Manage yourself so that you can manage your time.
Time management for bloggers simplified.
Blogging is a profession now. A lot of professionals are turning away from the core industry and becoming a professional blogger. Blogging is no more a hobby, it is a profession that has clearly shown some wonderful results for many. But blogging is not easy when it comes to coping with the competition. Blogging can seriously give you sleepless nights as the profession needs dedication while growing and after that. Blogging deals with multiple things at a time, and time and tide waits for none. Time management for bloggers is a serious topic of discussion that many bloggers struggle with.
Being a blogger is challenging but not impossible to be. Blogging is a practice that needs you to be disciplined at first place. Discipline begins with being punctual and respecting the time you’ve got to turn things right in your favor. In this post, you’ll learn how to manage your time as a blogger and clear your task list on a daily basis.
How to multiply your time?
Time is money. If you want to see yourself as a well-established blogger and an influencer then you definitely need to be time conscious. Missing out the deadlined will simply open doors for your competition to rule out your presence. It is liking giving away your power up front. We are powered by more tools, tips, tricks, checklists, calendars than ever before but still somehow fail to cross the finishing line on time.
Undoubtedly we are moving faster, working for longer hours yet not caught up. Today we have an endless number of videos and books on time management but still, the stress level is all-time high. Time management these days is no more logical it is emotional.
Our feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety, worry, and frustration dictate how we choose to spend our time as much as there is on our calendars, to-do lists. While there is nothing like time management, time flows whether we like it or not. There’s only self-management to be in line with time. The whole theory of time management revolves around improving one’s efficiency, doing which will leave you will more time. So indirectly you are managing time by directly managing yourself.
A theory given by Dr Stepehn Covey named Time Management matrix, which had X axis was Urgency and Y axis as importance.
This is the theory that we have been using so far to prioritize our tasks. Nothing wrong with prioritizing our tasks, as it is as important as time in today’s world. But the problem with the prioritizing is that it doesn’t create more time for you. Time management is all about efficiency and this model fails at providing efficiency to your time.
The world is now shifting to three-dimensional thinking, where the third dimension is Significance. This three-dimensional model deals with multiplying time. It brings your focus to the significance of the tasks that you’ve listed for the day. Urgency is how soon does it matter? Importance is How much does it matter? and Significance is How long does it matter? This significant thinking will get you enough time in hand, but not today.
Time multipliers look for answers to the question “What can I do today, that will leave me with more time tomorrow?” and this way you schedule your tasks in a way that will find you more time to produce even more time.
You’d ask me, “how do I multiply time?”
It’s simple and straight, you just need to allow yourself to spend time on doing things today that will give more time tomorrow.
The idea behind this significant calculation is that eliminating things that don’t matter today. If it doesn’t matter today, it definitely will not matter tomorrow. And by eliminating such things today, you are creating more time for yourself tomorrow. This way, you will be creating more time. And the cycle continues.
Number 1 way better time management for bloggers
Okay, that was all about multiplying your time. Now you will see what is the number 1 way for time management for bloggers. No doubt there are experts will expert ways to manage yourself for time management, but not all ways will work for you. You have to come up with something that suitably works for you.
Having said that, let me tell you about my schedule before I got used to this method — that I call 1 by 2. As a pure beginner, with zero knowledge of blogging, I used to do the random publishing with zero results. As I grew as a blogger, I ended up doing one blog post a week with 2–3 days of research. Again that was not targetted well, as I was not aware of search engine optimization. Then came the major breakthrough, the 1 by 2. A friend of mine helped me design this method.
What I do in this method is divide my day into two halves. The first half is solely dedicated to research on topics. Depending upon the topic it usually takes anywhere between 3–4 hours (sometimes 5 hours) to research on that topic. After a thorough research, it’s time to join the dots. I make sure to have least sized points so that I can build on that fastest. This is basic stencil where I decide the time frame depending on my availability for work. You can use this method to flexibly get your work done. Just divide the day into two halves- Divide and rule.
As per my schedule in this framework. I wake up at 5 in the morning start my work by 9, research till 2. Break from 2 to 4, begin work at 4 write till 9. I pre-plan my week and the topics for the upcoming week. So that I can spend less time on deciding the topics for the day, for throughout the week and save time during the day. Remember the 3-dimensional thinking? Yes, this is the 3-dimensional thinking. Here’s a catch, if the topic I am writing on is new or something I am not exposed well. I will do just one post per day. Alternatively, if the topic is familiar I go for 2 posts a day.
This is purely my own version of this way. You can do the customization as per your needs. This way has helped me achieve my daily targets efficiently. Most importantly I am consistently producing quality content for my website and for my client’s too.
Now to keep up with this way, I have some tips for the same. Let’s look at it one by one.
7 tips to master 1 way
#7 Increase mouse speeds
Sounds basic but this has proven a really helpful way to save a hell lot of time. Every time you scroll from one diagonal end of your laptop/machine to another end for any reason, it takes time. It really does, you will realize it once you start using the fastest speed on your mouse. Also, use a smooth mouse on a gripped surface so that you don’t have to lift mouse every now and then.
You get me right? that irritating mouse which has a poor scroll or maybe a good mouse is used on a poor surface. Either way, you will waste time.
#6 Never miss deadlines
Deadlines are bad.
But equally strong to make you better for and closer to goals. Missing deadlines will ruin your upcoming posts too. Just one skip and you start from zero. Prepare a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly charts of the goals you want to accomplish. Your daily tasks should feed as input for weekly, monthly and yearly.
This way, year after year you will only turn out to be the best version of yourself. I know this will take time to become a part of your lives, but make this a habit and you will see wonders happening. Habits are powerful, trust me.
# 5 Turn off notifications on mobile
This will hit hard.
I still cannot master staying away from mobile. Even for productivity reasons, you need mobile near you. So there’s another way around to win this distraction. Turn off all the notifications, except calls and keep the mobile away from you (behind you would do awesome) and audible enough.
I need not explain how big distraction is this. The amount of time it has taken from all of us is enough to build a fortune even if a half of it is spent doing what’s needed.
#4 One task at a time
This is easy, but not as it looks like. I know we are flooded with n number of tasks. Some pre-planned and some ad-hoc. What I do for the ad-hoc tasks(as and when I’m reminded of it or realized of) is that I note it down on a piece of paper. The reason, why I write instead of noting it on mobile or laptop, is next time when I sit for my work, I’ll be reminded of it. Moreover, while wrapping up I can go through the list and reschedule the significant tasks for near future.
While working, be dangerously focused on one task, just one. Blur out everything else and you will find efficiency and good results in numbers.
#3 Eliminate unwanted tasks
Procrastination ain’t bad if done well. Eliminating tasks that can be done later, i.e. this is not the right time to do that task. This doesn’t mean you will not do it, you will definitely do it but at the right time that you will be figuring out.
While preparing your to-do list for the day, write down all your tasks and think which are the tasks that do not require your immediate attention. Eliminate those and give them new dates.
#2 Automate regular tasks
That’s tricky.
First, analyze what are the tasks that you have to do it on a regular basis. Is it the social media promotions? Email outreach? or is it the newsletters? Whatever takes your time regularly, automate it. It might cost you something, but it’s worth.
If you can spend 30–40 minutes a month in automating a task that takes 2 hours every 15 days, isn’t it a good deal? Why not do it? I mean, this is a technology era. This is the best time of the century to grow the business into something massive. You might forget, the system won’t.
#1 Delegate important tasks
Worth number one tip?
No?
I’ll prove it you in a moment.
Delegating tasks means teaching someone else the things you do. If keeping up with your social media is not manageable by you anymore, delegate it. Either hire someone or teach someone what are the standards you have set for your social media profiles.
Chances are that they might not be able to do as good as you do. But you too weren’t that effective initially, were you? You are investing time in someone whose presence will give you time for much more important things. Investing a few hours initially that will get you days and days of time is not a bad deal to seal. Just be vigilant in choosing your delegator. You took time, they will too.
Conclusion
Time is a really valuable entity for professionals like us, and for anyone for that matter. It is because of time that we make and reap. Time management for bloggers is important because the readers are constantly searching for the information that you can provide. If you slow down, your readers will go elsewhere.
So far we were used to the phrase, “Time and tide, wait for none” I’m adding one more item to the list. “Time, tide and search engines, wait for none” if you don’t provide, someone else will. The search engine will not be waiting for your place to fill only by you. It has its algorithm designed to fetch the best results, it will fetch if it’s yours it will fetch if its not yours. So keeping with time will help you get in front of million eyeballs.
Over to you. Which tip are you going to use first? Is it speeding up your mouse? Or is it eliminating unwanted tasks? Either way, let me know in the comment section below. Do you know someone who was looking for this information? Share this with them and share in your network too.
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1 way and 7 tips to manage yourself to manage your time as a blogger
Originally published at www.btricks.in on November 15, 2017.
