How To Stay Motivated As A Blogger When You’re Busy

Hey guys! Alright, I’ll be honest here: I’m writing this post for myself, just as much for all of you, because I need these tips! 😝 No, but seriously, it can be difficult to be consistent with anything when you’re busy. I think this post can be helpful for you if you’re working on your blog, social media, book, business, etc. If you have anything else going on in your life (aka. if you’re a human) you have to find life balance somewhere. I thought I’d share a couple of ideas on how to stay motivated as a blogger (or social media influencer, writer, entrepreneur, etc.) when you’re busy.

Note: I’ll be using the word “blogger” throughout this post, but you can definitely use these tips if you’re a social media influencer, writer, entrepreneur, etc. 😉

Be Realistic

Realistically, I don’t have time to blog every day, or even 3-4 times a week. I barely get two posts out a week sometimes. So be realistic with yourself. What can you get done and what can’t you get done? In other words, don’t schedule yourself for too much, instead, be realistic with yourself and what you can accomplish, then go crush it!

Decide What’s Important

The bad news is, you can’t do everything. The good news is, you can do something. And you get to choose what that is. Maybe you’re super busy with work and school and can only get out one blog post a week. Or maybe you’re starting out you blog and publish 3 blog posts a week to get your content up. But you can’t do everything.

Over the past couple of months my Etsy business (check it out here, if you already haven’t 🙂) has significantly grown, and I’ve focused on that a lot more than I ever have, for many reasons. I’ve also started doing college courses (through CCP, yes I’m still in high school) along with my high school courses. And because of that, (and many other life things) I’ve had less time to focus on my blog. Yes, I still love blogging, it’s still a part of my life and my business, I just haven’t spent as much time on it. And that’s okay.

The point is, you get to decide where you focus your attention and efforts toward. Your time and energy are finite. But how you focus and where you focus your time and energy isn’t finite. In a minute, I’ll give you a couple tips on how to improve your productivity and get more done!

Be Ok With Sacrifices

Like I said in the the paragraph above: You can’t do everything. And in order to focus more time on your blog, social media, book, etc, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices. These sacrifices look different for everybody. They could be anything from waking up earlier or staying up later to work on your blog, they could be spending less time watching Netflix, Prime or TV, etc.

I’d encourage you to think of creative ways you can make small sacrifices to improve the time you have blogging. For example, maybe you always watch Netflix or TV after you’re finished with school – use this time work on blogging instead. Or maybe you go to school and have lunch with your friends every day. Instead, study while you eat to finish school earlier and get started on blogging sooner.

Remember your priorities and be okay with making sacrifices that aren’t on that priority list.

Try Batching Your Tasks

This technique is actually something I’ve just recently tried and oh my goodness guys, this is SO HELPFUL! So, if you’re a blogger or entrepreneur or social media influencer you probably get this really well. In order to make a post or a listing you have write, take pictures, do the SEO and finally schedule or publish. What if you spent a day writing, spent a day doing pictures and then spent a day doing SEO, rather than doing a little of each every day!? That’s the concept of batching your tasks. Now I realize that you might not spend an entire day writing or doing photos or SEO, and someone might schedule a week or several months out or not at all, but I think that you can get the concept.

I think that part of the reason that this has been so helpful for me personally is because I can get scattered VERY easily. Heh. If my mind is going a million different directions, it’s hard for me to focus on one thing at a time. With the batching technique though I can just sit down and write everything, doing the photos all at one time and then do the SEO.

Eliminate Distractions

Ugh, you guys, this might be the hardest one. Distractions. They can just be so hard sometimes. Here’s some of my tips for eliminating distractions:

Put your phone away – my phone constantly has notifications popping up. From friends messaging me to Etsy notifications, it can be so distracting. Yes, I do enjoy messaging my friends and looking at my Etsy notifications, but it can be a distraction at times.

Turn off email notifications and any other notifications on your computer – I have had my email notifications shut off for almost 6 months and it has been so helpful. As soon as an email notification would pop up, I’d read the preview and part of the message and instantly I’d be on my email responding to it. Instead, I’ve blocked out time to read and respond to emails every day, that way I get them done, without hurting my productivity.

Let your family know you’re working – If you don’t, you can have a lot of well meaning family members ask you to do things or go with them someplace etc. And that’s great! But if you really need to get stuff done, you might politely say, “I’m going to be working for the next couple of hours,” or “I’d be happy to help, but could I finish this first?”

Learn how you work best – Maybe you work best with other people around you, or maybe you like to hermit in a tiny room and get things done. For me, I like to have other people around working, but not making a lot of noise or being distracting. Taking the time to learn how you work best will save you so much time and frustration later on.

Use A Schedule

Before just “making a schedule” in a cute planner, actually decide how much time you can and want to spend on blogging per week (or month). To do this, ask yourself how much time it takes for you to publish a blog post, start to finish, on average. It might help to set a timer a couple of times and figure out the average from there. Don’t forget to include the time brainstorming the post topic, shooting & editing photos, creating the graphics, actually writing the post, keyword research and scheduling the post (and any marketing behind that). You might be surprised at how long it actually takes! (fyi, it takes me on average 4-5+ hours to publish a blog post).

Once you’ve got the time it takes you to publish a blog post down, decide how many times a week you want to post. I try to post twice a week, so if it takes me about 4.5 hours to publish a blog post, take that times 2 and I’m already 9 hours in.

Now, use this checklist to determine what else you need to do every day as a blogger. This includes responding to comments, checking out other bloggers’ blog posts & commenting, etc. On average, this all takes me about an hour each day. So on average I spend about 16 hours blogging each week with only 2 blog posts going up.

From here, I can make a schedule for myself, starting with a monthly schedule, then a weekly schedule and then a daily to-do list!

Set Yourself Up For Success

Last but not least, set yourself up for success. As I said earlier, your time and energy are finite. They’re the human equalizer. You can’t buy time and you can’t buy energy. But you can choose how you use your time and energy. So use it well. Set yourself up for success. What does this look like?

It looks likes sitting at a desk, being organized, eliminating distractions and getting your work done. Don’t just get on your phone or computer and go down a rabbit trail of entertainment, shopping, etc. Get up and get dressed every day, even if you’re gonna be home the whole time.

Set yourself up for success and you will find success.

---

I hope these tips are motivating and inspiring for you guys! Have a great weekend!

❤ Hannah

P.S. Don’t forget to pin this post to Pinterest!