Hey Jane, can you give me some productivity tips (for bloggers)? – I get asked this question a lot!
Productivity tips are always sought after by bloggers.
Thanks to the overwhelming information on the internet, the massive number of places to get distracted online and the nature of work involved for a blogger, blogging productivity is always in danger!
As a blogger, you have to use the enormous number of online tools that are easily available to
- get blog content ideas
- expand those ideas
- to do keyword research
- perform market research and content research
- create the content
- and much more
Now this comes with a price.
The “enormously” useful online tools that help bloggers to do what they gotta do also keep them from doing what they got to do.
Productivity rests in peace in the life of most bloggers.
Let me give you a scene so you can picture it yourself.
You wake up in the morning and open your computer with a nice cuppa coffee. You start checking emails.
And then, oh there’s Facebook. No, you’re not wasting your time – but you’re engaging with your audience on Facebook! That’s what YOU think.
Wait a moment, you need to login to Youtube and check those “best blogging tips” tutorials. But this cat is so cute while it plays the piano.
Bam! Lunch time!
After lunch, let’s say you take a nap. You come back to your working (?!) table with yet another cuppa coffee. Now you’re determined to do the work.
You need to write that blog post. But you need to do the background research. So you go to Google.
You end up reading 55 blog posts, share them, pin them on Pinterest, get lost on all the shiny objects out there until your eyes go blurry, and red.
Now you take a serious pledge that you WILL work seriously without wasting time from tomorrow morning.
And, you know, the story continues…
In this post I am going to tell you what exactly you need as a blogger to boost your productivity.
The productivity tips I’m going to share here are no theory; but they’ve been tested (on me) and are found to work perfectly.
Before sharing the productivity tips, let’s briefly review of what is productivity.
What is productivity (let’s talk from a blogger’s perspective)?
According to Wikipedia, it denotes the measures used to represent the efficiency of production. And technically, it is a ratio of output and input.
The input is the time and effort you put in, and the output is how much you get out of that time and effort.
How much of what depends on how you define the outcome.
For a blogger this could mean any, few or all of the following:
- a blog post written
- x number of comments left
- email newsletter sent
- x number of outreach emails sent
- a chapter of that e-book written
- finishing up with those social media updates
- promoting a blog post
- connecting with an influencer
- and so on.
The list is not all. There is usually a lot of things to take care of when it comes to blogging.
And especially, if you are a solopreneur it is not at all easy if you aren’t being productive.
If you don’t make good use of your time and be efficient with working, you will not be able to keep up with everything that has to be done with blogging.
Now, let’s see how you can be productive as a blogger.
Have clear goals in order to boost your productivity
It all starts with clarity. Without this it will not be hard for you to get lost in the sea of information that’s presented before you on that computer screen.
Get over with the foggy clouds and multiple voices that are over your head 24/7.
Eliminate all the unclear thoughts and goals. Find out exactly what you want with your business and your blog.
In fact, as a blogger, you should get clarity from day -1 – I mean, even before you start your journey as a blogger.
If you do not have clarity then don’t start a blog or an online business unless you know what you want to achieve.
This not only applies to bloggers but to all businesses and even starting something new with your personal life.
But in the case of blogging, having clarity is very crucial since this is a crowded business.
We see blogs being started every minute and they also die faster that way. Without clarity, you won’t be able to succeed as a blogger.
OK that’s the big picture. When we see at the detailed level, without clarity you cannot accomplish anything in one single day.
I mean, you cannot even think about being productive.
Every night before you go to bed, write down a list of things that you want to accomplish the next day.
This way, when you get to your working table in the morning, you don’t have to figure out what to do.
Facing a day without knowing what to do is like getting on a plane without knowing where you want to go or the destination of the plane itself.
You should have short term and long terms goals (see below). You have to clearly know what you want to achieve in a day, week, month and in the coming year.
Plan for the long term to become more productive
Once you get clarity about your business, you look at the bigger picture and make long term plans. This is the first step to increase your productivity as a blogger.
Why? Because having a long term plan will put a target in front of you and motivate you to work towards it.
Without a long term plan and a goal you will simple be checking emails, hanging out on social media and occasionally work on your blog.
This is not the best working model for a blogger.
As a blogger, if you want to be productive every day, you should have long term goals, that are split up into short term goals, which again are split into manageable chunks (tasks) that you handle on a daily basis.
Let’s answer this question first and talk about productivity later!
How to be more productive as a blogger? Have focus
See I’ve emphasized “blogger” in the heading above?
Remember I talked about distractions in the beginning?
Well you cannot eliminate them as a blogger, coz you need to do a lot of research, be on social media and put your face all over the internet.
And this can lead to a lot of distraction.
But that doesn’t mean you’ve to get lost in the sea of things to do. Often times, you get lost when you don’t have clarity, which we talked about earlier.
But having focus is another part of the story.
Now, assuming that you have your long term plan > short term action plans > daily tasks and strategies, you have something to work on everyday, right?
You have a precise list of stuff that you need to take care on a daily basis.
When you have that stuff in front of you, work on that and that alone.
If you find yourself getting distracted quite often, use the appropriate productivity tools for bloggers (more on that below).
These are the bits you need to stay focused:
- Have a clear long term goal
- Create an action plan to achieve that goal
- Organize the baby steps
- Split big goals into chunks to easily get them done
- Take action and approach tasks one by one
- Stop regularly and analyze the results (more on this below)
Work in blocks to become a productive blogger (batch processing)
The working hours of a blogger can get boring by the day since all we do is sit in front of the computer.
This can be really tiring. And when you get tired, that will seriously hit your productivity.
To avoid this boredom and kinda sick feeling from emerging inside you, try to work in short blocks of time and do batch process.
The Promodoro technique is the best bet in this case.
Choose to work 25 minutes and compulsorily take a 5 minute break. Or you can also choose to work an hour straight and take a 10 minute break.
It is very important that you take your eyes and focus off your blogging activity at regular intervals to make yourself more productive.
And one important advice here > Have everything ready when you start working in a block of time.
Do not set aside time for writing a particular blog post until you have all the material ready and have done the research.
With this tip (working in small blocks of time), you can also avoid multi-tasking!
Analyze your plan regularly
Do not keep working hard monotonously on a strategy. It is very crucial in any business to pause and analyze.
Whenever you are implementing something new, or whenever you are working on a strategy, you need to pause often and look back. And, analyze the results.
If you keep on working on a thing without looking back, you are not being productive.
You could be wasting your energy on strategies that don’t work and you could be missing out on strategies that work.
Stopping by and looking back helps you to find out what worked and what didn’t work.
This information is crucial for any business (not just for blogging).
In short > Find out what works and do more of it. Find out what doesn’t work and eliminate it or tweak it.
Have the RIGHT productivity tools
As a blogger we use so many tools every day for blogging, social networking, promotion etc.
It is also important that we use the right tools in order to keep ourselves productive and to keep us on track.
I use Evernote to keep myself alive in this chaos 🙂 It not just helps me plan things, but also to stay focused and keep an account of my productivity.
I keep track of projects and keep a collection of all the relevant documents/details in Evernote. Almost no chaos.
I use Wunderlist a task management tool.
I used to use a variety of different tools for keyword research, tracking my search engine traffic and keyword positions, etc. Now I only use one tool – Semrush.
Using the right productivity tools also mean using less number of tools. Less is more.
When you use various/numerous tools, while in fact you can use one or two, you are naturally wasting time and energy.
Additional productivity tips you can use to create your own blogging strategy
Let me share some of the generic, yet highly useful productivity tips. You can put together these tips in right combination to develop your own blogging strategy.
Allocate time to each task
According to Parkinson’s law, work expands itself to fill the allocated time.
So it’s very important that you should allocate specific time to every task.
If you don’t do this, it is very likely that you are working longer on a task than it is actually needed.
Indirectly, procrastination can get into the mix forcing you to work on a task for very long.
This is a serious productivity killer.
Work in a distraction-free environment
Blogging is a creative task. And it is real work.
So worl in a distraction free environment to make the most out of every minute.
Turn off the Television and auto-notifier applications like Tweetdeck, Google talk when you are working on your blog.
Find out the best time
The human behavior is not same whole day. It keeps on changing.
There will be a time in the day when you’ll be feeling most productive and creative than others.
Some people are more productive in early mornings, whereas few prefer to work at nights.
Identify which time works best for you and finish all your blogging tasks during that time.
In short – synchronize your blogging work along with your (mental and physical) energy level.
Write as much as you can
There will be some good days to write a lot and some bad days when you can think of nothing to write.
So use your good days to the maximum by writing as much as you can.
You can use these extra posts when you can’t think of anything new to write or want to take a break from blogging.
Don’t waste your (precious) time in non-productive tasks
Though, reading other blogs is important as it helps in getting new ideas and keeps you updated with latest happenings in the industry, don’t overdo it.
Similarly don’t waste lot of your time by checking your traffic stats, affiliate earnings, adwords revenues every other hour.
Set realistic goals
Keep a daily to-do list with all the blogging related tasks you want to do each day.
But don’t set unrealistic goals by filling your lists with hundreds of tasks.
Setting realistic goals and finishing your to-do list every day will give you a feeling of achievement and keep you motivated for the next day’s tasks.
Knowing your limits is very crucial in order to set realistic goals.
And, unrealistic goals demotivate you easily, because you are most likely not going to finish those.
This will certainly create a big setback on your productivity.
Avoid multitasking
Though multitasking may be a good thing for non-creative tasks but when it comes to creative work like blogging, studies have revealed that the persons who multitask a lot lose their focus easily.
Imaging writing an article one moment, replying to a friend on IM other moment, then checking the email, you will lose your focus when you start writing the article again.
So avoid multitasking.
If you are writing something then complete it in one sitting without doing any other task. If you are replying to comments then reply to all of them at same time.
How productive are YOU as a blogger?
It is not about the shiny tools you use. It is not about how much knowledge you have on the topic of “productivity”.
Nothing will help and nothing will really matter unless you have a working system in place using which you are actually being productive.
What productivity tools do you use? What do you do to keep yourselves accountable?
Or are you the blogger who doesn’t worry about being productive and just performs tasks everyday when and as they come in (I won’t be surprised)?
Let me (and everyone else) know in the comments!
I hope I have shared some really nice (and practical) productivity tips for bloggers in this post.
Now get to work after sharing this post and leaving a comment below 🙂
Hey Jane!
What an EPIC and super valuable blog post on productivity for bloggers that you got here!
This is a lot of helpful information.
I like using the Pomodor Technique. That has helped a lot to get stuff done consistently.
I also avoid multitasking, as you mentioned here. Multitasking can really hurt your productivity. You have to focus on one task at a time.
I do like to write my “To-Do” list for the next day on my whiteboard before I go to bed. Getting organized and doing this, really helps with productivity!
I’ve enjoyed reading this article. Great job!
Thank you very much for sharing!
Cheers! 😀
Hello, thanks for sharing so much helpful tips to increase productivity. I am a blogger too and never noticed many of the points you have mentioned here. Now that I think of them, I realize how much they actually take time from my daily routine. There’s is actually a lot of room to optimize my time and become more productive for my business. I’m gonna reschedule my time now.
Hello Jane,
Great tips over here 🙂
Indeed the world of Internet get us a lot of opportunities as well as they get us a lot of things which can distract us at the same time. Platforms like social media do get in these task and if we get stuck over these the whole day vanish like
a bang. Thus nothing creative done from our side on a single day, it was wasted on reacting and reaching some different things.
Blogging need a lot of patience and concentration. I too thought that just giving couple of hours a day can be enough for my blogging, but as deeper I dig, 24 hours a day too become short, I wish that if there could be some more hours which can be
added in a day.
I prefer to maintain a checklist which helps me a lot, all the things I need to do regarding my blog and its growth can be touched in a single day, also I can manage things like interacting with people on my social media platforms and can watch
some funny videos to get going again for my work with a fresh mind.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Hello Jane,
This is more than a good write up. Lot of people are searching for a way to become a productive blogger and i would recommend this as a one source to them. These tips are very helpful and any blogger can try these stuffs for achieving their goal. I had a good reading session,thanks for sharing.
Cheers!!!
Hi Jane,
Those are some good tips you shared, Planning happens often but the execution part is important and carrying out these plans for a long time, that will ultimately lead to success. Free tools will help us to analyse and study many factors. Thank You
Hey, Jane,
You have shared an epic post. Indeed, this is the most influencing post for any blogger. Very well managed and well-explained post. I used to work in silent place and daily maintain work plan. I work 12 hours a day and take a break after every 4 hours. I also used some tools for SEO work and analyzing work. As you say, don’t do multitasking work. In one day, i only work on one item or project. It’s really a great tip. Thank you for sharing a great post.
I always tend to get a bit lost from the topic while writing blog posts. The suggestions mentioned in this article are great and I plan on implementing them to improve my blogging. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Jane,
I am new to blogging & SEO for my website and i found your article quite helpful & motivating as well, i help me and guide how i can improve my website & blog. and most important thing i learn from this is. we have to work hard to make a batter online presence. nothing come free spending time is always gives return but a good instructor can tells us how to use time.
Thanks again !
Hi Jane,
Amazing article. Great tips and you have clearly explained , using right online tools and research is not the only thing needed to become a productivity blogger. Scheduling time and following up with it is difficult but very important , we need clear mind and plans and must work on it to reach our goal. Following your tips will definitely make any one productive in any area, not limited to blogging.
Good productivity tips for blogging. Thanks for sharing.
Reji Stephenson
I love the pomodoro technique, I used it to study in college and found it so helpful! Thanks fo me these tips, I’m going to get to making a concrete list now 🙂
Great tips and you have clearly explained , using right online tools and research is not the only thing needed to become a productivity blogger.
Free tools will help us to analyse and study many factors.
Thank You
Hi,
What an awesome post! 🙂
Let me add here, I’ve learnt a lot from you about blog commenting and you are so good with my friend. Thanks for mentioning my first guest post about blog commenting at your blog – just shared my experiences and i love the way it’s picked up so well here.
As i always say, if you take time to read, understand, and then comment – your words will flow so naturally, and those would always be from your heart. i don’t really care about the niche to comment on, as some people do, because as bloggers, we do come across each other sometimes or the other, and that’s exactly how we build those relationships, which turn into such good friendships over time, isn’t it?
thanks for sharing all of this with us. loved the questions in the end and yor apt answer – no one could have answered them better. have a nice week ahead, and happy thanksgiving as well 🙂
Hello
Jane,
Very informative post you have written about productivity for bloggers. I like the point “Have clear goals in order to boost your productivity” and this is true we should have clarity from first day. Sure, If anyone will follow all these tips they can easily handle the blogging mistakes.
I like the way you explained this whole post and all these tips are very effective and we should know before starting blogging journey.
Thanks for sharing and well explaning.
Best wishes,
Praveen verma
Hey Jane,
Thanks for sharing the informative blog. I am also a new blogger and it helped me a lot to learn new things about blogging. Keep up the good jane.
Wow, it sounds good. Firstly i liked your website, its clean and user friendly.
I thing proper planning and executing those plans into clients is the only way. Also marketing is the key.
Great post! Thank you Jane. You definitely know your stuff. I like the Pomodoro method. Sometimes I feel guilty taking a break, but reading how it actually helps productivity put everything in perspective. Cheers!
Blogging obsession a lot of patience and inclusion. I too thought that just giving a couple of hours hours of hours of hours of daylight can be sufficient for my blogging, but as deeper I dig, 24 hours a day too become immediate, I object that if there could be some more hours which can be
another in a day.
Hi Jane, Great post thanks! Having clear goals set of what you want to achieve definitely helps productivity. You can see that end goal more clearly defined and it’s easy to work to get there. SEM Rush is a great tool I use both in agency and blogger life too and well worth paying for if you have the traffic in my opinion! Thanks 🙂
Productive bloggers are really creative in real life. A lot of failure and practice make a blogger productive. Thanks for giving some ideas on it.
Hi Jane,
This is an EPIC post, and I already tweeted it because of the quality. Recently, I started using Pomodoro technique, and to my surprise, it works flawlessly.
I’m able to churn out, even more, content now without being stressed.
Thanks for great share 🙂
Shafi
Glad you liked the post Shafi! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment and thanks a lot for the tweet!
Hi Jane,
What a remarkable post you have here. The tips are amazing and if implemented correctly, one can scale through and become a superb blogger in the shortest time.
Productive is surely what all bloggers need – pro bloggers as well as newbie bloggers, because at some point you get black-out, not knowing where or what to write.
However, being productive will help you get past this hurdles because you have a strategy, clear objectives, a framework so to speak.
Thank you for sharing this insightful post.
Thanks for the great advice! I have such a hard time getting focused and actually getting things done, but if I can I can get a lot done in one go.
Hello Jane, Very informative as usual, You have always provided such great tips for aspiring bloggers!Thanks for sharing.
HI
Thank you so much for sharing this.
I really like the way you explained things to us,
I learned alot just by reading your blogs, thanks again.
Thank You.
You are welcome Mayuresh! Glad to know that!
amazing tips are there in your article. I loved all those and i want to apply all that. Overall your blog is aw sum. I would like to tell my friends to visit this site at least once. Thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work
You are welcome Ashutosh. And thanks for the nice words 🙂
Those five points are really productive for a blogger to continue writing and working without distraction.
Great tips and you have clearly explained,and a five points are very productive for a blogger to continue writing and working without distraction.
These are must follow tips for bloggers. The point i like the most is “Avoid Multitasking”. Doing mutliple jobs leads us nowhere, we should concentrate on single project at once. Second, Distraction free environment is must too….
Will follow your blog for more nice tips…
Thank you very much for sharing this information, as I’m starting now in the digital marketing world and I still do not know how to define my SEO strategies.
Thank you!
Jane,
Great and very useful blog for every one who has to start their career as a blogger..
Thanks a lot sharing this post..God bless
As a blogger discipline and productivity are my 2 most important challenges. I focus quite a bit on content and technical matters but I need to be reminded on a periodic basis of the important principles to follow to keep my productivity level up. Thank you for putting up these great tips.
Hello
I work from home and i am married person, soon to be daddy..
Should i now get my new office or continue working from home? I have 5-6 sites to take care of.
Hello Jane,
I must say after reading your article that everyone has what it takes to become a productive blogger, they just haven’t found it yet.
Good day😗
Hello Jane,
SUPERB post, I must say!
You have rightly spotted the actual reason we procrastinate with our blog- at so many points we THINK we are working while we are actually not. We have guilt-free reasons to delay things. Since I’m a mom blogger I have even less time (see I found one excuse..lol!). I use a planner to stay organized and productive. Taking stock of my activities throughout the day and finding small free slots is a helpful activity for me.
Hey Shweta, I’m a mom blogger too and I can relate 🙂 Planning does make a difference even if we could not 100% stick to the plan 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
I’m working on three blogs for the last 5 months but always get problems in researching products. All of my websites are affiliate and I’ve to write reviews of hundred of products and it’s not possible to know information about all of them. Can you guide me on how to do that in an effective way?
Thank you so much Jane, it’s always good to read something like this over and over again so it can become part of you. Thanks once again. I really needed to read this.
Your share is wonderful, thank you for these helpful shares