Perhaps you’re using a schedule right now? We can’t be everywhere online 24/7 (and really, who would want to be?) but our work benefits from being available for the people wherever they are in the world.
I am a huge fan of scheduling, without it I wouldn’t have the work-life balance that I do.
I schedule not only my work days, my blog content and my social media, but often my non-work time too (Friday afternoon is Happy Hour and it must not be disturbed!). I actually feel like I have more flexibility and freedom when I schedule. I wouldn’t be caught dead without CoSchedule and other platforms’ scheduling functions!
You can read more about what I do and how I handle the ProBlogger content here: 3 Ways Scheduling Will Make You a Better Blogger, and there are more tips here: 5 Ways to Make Your Blogging Life Easier
You might also like to check out Darren’s super low-tech editorial schedule, a posting schedule that encourages engagement, and 9 ways you can create a usable blogging schedule.
And don’t forget – too much automation can actually be a bad thing: Could Marketing Automation Be Hurting Your Blog-Reader Relationships?
Do you schedule? Just your content or your hours too? What kinds of tools do you use? Have you tried scheduling and hated it?
I have started to use a scheduler. I schedule in to write 2 blogs a day, at 10 and 2, for my clients or me. This gets me ready to spend an hour for each blog, and then reschedule same blog a couple of days later for clean up. it is helping me plan, space my time on and time off, and get me in the HABIT of writing 2 blogs a day.
I am now bringing my online calendar into the same written day planner, so I can fit other stuff around my required writing.
And yeah, then other scheduling is putting in time to be creative, to read. Funny how planning does free you up, mentally.
It’s strange isn’t it, you sort of thing a schedule or plan is too rigid for creativity, but it’s totally the opposite! Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good thing going there.
Hey Stacey,
I schedule my posts for my website in WordPress. It’s necessary to choose the right time for publishing the posts.
And the same goes with the social media platforms. The tools like Buffer and HootSuite are always there to help.
~Ravi
Yes there’s plenty of choice out there now, isn’t there!
Scheduling is a great way of cutting out distractions and focusing on the job at hand. Otherwise, the day may just feel like slipping out of your hands without anything substantial having been done.
CoSchedule, Trello and HootSuite would be my go to scheduling tool any day!
Oh I know only too well what that feels like! I probably worked that way for years. I don’t have the time to waste these days, and as they say – time is money!
I try to schedule, but the circumstances of my life change so often, it’s really tough (I’m a digital nomad). When I can manage it though, it works really well!
yes, it’s a great feeling when it all comes together! But I know how you feel about the rest of the time being a juggle.
Kind of a schedule, yes.
Last year, I started entering in housework tasks and freelance tasks within certain hour brackets. It worked pretty well: the whole idea of scheduling just like when I worked outside the home. But the schedule was often disrupted due to my husband’s inconsistent pilot schedule…life, kids, whatever. So, I’ve just started (with the advice of someone else), to schedule the hours I need to work on certain things, but not necessarily at specific times. That makes me hustle. I also started batching tasks much better this month. I simply use the timer app on my phone for both.
That’s such a good idea, it can be hard to stick to a plan when life is so unpredictable. I try to schedule the times when my kids are at school, but i’m not so good at scheduling anything when they’re home!
After being employed as a cobol programmer for 37 years I developed some excellent work habits with the best of these being that I plan and schedule all of my time including sleep.
Now that I am no longer employed I am committed to making a living using a computer and the internet. Planning my day and keeping to a schedule is paramount when you are working alone.
Another habit I have added to my day is to continually ask myself these 3 questions:
1 What do I think I am doing?
2 What should I be doing?
3 What am I actually doing?
If your answer to all 3 is yes then keep going otherwise it is time to adjust
I use schedules for social media management for clients, but nothing else! I find trying to schedule general work-time is counter-productive for me, as it feels too restrictive. I’m pretty good at going with the flow and still maintaining priorities. But for social media, I think a schedule is one of the single most important things you can have. Otherwise you’ll sink into a time-sucking maelstrom of epic proportions…