Balance Blogging and life in 8 simple steps

 

Let’s get this out-of-the-way now, blogging takes up an inordinate amount of time. If it’s not coming up with ideas, or the actual writing, or the editing, then it’s the promotion, engagement and sharing of that post. Hell, it’s a full-time job. But wait, you already have one of those. Right now, you want to figure out how to balance blogging and life like you have hundreds of little elves running around doing your work for you.

What’s my secret? I have extra elves stored in my shed.

Aside from kidnapping small adults or children and dressing them up like Santa does, I have a few practical and potentially deplorable ways that will help you balance blogging and life. If you have one of course. Most likely you don’t.

Me neither.

Balance blogging and life Step 1: Blog less often

Are you finding it difficult to churn out content day after day like some underpaid news company? Funny right? You do it for free. Right now, it’s just you and your blog, and because you can’t trick someone into joining your writing team, it’s time to stop trying. Find the sweet spot, which should be around once a week or at the very least twice to three times a month. Don’t worry, I have an entire post written about, A, “Why you should post once a week.” B, how to consistently come up with awesome blog ideas and C, how to get more people to read said blog.

Mahalo.

It sounds very simple to me, if you want to balance blogging and life, blog less often and read my blog.

Simple!

Before you go running off with delusions of grandeur, make sure that although you are posting less often the quality of your work stays the same or even elevates. I have found that the blog posts that I have spent the longest time on have not only performed better initially but have had a longer half-life than the rest of them. #Half-life3confirmed.

Balance blogging and life step 2: Work on more than one post at the same time

It’s always a great idea to have more than one bun in the oven at twice and although having twins sounds like the worst sort of lottery win possible, in this instance the more the merrier. If you ever hope to balance blogging and life you are going to have to grow more hands than Budda on Christmas eve. Or Santa. Utilize your time wisely, I normally have two to three posts on the go, when I get bored with one, I move to the next and then when inspiration strikes, I go back to the other one. This way I am continuously working on posts, you know, when I am not shoveling poop from my infant child’s poopy butthole.

Balance blogging and life step 3: Focus on promotion

Writing posts and promoting and going to work and trying to eat healthy and trying to go to the gym and trying to find the future Mr. or Mrs., is nearly impossible, so focus on one at a time. I suggest the gym first because you can most likely (no you wont) find your future significant other and get healthy all at once. Once that happens, then get back to business.

You don’t have to do it all at once, its ok to focus on writing at times, but if no one is reading, focus more on promotion. If you don’t have time to write, promoting your previous posts should be a priority. You can always promote on the fly, all you need is your phone and your meaty little hands to make the magic happen. It will help you balance blogging and life, because you can still grow your blog following and stay relevant whilst you pretend to pay attention to your family. If that isn’t the droid you are looking for, then it might be time to leave Tatooine.

Balance blogging and life step 4: Ignore your spouse or family

As we speak, I am currently in a maelstrom of feces, urine and baby farts – a shitstorm if you will. Between your fulltime job or whatever it is that allows you to live and breathe in our world, it takes time. Sure, you love your husband and three kids, but you are a strong independent woman and you deserve to have a few hours to yourself to write and ponder an adequate escape plan. So maybe ignore isn’t the best word. You can “defer” your motherly/fatherly duties for a moment and get some quality blogging done, because lord knows if you don’t, no one else will do it for you.

It might be macabre, a bit dark and maligned but, if you ever hope to balance blogging and life you will have to decide to take time for yourself over your family. That, or wait for them to sleep. But does that ever happen?

Balance blogging and life step 5: Steal time from work

I am quite possibly the worst employee of all time (future employers please hire me I am broke) because I steal time from work whenever the chance arises. Bathroom breaks, under the table, hell, I’ll write my blog on the work computer when no one is looking. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still meet my quotas, but once I do, after a prompt look to the left and right, I begin.

Yes, I like to live on the wild side.

Better yet, quit your day job

Our current paradigm of working your butt off until you die or turn 65 for a very small, nearly unlivable cheque is damn near laughable. Hell, you might sooner make money writing your blog and doing something you enjoy, rather than selling your soul to the corporate devil aka (Donald Trump).

Warning: Do not actually quit your day job, you are broke and need money to survive and you have children, feeding them may be important as well!

If you can afford to quit your day job, do it, you will inherit a ton of free time to focus on your blog and become blogomus prime. If that happens please contact me and we can do a collaborative blog.

Balance blogging and life step 6: Stop being so hard on yourself

Blogging is hard, if you ever hope to balance blogging and life you are going to have to take a major chill pill. Stop stressing out over how often you need to post and focus on being consistent. It’s fine to miss a few weeks, (guilty) but don’t go months or years without posting otherwise your following will flock to my blog….whoops.

Balance blogging and life step 7: Take a break from blogging

A lot of people take blogging very seriously, (present company included) but sometimes it’s healthy to take a break. I’m not talking about doing a year abroad in Europe and “taking a break” when really you just want to talk to hot Italian guys and be called “bellisima”. No, I’m talking about you doing you for a minute to decompress and reset your energy so that you can focus on future writing projects.

Balance blogging and life by taking the necessary time to refocus your energy. This will allow you to finish other things such as a novel a screenplay, or a poetry book and free you up to give all your effort to the blog. If you are feeling fancy, feel free to pay attention to your husband and child. Who knows, it might even save your marriage. (Your welcome.)

And no, we were not on a break Ross.

Balance blogging and life step 8: Have guest writers

If the three of you reading this are salivating over the potential prospect of writing for this website, then I won’t stop you.

At the moment, I do not fancy myself big enough to have guest writer’s, but one day in a future near you all boys and girls will be able to post on my blog because I have a dream today…….

Having guest writers will give you the versatility to increase your reader base all the while giving you the leverage to balance blogging and life. Guest writer’s will give your readers new tantalizing voices to read and hopefully salacious topics to delve into. Sounds almost to good to be true, doesn’t it? Other writers helping to create and deliver plentiful content to your blog, boosting your traffic and increasing your followers. That means while you’re out living your “best life” and when I say best, I mean snacking on McNuggets and Szechuan sauce, your blog will be ever-growing, morphing and molding into the greatest entity since Facebook.

Long story short, I won’t have any guest writers for a while, but until then, you get unfettered access to just me. And that’s good right?

Right?

Warning! Warning!! potential attention grab.

Apparently, there is now a “turn on site notifications button” on the mobile app when you look at each blog post you are currently following so if you like me, like, really really like me, go ahead and turn those on so we can be the best of friends, or something.

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