Top most Productivity Tips for Bloggers

Odds are you’ve set yourself some goals for what your blogging should look like. However, reaching this stage will take a while. And the less productive you’re with the time you have, the longer it will take to achieve those aims.

This week I am sharing seven tips that I’ve developed through the years which have helped me become more effective.

But first I would like to talk a little bit about why I wanted them.

Show some personality

For those who know about the Myers-Briggs kind signs, I am INFP. Having said that, I’m introverted, intuitive, feeling, and empathetic. Perception is beneficial, but it can also be a drawback if you will need to get things done.

Like most”perceptors”, I enjoy flexibility and spontaneity. I do not always need to know what is going to happen next. Some of my very best jobs are spontaneous and flexible.

But in addition, it means I can spend a good deal of time jumping from one thing to another and not getting a lot done if I am not careful. And that is why I came up with these seven steps to get myself back on track. Start with…

1. Assess how you are spending your own time now

During one of those ProBlogger events, blogger and presenter Nicole Avery proposed using a tool named RescueTime. It is a tool that assesses the software you use, the sites you visit, etc. and measures how long spent on each application. The data is then sorted into various categories and the results are displayed.

I decided to give it a go. And after running it in my computer for a week, I found that I was spending 44 percent of my time on social networking.

As a blogger, I have a justification for spending some time on social networking. I use Facebook quite a lot to drive visitors to my blogs and to create a community with my readers. But I could see I had been spending far more time on social websites than I should have been.

I was also told that I spent 15 percent of my time on my email accounts. And so they chewed over half of my time together.

Needless to say, some people might have a perfectly legitimate reason for spending most of their time on social networking, surfing the world wide web, or viewing YouTube videos. It all depends on your own objectives, which is the reason why the next step is so important.

2. Compare how you spend your time on your own Targets

You may not assume that spending 15 percent of my time is a huge deal. Is not blogging a part of asking questions and expanding your own knowledge? Yes, it is. But I did not ask any questions. I answered them. And while reacting to people and helping them resolve their problems is important (particularly as a blogger), exposing it has never been the perfect way to spend my time.

And so it was with social media. I spent most of my time answering questions and interacting with my readers. That is not always a bad thing . However, one of my aims is to create content to help to make the world a better place. And the longer I spent on social networking, the less time I needed to spend creating that content.

After studying how I had been spending my time and assessing how I needed to spend my time to achieve my goals, I took another step:

3. Produce a program that works for you

Here’s the first schedule I created (using Google Calendar) for my”perfect” week.

My schedule begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends around 8:30 p.m. And as you can see it comprises:

Time with my family in the beginning and end of every day
an hour every lunchtime where I could eat and walk (an important part of staying healthy)
Time to make (first drafts in the morning, changes and adjustments in the day )
Social networking time (nowhere near 44 percent ).

This program instantly made me more effective because I stopped waking up and thinking What will I do now a fast look at my program is sufficient to know precisely what I’m going to do.

I set up alerts on my phone when I used it so I can recall when to proceed to another job.

Granted, my schedule has changed a little through the years. Nowadays there’s a bit more”white space” like this on Monday, where I do not plan anything and could be spontaneous in what I do.

4. Develop workflows, systems and patterns

You might have seen the red stripe at the bottom of every column labeled”Apply”. I plan on Facebook and Twitter articles there for the next day. I identify posts in my archive I need to promote, create images for them to post on social networking, and then aim them all.

This means that I could be present on social websites without needing to be on Facebook and Twitter all of the time.

And I do it every night of the week.

The first episode of this ProBlogger podcast was my first attempt at podcasting. I had no clue how to record, edit, or upload a podcast. I didn’t even have a site to host it on. However, I knew the only way to do this is to do a bit of research and then create a workflow.

And here’s what I created.

Breaking it down into a series of measures made the process look far less overwhelming. Additionally, it enabled me to master the skills I had to make a podcast. I’m quickly going to the point where I no longer wanted the listing because I mastered the skills.

Additionally, it enabled me to become more productive. As I went through the checklist, I immediately realized that I could work on several tasks at exactly the exact same time.

When it came to outsourcing, I could quickly see what jobs I could hand over to somebody else. By way of instance, around episode 15, I got somebody to edit the podcast and make the show notes because I did not have to do it myself.

5. Try to automate as much as possible

Can you remember the prompt’ movie I spoke about before? Well, that is one of the areas where I began using automation. Using an internet tool such as CoSchedule, I will schedule Facebook and Twitter articles ahead of time. In actuality, the workflow to make this post involves scheduling five Twitter articles and four Facebook articles.

However, I do not plan all of my articles. Those green”societal” streaks on my program are when I spend some time on Facebook and Twitter to interact with my audience.

6. Try to assign what you Can’t automate

Needless to say, you can not automate everything. While artificial intelligence has come a long way, there are a few things that need to be left to a person.

But that does not mean you have to be that person.

Through time I have assigned various tasks to others and now have a group of approximately 10 people. Some are authors and editors. Some help us produce our e-books. Some will help to create the podcast. And a few do development work and keep our servers running.

By delegating these tasks to other individuals, I will focus my time on what I want to do and what I am good at.

7. Start with processes and systems, not tools

Whenever you mention the term”productivity” someone will be talking about resources. In actuality, I once did a productivity session in a conference at which was pretty much accurate what they talked about it.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy learning new to-do lists and new productivity tools. However, if you begin with the tool as opposed to your targets and the systems you have made to reach them, the instrument could be more of an obstacle than an aid.

And the more time spent exploring the latest tools, the less time you have to really attain those goals.

I firmly believe in creating the systems and then finding the tools that will assist you manage them. Below are a few of the tools I am presently using. But don’t think you need to use them also because I use them. It depends on what systems you might have.

I use a calendar called Fantastical 2. It is on my computer, my phone, and my watch, so I always know where to be.

I also use Evernote for all my thoughts and most of my writing. I started interacting with my group about it.

But for the majority of these interactions, I use Slack, as does everyone else on the team. It’s a terrific way for all of us to communicate with each other.

Conclusion

Hope you found these seven tips useful. However, I know some of you are productivity junkies. For those who have any other tips for being more effective, please share them in the comments.