Time management and time arrangement for bloggers to blog and travel successfully. The day has only 24 hours. As old as this statement is, as well known is the problem – at the end of the day there are just too many things left on the desk. For me as a blogger, it’s the well-known problem and one of the most frequently asked questions in my various blogger workshops or talks at brands and PR agencies. How do you as a blogger manage all the tasks of the day and still take care of the planning of the next weeks.
Blogger – the all-inclusive package
If you look at the successful bloggers today, they offer customers everything needed, that all-inclusive blogger package. From a good photo production, to texts for their own blogs and sometimes also for corporate blogs, consultations on social media activities and in some cases even complete video reports. The blogger as a panacea.
Many bloggers travel alone or with a partner or photographer – but most tasks are left to the small group. If you participate as a blogger in a press trip, the program is usually well filled, you should also see some of the region or the country and usually comes late to bed before it starts again early the next morning.
The only problem is – actually, the texts for the blogposts also have to be written, the pictures edited and the social media actively maintained. But how is that supposed to succeed…? Only good time management helps.
In addition, there are the emails about the day, the requests for the next projects, products want to be photographed, fashion looks are shot and, of course, the appointments, flights, train connections are planned and partially booked. As a blogger, you have become your own travel agency, your own PR agency and, of course, a photo editing studio – and it is this variety that probably also fascinates many bloggers, like me again and again.
Of course, there are days when you still fall into bed in the evening, set the alarm clock for 5 a.m. and are startled to realize that there are only 3 hours and 41 minutes left until the first alarm clock rings.
You can keep it up for a few days – but then there has to be a break and so I always make sure that I have these breaks and “buffer days” in between. Most of the time it works, but of course there are exceptions and I rush from project to project. (which is not meant to be a complaint 😉 )
The question that always comes up though, how do you manage to get the time for creative blogposts, the time for good photos and for the appropriate post-processing and for the appropriate planning for the events. Time for time management 🙂
How can I coordinate everything? Time Management
One of my biggest problems in the last few years was simply getting on too many channels, too much information, updates and the like. Constantly ran the updates from Facebook in the background, the latest pictures from Instagram in my stream were displayed and of course you also wanted to liken, comment and know what your friends and blogger colleagues are doing in the world.
The problem – you started writing a blog post in the morning after breakfast and at 12:00 the article looked almost the same as it did at 09:00 in the morning. Too many distractions and you had to keep reading into the text. It not only takes an incredible amount of time, but also a lot of energy at the same time.
One was literally in the news “overflow” and had already on the first day in the week the feeling – “how should I still create everything until the end of the week”. Probably already the first signs of a blogger burnout. The famous listlessness – not having motivation to write texts anymore, not being able to upload a current picture, just sitting in front of a white screen and not knowing how to start the next sentence.
I tried it for a long time and set up fixed days and times for different things and thought about on which day I write blogposts, when I answer my emails and at which times I do social media. It worked relatively well on paper and in my head, but was often unworkable for me in practice for the following reasons:
One early meeting and there was no time for emails
A conference call in the time when I could be writing blogposts
Just at the airport, checking in the suitcases, when actually it would be the time for social media
A hotel tour in the time for my creative posts or a city tour when I should be editing photos.
It could have worked out well, but I didn’t take into account two major factors, on the one hand I’m not always in the office and in front of the laptop at the same time and much more crucial, the outside influences. The reaction times of other people, the allocation of my time slots by other people or sometimes simply – bad weather, traffic jams, delays, etc.
Golden rules for bloggers – smart time management
For every blogger there will certainly be their own experiences and golden rules and what works for me in the early morning, might work better for a blogger in the early evening – but I just tried to work on my days, blogposts, travels and photos in a bit more structured way, as long as it is possible.
My personal time management may shift a bit, of course, but generally for me I try to stick to the following facts and rules a bit, and for the most part I’ve done pretty well with them.
Avoid distractions when writing blogposts – optimal time management
When I write my blogposts, I always try to completely block out all possible distractions as much as possible. For me, this then includes e.g.
Closing all unnecessary windows in the browser, only the current blogpost online.
Turn off smartphone and put it far away 🙂 … otherwise one looks anyway again and again on it
If I notice after a short time, I can’t write about the topic at the moment, I can’t think of anything “reasonable”, stop directly and choose a new topic or another task.
If the first paragraph doesn’t work and you have to start several times, don’t try again. The next day it can only get better
If one is in a writing flow, I write several postings – at least from the thoughts etc. before. Read them again a day later to check and then put them online.
Personal blogposts or especially “My opinion” always get at least a day break, some things you write out of a mood, you mean the next day maybe not so and defuses it better something….
With technology reports, hotel experiences, etc. – do good research, look at your own notes again, and then try to put them into words.
Several key points about which one would like to write in the blogpost, write directly as a bullet list. The further information about it, you can always add.
There is no ideal time for blogposts. Often I am more creative in the afternoon or even in the late evening. What I attach great importance – no matter how late it has become – when I come from an event or a restaurant visit, to sit down immediately at the laptop and record the impressions.
Even if the blog post is not finished, if the feelings are already described, it is easier to write them out the next day.
Time management for photo and image editing
When I edit photos for fashion looks or even products, I try to do this always directly after the shooting. Best a direct control and you can quickly change the setting again or re-shoot if you notice, it does not fit something.
Images for special projects, for example, even have a chance to be photographed, I always photograph for safety with a WLAN card in addition and have them displayed immediately on my Samsung tablet (even in a good star restaurant). On the one hand, the images are saved directly a second time, on the other hand, I have a direct control and can make it again new photos if necessary.
When editing images, I usually try to have all the images already saved directly after completing a project (or hotel stay, etc.), the best images already marked with stars in Lightroom and so I then go directly to the post-processing. I often use for this the time in the train, on the plane or sometimes in the evening on the couch.
The advantage is simply that images that have been collected over several days, then have the same image style, the same colors and can be provided at once with the appropriate data.
This not only saves an incredible amount of time, but also ensures that all the images in the set are appropriate and you have the best images already compiled for other further uses. (Such as for Facebook, Instagram, for the customer, etc.).
After that, all images are still uploaded directly to the possible blogposts with me, at least a preliminary title for the blogpost assigned and then saved. So I can, when I have time and desire, directly access the blogpost, regardless of whether I have a fast or slow Internet line, whether I’m on the road or in their own “four walls”. The pictures are then already once available.
For me personally, it’s just always significantly faster when I edit many images directly in the batch, than to start from scratch each time, pick out ten images for a blogpost and the next day the same procedure again, to repeat – costs an incredible amount of time.
Social Networks, Instagram and Facebook – Important Time Management
Instagram and Facebook – two of the networks that are incredibly important for bloggers, but also incredibly time consuming if you want to make them reasonably good. If you add up the daily time you should spend on Instagram and Facebook to regularly maintain your streams with beautiful images, it’s often at least three to four hours, a challenge when it comes to time management.
For me, I’ve gotten into the habit of editing many of the images I post online on Instagram every now and then between two appointments with Snapseed and already once stored in a separate folder for Instagram on the smartphone. The format remains the original format for now and so I can decide spontaneously later whether I want to use the image for Facebook or Instagram or also have to crop it.
For me, the most effective method, time permitting, is to upload my daily Instagram pictures between 6 and 8 pm each day. Then I take half an hour or even an hour, upload the picture and look at my own stream and also comment and “like” my own stream through and get inspiration, from people I follow.
The rest of the day I do not use the smartphone for Instagram then. It just takes way too much time to keep tuning into Instagram and then getting back into my own projects (like blogposts) from there. It may seem disinterested at first glance with it, but it’s just good time management.
With Facebook, it shapes up a bit differently, since Facebook, in order to make it successful and to get a constant increase of followers, is just as concerned with a strong regularity. As already explained in my various workshops, Facebook attaches great importance to a high regularity of at least three postings per day.
With me, it is also hard to manage myself, at the same time I always ask myself whether my followers really want to find three to five reports on Facebook per day or when the “nerve effect” arises. I see it with myself, if I see a person or even a brand too often in my streams, I choose “mute” or in extreme cases even “unfollow”.
When you see some German and international fashion bloggers who sometimes upload nine (9!) pictures per day in the stream, I ask myself quite honestly, who still cares and what else do these bloggers 😉
I arrange it with me on Facebook so that I have many images that I want to use in any case once for Facebook, also already processed on the smartphone and then upload in a short break.
As already shown and explained in the workshops, the best time here is of course strongly dependent on one’s own followers, for some bloggers it is the early hours of the day, e.g. on the way to work, for me it is often only the afternoon.
If it is not yet the perfect time, I prepare it as a “Scheduled Post”, so that it is then online at a later time accordingly. (Unfortunately, there is not yet a corresponding function for Instagram). This is what optimal time management looks like on social media.
YouTube & video clips – difficult time management
YouTube is one of the most discussed networks among bloggers and also in the workshops with companies, but also with bloggers, always one of the most common questions in time management. How do I manage to produce videos quickly and effectively, edit them and is it even important for bloggers to also maintain a YouTube channel.
YouTube videos of course require significantly more time than a “simple” fashion look and if I also look back on my experiences, then I can say, the first videos lasted both in the production, as well as in the post-processing significantly longer. Now you think in advance, what do I want to film, what music can I deposit and already chooses from your own favorites and guesses how long the video should be approximately.
Of course, there is a difference between a follow-me-around video and a fashion look video on YouTube. I very often edit my follow-me-around videos directly after my stay – mostly even already when I’m sitting in the train or plane and then have enough time in front of me.
The first rough cuts, such as after Fashionweek – where the original footage what I had filmed with my Samsung S6 – was about 60 minutes. Then I usually watch these videos two to three times completely and decide where it is “boring” and shorten these parts further.
For fashion looks, it has become easier for me to photograph several fashion looks in a short time, for example, on a weekend and then schedule one or two days once completely, where I only edit the video clips. Often, the post-processing time for a fashion look is then at 60 to 90 minutes only and if you have photographed four looks, you already have enough videos for a whole month of updates on YouTube. So I get a little more time management with outfit posts as well.
Conclusion – time management for bloggers – my tips.
It is with the topic of time management for bloggers of course only my experiences and tips, as I like to work and what works and works well for me personally.
Gladly I can write you again in the next few weeks a second part on this, then with the topics of travel organization, cooperation with companies, emails and the daily “Schriftkram”. Just leave a comment, which processes you would like to learn more about.
For me, it turned out that I just have to keep a few time management rules for me (or at least try to) and thus save a lot of time in the daily “blogger life”.
Write blogposts only when you are in the mood. A white screen stays white and if the creativity is missing, just start another topic
Blogposts under time pressure do not work!
Take the mood from the event and the experience and try to capture at least the first keywords already as notes in the blogpost
Post-process the images in a flow and prepare them for the blogpost
Use waiting times between appointments, travel times, etc. to optimize images for Instagram, Facebook, etc. already on the smartphone. Prescribe posts already (e.g. in the Notepad app) and then just copy+paste at the right time
Really avoid as many as possible distractions – maybe preferred music in the background or on headphones and then just be focused, on the text.
Better to write four reasonable blogposts per week (same on Facebook) than five to seven loveless posts per week on the blog. Texts that readers like to read also motivate the blogger himself to write new texts again. If the readers stay away, the further motivation for the blog is also missing and it becomes more and more difficult to use the time effectively.
These are of course only a few time management tips, as I like to pass them on to you in the workshops several times a year and I hope you can pick up a few ideas for your own blogs and create your own time management or timetable with it.
