How to Save Time Blogging
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Do you spend too much time working on your blog?
Has it been months since you updated your blog because you were just too busy?
Have you avoided starting a blog because you can’t figure out how to squeeze it into your already busy schedule?
You’re definitely not alone.
When I asked the Blogging Organizers group, “What is your biggest blogging challenge?” by far the most common answer was “making time to blog.”
The good news is that blogging doesn’t have to consume your life. With a little planning and a few simple systems, you can create valuable content without spending hours staring at a blank screen. Here’s the approach I’ve used while publishing at least one post a week for nearly 20 years.
Writing a blog post involves several different tasks, but you don’t have to do them all in one sitting. In fact, if you’re struggling to find time to blog, I recommend that you don’t.
Let’s break those tasks down into five phases: Planning, Writing, Illustrating, Publishing, and Promoting.
One of the best time-saving strategies is to batch similar tasks. Instead of completing every step for one blog post before starting the next, try batching similar tasks. Brainstorm several topics in one sitting, write outlines for multiple posts another day, then edit or create graphics in batches. You’ll spend less time switching between different types of work and more time making real progress.
Planning
One of the biggest time-wasters is sitting down to write without a blogging plan. Spending a few minutes planning ahead can save you hours later.
Set a Goal
For your blog to bring the results you need, before you even decide what to write about, you need to know why you’re writing it. Which of your business objectives will it relate to: more email subscribers, industry recognition, new clients, or something else altogether?
When you know what you want a post to accomplish, it’s much easier to decide what belongs in it—and what doesn’t.
Start an Ideas List
You can waste hours considering different ideas and finally starting to write about a particular topic, only to realize you need to do more research or you’re just not excited about it. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening with a little planning.
The following brainstorming methods will help you to generate hundreds of blogging ideas.
- Answer questions clients often ask
- Draw inspiration from books, movies, or current events
- Look at what people are discussing on social media
- Repurpose existing content
- Ask ChatGPT or another AI assistant for ideas. Here’s a suggested prompt:
I am a professional organizer specializing in custom closet design. I need topic ideas for my blog that will showcase my expertise and make clients want to hire me.
As you’re brainstorming, capture as many blogging ideas as possible. Keep a list of possible topics in a notebook or your favorite notes app. Choose something you can easily update when new ideas come to you.
Create a Schedule
Next, plan what you will blog about in the coming weeks. You may find it helpful to select a theme to focus on for a few weeks so you’re not just churning out random content. Doing this also creates a kind of flow from one post to the next, increasing reader engagement.
There are a lot of different tools you can use to keep track of your blogging schedule. The one you choose is a matter of personal preference, but here are a few options.
I currently use a paper planner which is dedicated to blogging and social media, but use whatever system you’ll actually keep updated – a digital calendar, a Google Sheet, or even a wall calendar.
Knowing what you’re going to blog about before your writing session will give you a huge jump-start.
Writing
Many bloggers are paralyzed by perfectionism. Spelling, grammar, and clarity are important, but don’t let them interfere with your writing process. When you’re working on your first draft, just let the ideas flow. It’s okay to use point forms, abbreviations, or even doodles at this point.
If you get stuck, set it aside and come back later. When you come back to it, you may feel more inspired, or you may decide it wasn’t a such a great idea after all. That’s okay, but don’t discard what you’ve done. You may be able to use it for another post in the future.
Set a timer for 30–60 minutes and focus only on writing. If you’re new to time blocking, set shorter intervals (such as 15 minutes) so you can decide whether to continue or switch to another task.
Only when your ideas are fully fleshed out should you go back and edit for spelling, grammar, and clarity. It’s even better to let someone else look it over, either another person or an AI assistant, because it’s easy to overlook your own mistakes.
You may find it helpful to paste your draft into ChatGPT and ask for suggestions. Just remember, these are only suggestions. If you don’t agree with something, or it doesn’t feel authentic, go with your gut.
Illustrating
These days visuals are an important component of blogging. But instead of spending hours looking for just the right stock photo for your post, consider other options:
- your own photos (make sure they’re in focus and not over- or underexposed)
- Canva or Snappa
- AI-generated images (when appropriate)
If you prefer using stock photos, choose a service with good search tools, like Depositphotos. Spending a dollar or two on the right image is better than endlessly searching free photo sites.
Publishing
Many bloggers love to write, but struggle with the technology involved with getting their posts onto their blogs.
If this sounds like you, consider formatting, image optimization, and publishing to a virtual assistant or website professional so you can focus on creating great content.
Promoting
Your work isn’t done once your post is published! All that hard work you’ve done planning and writing will go to waste if nobody reads it. Many successful bloggers spend more time promoting their posts than writing them!
Fortunately, there are lots of ways to promote your blog posts, and many of them don’t take all that much time. Here are just a few possibilities:
- Use Jetpack or Zapier to automatically share your new posts on your social media profiles
- Use Buffer to schedule additional social media posts
- Use Hiplay or Recurpost to automatically repost the content you select
- Use Mailchimp to automatically send your new posts to your email subscribers
- Join a blogging community where members are committed to sharing each others’ posts – there’s power in numbers!
And don’t make the mistake of only promoting your latest post – most of your posts will still have value long after they’ve been published.
Saving time doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means creating a blogging process you can stick with consistently.
You don’t have to implement every strategy at once. Pick one or two that fit your workflow and build from there.
Which of these strategies already works well for you? Is there another time-saving blogging tip you’d add? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo © IgorTishenko /Depositphotos
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Thank you, Janet. These are great tips. I was very regular in posting a blog a week for several years. This year it has been a stretch for me as I’ve had personal and professional things get in the way of the time I had set aside to use for writing. I enjoy writing and sharing with my colleagues here so I’m doing my best to get back into a regular habit.
Hopefully some of these steps will help you create a routine that still works when life gets in the way.
Great advice, Janet. Below are a few more tips that helped me speed up the creation and idea-planning process.
When generating a blog post, I recently tried the OneNote dictation feature while doing my morning walk, and it was very helpful, especially when my hands hurt. Since I was in my quiet neighborhood, I could talk out loud and edit it when I got home. It does take some getting used to to gather your thoughts and talk them through. When I returned home, I had Claude help me make sure I wasn’t rambling too much.
Also, to figure out ideas, the PAID Yoast AI Content Planner, a part of Yoast Premium, “identifies content gaps in your site structure and recommends topics that strengthen your topical authority” – it works pretty well and helps you balance your blog content. Just open a new blog page, select the planner at the bottom, and it will suggest what to write about.
Thanks for making blogging so much easier.
Ooh, that’s a very handy feature that I didn’t know about, since I don’t have Yoast Premium. What an excellent tool!
Reading through this post makes me all the more aware of all the various aspects of being a blogger. Had I known all this at the beginning, I may have felt too intimidated to begin! I’m glad I didn’t, because the blog has been a nice aspect of my business.
I definitely like having a “running ideas” list. I initially made a schedule for when I would write about what, but I abandoned that. Now I look at the list each week and pick what I’m in the mood to write about. Same approach for my reels. In some cases, I get inspired to write about something that never even made it to the list.
Being a part of the blogging group has definitely enriched my journey. It’s nice to share with others and get a bit of feedback. I’ve also learned a lot by reading the blogs of others in my industry. A top notch group!!
Seana, thank you so much for your kind words about Blogging Organizers! You are a real asset to the group.
As I was reading through your suggestions, I realized that I do most of these. There is always room to improve, but at this point after blogging for almost 17 years (what?), I have found a good rhythm for the various stages you mentioned.
Planning- I generally have a rough idea of how my post will go, but it’s a flexible process. My plan typically begins with the idea and I free-write from there.
Set a Goal- Definitely. I know my audience and have learned to include a call to action.
Ideas List- Check! I’m never short on ideas. Whenever something comes up, I capture it and put it into my blogging ideas system. It’s a binder organized by topics. There’s even one section called “Seed Ideas.” Those could be phrases or words without a particular topic, but that could blossom into something in the future. Very often, I just write without checking my ideas files. But when I’m stuck or feeling uninspired, I will go through my binder. It never disappoints.
Create a Schedule – I create a schedule for six months at a time. Each month it themed, the dates of the posts are determined, and I give myself in advance certain weeks that I will “skip.” However, I leave it flexible if something needs to change, like an unexpected emergency or some other life event that I hadn’t anticipated.
Writing – This is perhaps my favorite part of the process. I write until I’m done. No timers needed. It could go quickly and take an hour or much longer. It depends on many factors like the clarity of my idea, how tired or not I am, or what else is going on that day or week. But in general I have my ‘writing/blogging day” and I look forward to it. I block out the hours to do most of the parts.
Illustrating- I use my own photos 98% of the time. I also use Canva to format images and Animoto to create videos.
Publishing- That’s all me. I’ve thought about hiring an assistant, but at this point, I’ve got the system down and do it easily.
Promoting- Yes. That’s an important part of writing. Because if you don’t promote your post, how will anyone find it? I used to use Hootsuite and don’t anymore. I think the free version ended, and I didn’t want to pay for it. Mailchimp helps to automatically send out a compilation e-newsletter with my latest posts each month. I promote the posts on various social media platforms. And of course, I love our Monday blogging group shares.
Linda, thank you so much for sharing the details of your process! Clearly, it’s working, because you’re one of the most consistent and engaging bloggers I know. I appreciate your regular participation in the Weekly Blog Share and Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival!
I was happy to share those details, and appreciated the prompts you gave to think about them in this way.
Thank you for your kind words of support and recognition. I love participating in the weekly blog shares and monthly POBC that you organize. It continue to be a wonderful opportunity to share and learn with my colleagues. Grateful for you.
I agree that blogging without a plan is pointless, but I will admit, I feel the same way about blogging that I do about eating. When I visit my mother, she’ll ask me at breakfast what I want for dinner the next night. It doesn’t matter, because by the next night, I’ll want something completely different. I feel the same way about blogging. I may decide that I want to write about X days or weeks in advance, but if I don’t feel like writing about that when it’s time, I won’t do it. I’ll rebel. Most of the time, it’s not a problem, but there are swaths, sometimes a few weeks long, where I just don’t feel inspired, so I won’t, and you couldn’t convince me for a million dollars. (Well, maybe a million.)
That said, my plans (which include lots of draft material so that when I DO feel like writing, everything is in place) and my writing, itself, all will go smoothly. That idea list is ready for me…when I’m ready. But illustrating still feels like such a drag. (I prefer videos to static photos whenever possible, and I hate that WordPress changed everything a few years ago from you just being able to put a YouTube link on its own line to make it render properly to having to embed and center to make it fit properly.
I love all of your suggestions for promoting. I used to love using Jetpack to automatically promote my posts, but I stopped using it when my posts went live (twice) on days of tragedies, including once during a school shooting. So, I do it manually, to ensure that it can’t run afoul of the evil in the world. Still, your resources are fabulous. Thank you, Janet!
Yes, automation can be risky! I once had a plugin that would randomly tweet older blog posts (I could set to to exclude any that were time-sensitive or seasonal) at a set interval, but something went wrong and one day I woke up to discover that it has posted hundreds of tweets overnight – what a disaster that was! I immediately uninstalled the plugin and haven’t tried anything like that again.
Wow, Janet, this post really shows how much you’ve learned over the years. Thank you so much for sharing this broad array of resources and ideas.