriously. If I am writing I think it will be best if I even turn off my Wi-Fi so I can’t procrastinate.

These are my personal blogging top tips, but what are your words of advice? How do you do to manage your time? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to share ideas xxx

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