Time Management for Bloggers: 9 Tips to Become an Efficient Blogger

If you’re like most bloggers, you probably have a lot on your plate.

From coming up with fresh content ideas, to writing consistently and optimizing traffic, there’s a lot to do.

And that’s why time management for bloggers is so important.

By learning to manage your time effectively, you can make sure you’re able to get all of your blogging tasks done without feeling overwhelmed.

In this post, I’ll share some time management tips specifically for bloggers.

Let’s dive in.

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1. Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

One of the most important things you can do as a blogger is to manage your energy, not your time.

I took this idea from the book The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Here’s the basic premise:

Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, but not everyone has the same amount of energy.

And your energy determines how much you can get done.

If you try to manage your time, you’ll end up feeling overwhelmed and stressed because there’s always more that could be done.

But if you focus on managing your energy, you’ll be able to get more done in less time because you’ll be working when you’re at your best.

Here are a few things you can do to ensure you’re managing your energy efficiently:

1. Get enough sleep: This is important for so many reasons, but it’s especially important for keeping your energy levels up. If you’re not getting quality sleep, you won’t have the energy you need to get through the day.
2. Eat healthy: What you eat affects how much energy you have. So if you want to have more energy, make sure you’re eating foods that will give you sustained energy throughout the day instead of quick bursts followed by a crash.
3. Exercise: Exercise is a essential for physical and mental wellbeing. It also increases stamina, which provides more consistent energy throught your day.
4. Take breaks: When you feel yourself getting tired, take a break instead of pushing through it. This will prevent burnout and give you more energy in the long run.
5. Find your optimal working hours: Pay attention to when you have the most energy during the day and try to do your most important work during these times. For some people that might be early in the morning, for others it might be late at night. Find what works for you and stick to it as much as possible.

2. Set Clear Blogging Goals

One of the best ways to be successful at time management for bloggers is to set clear blogging goals.

By having a goal in mind, you can better focus your efforts and stay on track.

Not sure what goals to set? Here are some ideas:

• Number of posts: How many articles do you want on your blog 1 year from now? Divide that number by 52, so you know how much you need to post each week. By thinking bigger and breaking it down, you’ll be motivated, without being overwhelmed.
• Amount of traffic: Do you want 100 visits per month or 10,000? Knowing your traffic goals will help you know how much content you need, which will motivate the previous goal.
• Income: For some of us, money is motivating. And defining your revenue goals for your blog can also make other goals clearer. If your income goal is $1,000 per month, how many articles will you need? And how much traffic?

By setting clear blogging goals, you’ll make better use your time and make consistent progress.

3. Do What You Hate First

In order to be productive, it is often helpful to do the things you hate first.

This is commonly referred to as “Eating That Frog”, which is a productivity book by Brian Tracy.

By getting the most difficult tasks out of the way first, you find that the rest of your day is more productive and enjoyable.

It’s tough to force yourself to do something you really don’t want to do, but there are a few tricks that can help.

First, try breaking the task down into smaller, more manageable chunks. This will make it feel less daunting and more manageable.

Second, set a timer and commit to working on the task for a set amount of time. Once the timer goes off, you can take a break and relax, knowing that you’ve made some progress. (Also read tip 8 in this post)

Finally, try to find something positive about the task. For example, if you’re writing content, think about how many people it will help once it’s published.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to get through even the most difficult tasks. And enjoy guilt free play once the important work is done.

4. Focus by Eliminating Distraction

It’s easy to get lost in a sea of distractions when you’re trying to focus on blogging.

Whether you’re working on a new post, coming up with content ideas or promoting your blog, staying focused can be a challenge.

There are a few things you can do to imporve your focus and get more done in less time.

The biggest detriment to your focus is having too many distraction. If you find it hard to stay on track, it’s probably because you have too many things stealing your attention. When you’re working on your blog, make sure you eliminate all distractions like mobile notifications, social media, and clutter in your environment.

Another way to stay focused is to set aside specific times when you know you won’t be disturbed. The best time I find I can get the most done is super early in the morning. For you, it might be in the middle of the day when no one’s around or late at night.

Third, keep a list of things you need to do for your blog. This could be a spreadsheet of content ideas that you check off when they’re completed. Or using a productivity tool like TickTick to manage your blogging tasks. Stick to these tasks and avoid getting distracted by unimportant, busy work.

Lastly, you must take breaks to better manage your time. Our attention is limited and our focus begins to fatigue after 30 – 60 minutes. So, step away from your computer and do something unrelated to blogging like going for a walk or practice meditation.

5. Take Imperfect Action

One of the biggest issues that many bloggers have is perfectionism.

It can show up as subtle self-criticism or cause complete paralysis and fear, preventing you from launching your blog in the first place.

You might worry that your writing idea isn’t good enough or that you can’t find the perfect words to express your thoughts.

This perfectionism in writing will keep you stuck forever.

Thankfully, there is a way out and you don’t have to wait until everything is perfect to take action on your dreams.

How?

By taking imperfect action! You heard that right. You have to get comfortable with good enough, because perfection is a losing battle.

When you accept your work the way it is, you care less about what others think. And you learn how you can improve in the process.

Imagine posting an article every day for 90 days, no matter what. The first 20-30 articles will be terrible, but the last 10-20 will be so much better.

Sometimes, the only way to get good at something is to get good at taking imperfect action until you get the results you want.

6. Develop a Writing Habit

If you want to completely master your time and energy, develop a writing habit.

To publish a lot of content takes up a considerable amount of time and energy, especially when it’s inconsistent.

Habits make the whole process easier, because when it’s a habit, it’s automatic.

The best way to develop a new habit is to pair it with a current habit, like your morning coffee or after you brush your teeth.

Also, you don’t need to write much to turn it into a habit. Just the action of sitting down for 10 minutes and writing something will do the trick.

You just have to do it long enough for the habit to stick.

Here’s a few tips to develope a writing habit.

1. Write at the same time everyday.
2. Don’t worry too much about what you’re writing, just write something.
3. Use a habit tracker. When you build up streaks it motivates you to keep it going.
4. If you miss a day, don’t worry. Just try not to miss two or more days in a row, or the habit becomes difficult to maintain.
5. Get an accountability buddy. Social accountability is a huge motivator when developing a new habit.

I highly recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear if you want to master the art of habit formation.

7. Use The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a simple but effective time management method for completing tasks.

It is based on the principle that we can only sustain focused attention for a certain amount of time before we need a break.

The Pomodoro Technique is named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that its inventor, Francesco Cirillo, used to keep track of his work sessions.

Cirillo found he could focus intensely for shorter periods of time and then take a break to refresh himself before starting another work session.

The Pomodoro Technique can be summarized as follows:

1. Choose a task to work on.
2. Set a Pomodoro timer to 25 minutes.
3. Work on the task until the timer rings.
4. Take a 5-minute break.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until the task is complete or until you have reached 4 Pomodoro sessions (2 hours).
6. Take a longer break of 20-30 minutes after every 4 Pomodoro sessions (2 hours).

8. Outsource Time-Consuming Tasks

It’s a common theme for newbie bloggers to wear all the hats.

You have to:

• Set up and design your blog
• Research content ideas
• Develop a content strategy
• Write all the content
• Increase revenue
• Learn Google Analytics

The list is enless.

Eventually, there comes a time when you need to delegate some of the work.

Full time bloggers say this is the most effective way to get your time back.

Instead of doing all of the work yourself forever, it’s better to focus on what you’re good at and outsource the things that drain you.

To outsource repetitive and time-consuming tasks, make use of platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.

You can find tons of people offering anything from keyword research and creating graphics, to editing and publishing articles.

Make sure you read their reviews and test out different people to find freelancers you can work well with.

Once you outsource some of your tasks, you’ll have much more time to focus on managing your blog, instead of being tied down by it.

9. Consider an AI Tool to Speed Up Workflow

If you manage a blog, you understand how much time and effort goes into creating quality content. From coming up with topics to conducting research to actual writing and editing, the process can take hours.

Something I have been doing for a few months now is getting AI tools to do the work for me. That is writing content.

There are tons of new AI blog post generators available that can assist you in your writing.

While they may not be perfect, they can save you a huge amount of time and even help with creative blocks.

I wrote about my AI blogging strategy here.

An tool I’ve been really impressed with recently is Autoblogging. You simply add the article title and a keyword and it writes an entire blog post in a few minutes.

Sign up for Autoblogging here. You can get your first 5 articles for just $1.

Conclusion: Time Management for Bloggers

That concludes this time management for bloggers post. These tips will turn you into a productive blogger, so that you can reach success sooner and with less effort.

The tips that has helped me the most is overcoming perfectionism and using AI tools.

If fact, they both go hand in hand, because these AI tools aren’t perfect, which helps me appreciate my work more.

They also help me produce content super fast and I just spend a small amount of time making the content useful for my readers.

If you want to try out an AI tool for yourself, I highly recommend trying out Autoblogging.

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