Productivity is learned—you weren’t born being able to plan your day perfectly—and if it’s a skill that you haven’t mastered yet, don’t worry! It’s well within your grasp! Here are some time management tips for bloggers and entrepreneurs.
Time Management Tips for Bloggers and Entrepreneurs
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Time is money, or so the old saying goes…
There are some essential things you can do to be more productive in your day to day because there is a nugget of truth in the old saying ‘Time is Money’. Wasting time wastes money, along with other resources, so eliminating as much waste has to be part of your master plan!
Have a vision
If you don’t have a clear vision as to what your business looks like, if you can’t describe it to a stranger in 20 seconds, you will not be able to find a productive path to get there. Once your vision is clear, you can establish the lists of tasks that need to be taken care of in order to achieve your vision. If you don’t physically list out your to do’s and prioritize them, you can end up flailing about in multitasking rabbit holes, looking at Twitter and Facebook, instead of getting things done.
The key to a clear vision is the ability to say no. It’s hard to do, particularly in the face of favored clients, but if you are continually taking on tasks that haven’t got anything to do with your business goals and vision, you’re going to go off track quickly. A clear vision helps you to see what fits into the scope of your business and what doesn’t.
Delegate
If you can manage it, delegate tasks that you don’t enjoy, like house cleaning for example, or hire some help so that you can focus on what you need to do to grow your business. You can also delegate things you enjoy but don’t have time for.
For example, having guest bloggers opens up some new discussion and points of view on your blog, as well as freeing up some of your time in the area of content production. Or hire a VA to run some of your social media so you can focus on your content creation.
Recycle Your Content
And don’t forget to repurpose your content, when you can. This is why evergreen content is best—content that is not tied to a specific time/date/season. You can repurpose it at different times and on different platforms.
Example: For this post about time management tips for bloggers could become a series of tweets, an Instagram series with photos from your office, or a podcast! Hmmm… Great ideas!
Choose the tools that work for you
Crowdsource on Twitter and you’ll get a different response from every single person as to what tools work best for keeping up your productivity and staying organized! There’s an app for every kind of work style and there are even those who like to live old school, with pen and paper. Scheduling posts on social or creating your editorial calendar with the next three months of posts require nothing more than a simple spread sheet. Don’t get bogged down in the ‘how’ you’re going to plan. Just do it!
Experiment, try things out and figure out what works for you. Don’t just buy an expensive app because it what’s trending. Eventually, you will find a system that works for all aspects of your life: personal, family, business!
Here are the blogging tools that we can’t live without. We both can’t stress the amazing capabilities of Tailwind enough! This tool is a lifesaver!
Know that time in the chair doesn’t mean productivity
Being in the office at 7 am and not leaving it until 7 pm does not make you productive. You could just be sitting there Learning Languages on your phone. And that’s the rub: there are so many distractions, even at your desk! Where inspiration hits isn’t the issue: you just have to run with it. You could be sitting on the sofa and have some great ideas for future blog posts, so go with it and put them in your editorial calendar right there and then!
One way maximize your productivity and minimize distraction is to have time in your day when all your notifiers are off. Turn your phone to ‘do not disturb’ and disconnect.
Tip: If you’re worried about missing an urgent call from the school or your kid’s camp, put their numbers as a favorite and have these calls bypass the do no disturb sign!
Know yourself
Are you more productive first thing in the morning or are you a night owl? Do you function best right after a workout or when your kids are napping? Make sure use those high productivity times to get thinking work done and leave the more mundane, routine tasks for when you’re least productive.
Don’t be afraid to take a break when you need to: slogging through tasks when you’re not focused, hungry or just not ‘with it’ isn’t going to produce maximum results. It’s definitely okay to take a break now and again and spend time doing something that rejuvenates you.
Deal with the tasks you dread first thing
“Eat that frog!” – Brian Tracy
If you attack and complete the task that you hate the most, first thing in your day, it sets a positive tone for success for the rest of the day. A task that has been bugging you or dragging on, once checked off the list, provides a lot of momentum. Productivity is about mindset: free your mind from a task that was infringing on your creative juices and your productivity levels will go through the roof!
Even if your current instinct when you get a little overwhelmed is to curl up on the sofa with a coffee, you can learn to stop that and move forward by just implementing a little structure in your day. It works! Try it!
We recommend the book Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy, it talks about this topic in full detail.
Answer us this question: what time are you the most productive?
Looking for more blogging and business tips? Be sure to check out the blogging tips section of our blog. You’re also invited to join our Blogging and Business Facebook Group!
Share you blogger time management tips in the comments!
