We’re willing to bet that a lot of you made a goal to start a blog or to blog more consistently this year. We’re also willing to bet that a lot of you see one big thing that’s standing between you and this goal: time. If you just had a few more hours in your day, you’d be able to get that blog going, right? Well, we’re going to let you in on a secret: You don’t need more time in your day to boost your blogging game. You need a plan. Here’s how to create a blog writing schedule that will help you get your blog off the ground or keep it moving.
Don’t have time to read the full post online? Want to refer to it offline? Download a free PDF copy.
1. Estimate the amount of time each blog post will take
What’s the first step of creating a blog writing schedule? Figuring out how much time you’ll need to create each post. When you’re doing this, don’t just pull an overall number out of thin air. Instead, identify all of the tasks you need to do to create a blog post. For most blog posts, you’ll need to consider these steps:
- Doing keyword research
- Doing content research
- Creating an outline
- Writing a draft
- Editing your draft
- Sourcing images
- Publishing and promoting your post
Once you know all of the things you need to do to write and publish a blog post, estimate the amount of time each task will take. Are you someone who’s never written a blog post before? Don’t worry. Just take a guess at how much time you’ll need for each task. Once you write a few posts, you’ll get a better sense of how long each task takes you and you can update your estimates accordingly.
Of course, not every blog post will take the same amount of time to create. Long posts typically take longer to write than shorter ones. And you may have to spend more time doing research for some topics than others. The goal of this stage is to give you some ballpark numbers to work with for your blog writing schedule.
2. Identify the number of posts you can manage
The next step of creating a blog writing schedule is to figure out how many posts you can publish in a week or month. What’s the most important thing to do at this stage? Be realistic.
Maybe you really want to publish three blog posts a week. But if you know from Step 1 that it will take you five hours to write one post and you have only 10 hours a week for blogging, you know that three posts is too much.
There’s no shame in blogging once a week or once every two weeks if that’s what you can manage. For your blog writing schedule to work, it needs to be realistic.
3. Schedule blogging time in
This step of creating a blog writing schedule is critical. Many people leave blogging for the leftover bits of time they expect to have between meetings or at the end of the day. But what usually happens to this time? It disappears.
How can you make sure you stay on track with the blogging frequency you identified in Step 2? You block off time for blogging in your overall work schedule. That’s right – you treat it just like any other task. You’re much more likely to make progress on your posts and blog consistently when you have dedicated time in your schedule to prepare your posts.
It doesn’t matter whether you spread your tasks out over a few days or craft your posts in just one or two sittings. The key is to embed your blog writing schedule into your overall schedule so that you give it the time it needs.
4. Write a few extra posts
We all have weeks that end up being busier than we expected them to be. And what happens when your schedule becomes packed beyond control? You might lose your weekly blogging time. But that doesn’t mean your weekly blogging goals need to go out the window.
You can maintain your blogging game even during busy weeks by having a few extra blog posts in your back pocket. In your blog writing schedule, make room to prepare some extra posts that you keep on file. If life gets busy, there’s no need to worry. Just pull out one of these posts and publish it. You cook and freeze dinners in advance for those all-too-busy days. Why can’t you do the same thing with your blog posts?
5. Re-evaluate
Keep in mind that your blog writing schedule is never set in stone. You can (and should) revisit it every few months to see if it’s still working out for you. Maybe you’ve realized that it takes you four instead of two hours to write your average blog post. Or maybe your work load has skyrocketed and you can’t write two posts each week anymore.
If your blog writing schedule doesn’t feel right, you don’t need to throw it out the window. Just tweak it until it’s right for you.
A blog writing schedule can keep you on track
Blogging can seem like a lot of work. And it is. But there’s a way to fit it into your schedule if you want to. The key is to create a concrete blog writing schedule that reflects the amount of time it takes you to write a post and the publishing frequency that works for you.
If you don’t already have a blog writing schedule, what are you waiting for? Make one this week! It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have a solid plan and dedicated time to execute it.
Don’t have time to read the full post online? Want to refer to it offline? Download a free PDF copy.
