Today I am starting a little blog post series about all the things I do, and don’t do on my blog. Aka how I prioritise and outsource my way to not being a total raving lunatic (and still having some sort of life) even when running two successful blogs.
Now as any blogger would know, whether you blog full time or not, there is always a mile long to-do list with blogging. And always so many other things you’d love to do, or just know you need to do (if only you could find the time).
And it was a lesson I learned pretty early on that unless you figure out A – How to prioritise, and B – How to realistically set up your workload for each day/week and even month. You will just never get anywhere (or not anywhere you actually want to go anyway).
I don’t know about you, but when I am feeling either unfocused or overwhelmed I end up just spending way to much time on social media, or getting lost down the Google rabbit hole. And really, nothing productive gets done.
So this is what I prioritise, and how I set up my weeks to make sure I am as effective as possible.
PLANNING & ROUTINE
Planning is super key for me. As is a bit of routine.
I personally like to give myself a quarterly focus of an area I want to grow, aka – traffic, social, recurring revenue, ad sales etc.. with monthly mini-projects or milestones, and then weekly must-do tasks.
But what is my business growth time?
Well that brings me back to my routine. You see it can be very (VERY) easy to end up making yourself so busy with the day to day stuff that you never get any time to do the stuff that is going to significantly grow your traffic or income (aka grow your business).
So I try (although I am not always perfect at it) to split up my week into two parts, with a break thrown in for good measure.
MY ROUTINE (PART 1) – WORKING ON THE BUSINESS
Part 1 is the big project, business growth stuff aka “working ON my business” (this is normally Mondays and Tuesdays when I’m feeling refreshed and creative)
Also as I know this is the stuff I most want to be doing, and will sort of end up switching back and forth between anyway, I seem to get a lot more done if I allow myself to get this all ticked off first.
So this can include:
– Creating new products and courses (or updating existing ones!).
– Creating new FREE products for old subscribers and new.
– Setting up sales funnels (my current obsession!)
– Building or updating any custom pages or sales pages I need (I know I should outsource this but I really enjoy doing it!)
– Trying and testing a new social media tactic.
MY ROUTINE (mid-week break)
In an ideal world I also try to have Wednesdays away from the office, to give my body and mind a little TLC (although if I am honest, at least 50% of the time I end up just working right through my “break”, but I do it from home and in my pjs so it doesn’t feel like work quite as much).
On the days when I do actually take my break properly, I spend my Wednesdays doing a combo of moving and learning.
So some sort of fun exercise in the morning (and I cannot stress how much I need it to be fun!!), and then reading a business or 
developlment book, or listening to podcasts and webinars in the afternoon.
As a small business owner it is not uncommon for me to end up working on weekends, or to have those weekends absolutely jam-packed with back-to-back catch ups and chores, which just isn’t very restful or nourishing.
And when you run your own business physical and mental burn out is a real problem, so I like to (try to) take this chance to spend a bit of me time. And when I do I find it really pays off!
MY ROUTINE (PART 2) – WORKING IN THE BUSINESS
And then Part 2 is all about the more day to day stuff, and I try to make sure it’s all ready for the following week.
I would love to say that I am one of those people who batches everything up months in advance, and I do aspire to be like that one day, but realistically I am still flying by the seat of my pants most weeks so even just being a week ahead is a win for me.
This part of my week includes;
– Writing blog posts (like this one…)
– Setting up my social media schedule (I do actually usually manage to do this a month at a time, and now with tools like Edgar a lot is actually set up almost a year at a time!)
– Updating, checking, refreshing Facebook ads.
– Guest posting, and outreach.
– Paying bills and freelancers (yawn), and other book keeping things.
– Editing the SBB Magazine.
– Checking in with my VAs, updating or creating any new “how tos” for new tasks I am assizing to them.
– Chatting with my SBB Facebook groups (gulp… I have three now!).
– Creating content for the Blog Squad training hub…
– And lots, lots more!
REALITY CHECK
Now of course unexpected things do come up. But when I find I have gotten off course, and am starting to feel a bit lost and/or overwhelmed, I always bring myself back to my plan (which I’ll shuffle or extend if I need to) and my routine, and I am quickly back on track again.
And of course this can still apply if you are not working on your blog business full-time yet. Just look at the time you do have, and see if there is a way to put some structure and planning around it too.
And if you find you don’t have any time for working ON your blog just yet, then it’s probably time you looked at getting a VA (Virtual Assistant) and/or cut back on your blogging frequency, and/or tried to get a few more things automated. Otherwise I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are going to find it VERY hard to grow your blog if you don’t spend time dedicated to doing just that.
