How to Balance Your Blog with Your 9 to 5

1. Use Your Weekends Wisely

I know, I know. You work your ass off all week and you want your weekend to yourself. You want to hang out with friends, go to bed late and wake up even later. But if you want your blog or side biz to grow, you need to put in the time and effort, and that means on weekends too. There’s been times when I turned down get togethers with friends because I had a deadline to meet. Yeah, it sucks sometimes, but I have goals I want to reach and I know the steps I need to take to get there. Start treating your blog like a business and you’ll start seeing results. 

Quick & Simple Tip: Spend at least 3 hours EVERY Sunday morning working on your site. Save it as an appointment in your calendar. 

2. Create a Content Calendar

Content calendars are great when you’re working a full-time job because if you plan out your posts ahead of time, you can knock them out on the weekends without having to do much during Monday through Friday. 

I’ll be honest. Some months I live and breathe by my content calendar, and have no wiggle room for new post topics, but other months I barely know what I’m going to write about next. May has been one of those months in which I’m just going with the flow. I have a few posts scheduled out, but for the most part I’m taking it day by day. 

Quick & Simple Tip: Use Google Calendar or a pencil and paper planner to schedule out your posts. That way, if something changes, you can easily delete or erase and adjust the rest of your content calendar. 

3. Know When You’re Most Productive

I’m the most productive early in the mornings, when I’ve had a lot of caffeine and before I head into my 9 to 5 job. My husband gets up for work really early, so I get up when he does. That way, I have a few hours in the morning to do whatever I want. Most days that includes finishing up blog posts, promoting them on social media, checking and answering emails, cleaning up our apartment, and working out. I get a lot of my writing done in the mornings. My mind is fresh and I’m not nearly as exhausted as I am around 7pm after a long day at work. 

You’ve got to have a handle on when you’re most productive. Maybe you do your best work late at night when your spouse/ boyfriend/ girlfriend/ dogs/ kids are asleep. Maybe you can get blog posts written on your lunch breaks. Do whatever works for you. 

Quick & Simple Tip: When you brainstorm post ideas or finish writing a full blog post, write down the time of day you came up with that idea or completed that post.  Do this for a month. You’ll be able to get a better understanding of when you’re getting shit done.

4. Have a Designated Work Space at Home

Although I share a home office with Bryan, it’s mostly a storage room for all of the stuff we have that doesn’t fit anyplace else. Oh, the joys of apartment living. When we eventually buy a house, I plan to have my own working space. 100% mine. In the mean time, I have a few places at home that I do blogging work: the dining room table, the couch, and sometimes our bed {TERRIBLE, I know}. 

Quick & Simple Tip: You don’t need to have a huge home office. Just find a place in your home that you can get tasks completed without distractions. It can literally be a chair in your bedroom or maybe outside on your porch. 

5. Have a List of Places Outside of Your Home that You can Work

As I mentioned above, having a spot to work at home base is important. However, it’s equally important to find places outside of your home where you can get stuff done. Maybe your Internet is being wonky or your neighbor decides to cut his grass for three hours. Whatever the case, you’ll be glad you have a backup plan. Some of my favorite spots include Starbucks and Barnes and Noble because they have FREE WIFI. 

Quick & Simple Tip: Grab a seat next to a wall outlet. That way if your laptop is dying, you won’t need to relocate. The secret is you have to go on off hours. For instance, don’t go to Barnes and Noble or Starbucks at 5pm. You’ll run into crowds of students who are trying to get their homework done. My favorite times to work away from home are Saturday and Sunday around 9am, or on Friday nights after 6pm. 

// Thanks for reading! Here are some other blogging tips & tricks.