Raise your hand if your New Year’s resolutions included “Blog more regularly,” “Blog more often,” “Stay on top of my blog more” or the like.
I hear from bloggers all the time about the guilt, shame and frustration that comes from feeling behind, having dead weeks without posts, or announcing a schedule and not sticking to it. So, as we get into the rhythm of a new year, I’d love to see you get ahead of yourself.
Step One: Lower the number of times you post per week.
If you’re struggling (and often failing) at your goal of six posts a week, lower it to three. Choose set days (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) so the schedule feels intentional to readers and to you.
Step Two: As you create more content, don’t post it, cue it up.
Now that you’ve given yourself permission to only do three posts, that sweet relief may suddenly make you more productive. Instead of putting up posts four & five now, cue them up to go live at a future date.
Step Three: Stop thinking weekly & view your blog in months.
If you just scaled back to three posts a week for January, consider February or March is when you’ll increase to five.
Step Four: Try to stay two weeks ahead.
If you want to increase to three posts a week to five, get two full weeks cued up with five posts before you make that shift. Don’t set a pace you can’t keep up with. Get ahead of yourself and the joy vs guilt that comes from feeling on top of things, will be great momentum to carry you forward.
Step Five: When you hit a rough patch– make an intentional downshift.
Whether it’s a busy season at work or you are heading to the hospital all month with a parent, adjust accordingly. Nix the Saturday post but keep the Tuesday & Thursday so the schedule continues to feel intentional. Worst case? Post a “gone fishing” note of explanation and tell your readers the date you’ll be back. Then stick to it. Even if it’s just to update and say you’ll be away for two more weeks. Don’t beat yourself up and ease up on your self imposed expectations. But don’t be haphazard. Even if it’s one Monday post a week, consistency shows you take yourself seriously, and then others will take you seriously as well.
Give yourself some grace, and present it gracefully to the world.
What I do now is to try to plan what i blog way in advance and I draw inspiration from just about anything.
Excellent advice. I didn’t have to ‘take a break’ for my honeymoon because I had blog posts saved up. I just wrote my first ‘Best Hats for Easter’ post last night. They really save the day when I am suffering from writers block.
Kathleen
http://thatsaprettyhat.blogspot.com