7 time hacks for busy bloggers

We already discussed how being busy can impact blogging in last weeks #socialbloggers chat. I wanted to put together a post with things you can do to…

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time hacks

We already discussed how being busy can impact blogging in last weeks #socialbloggers chat. I wanted to put together a post with things you can do to keep on top of things even when you’re going through a busy period.

1. Schedule social media updates on Buffer. 

Buffer is probably my favourite thing in the whole world. Apart from cheese. Cheese is good also.

Buffer is platform for scheduling things to your social media accounts straight from your browser. What I love about Buffer, is that once you have the toolbar installed, you can share webpage you are on and set it to either:

  • Post right now.
  • Post next.
  • Schedule for a time.

You can also use any image on the webpage and share that, which includes a link to the page it is on, too.

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 23.21.10

On the screenshot above, you can see what prompt comes up when you choose to share something. You just click which social media sites to send it too. You can edit the message to add something else or hashtags.

Another thing I like about Buffer, is that you see the stats on each thing you’ve scheduled, like below:

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 23.24.20

This allows you to see what is performing the best and also ‘re-buffer’ posts – which adds it back to your queue.

You can set what times of day to post – so every time you add something it will simply sit there until it hits the time you’ve set, then buffer will auto-post it.

How I use it:

Every morning before I go to work, I take 10 seconds to schedule about 4-5 things, usually by re-buffering if my latest post isn’t published yet. It’s quick, easy and works for me. It’s the easiest way of sharing blog posts with pictures included by far.

2. Schedule tweets on Twuffer.

Although buffer is fantastic, you can only schedule 10 posts unless you pay to upgrade. So it’s great for scheduling a day or two of posts, but if you are away from the computer for longer, Twuffer might be the way forward.

As far as I can tell, you can schedule as many posts as you like – but there’s not many features such as tweeting photos or posting the same thing to several social media sites. It’s quick and easy, though!

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 23.48.54

How I use it:

When I went to Florida for two weeks, a scheduled a tweet or two to go out each day just so my page views didn’t nose dive completely if I couldn’t get online as much – I get a lot of my traffic from Twitter!

I also use Twuffer to schedule the #socialblogger questions.

If you find it difficult tweeting your posts daily, you could always spend 10 minutes a week scheduling a generic ‘have you seen my latest post?’ tweet once a day or so for the following week or two!

3. Have your posts auto post to social media. 

Did you know you can have Bloglovin tweet and post on Facebook when you publish a post? I didn’t until recently. Now, every time a post goes live, so does a tweet!

Also on WordPress, you can connect your social media accounts up to auto-publish as soon as a new post goes live too. I’m not sure about blogger, but I’m sure there must be something similar!

How I use it:

My bloglovin auto tweets a link to the post and I have WordPress setup to publish my post on my Facebook page and Google+ account. Before I did this, it felt like such an effort to manual link my post to all 3 sites!

4. Take and edit photos in bulk.

I’ve seen this tip shared before, but it works! Take loads of photos at once – even if you don’t plan on publishing it for a few weeks.

I love doing this because I like to photograph products before I use them.

Edit them all at the same time too – I’ll often edit them in bed before I go to sleep as it’s a good thing to do that doesn’t need me to type. It’s hard to type in bed, but easy to use the touch pad!

How I use it:

I take my photos in bulk on my days off and in day light. I then edit a few at once, either in bed or if I’m watching TV. I then like to get them into a draft post ready, so all I need to do is write the post before it’s ready to schedule, this helps with the next tip…
DSC_0491-1024x682

5. Draft posts at opportune moments.

You don’t have to sit down and write a full post all in one go – it’s fine to write a few paragraphs, or write the main post and come later to edit. If you find yourself with a bit of extra time in the evening, get started on a post!

How I use it:

I’m the queen of half writing posts and coming back to them. This is why I like to have my photos in the draft ready to rock and roll, then if I have a spare half an hour or so, I can start working on it. This saves me having to write all my posts on my days off or the night before in panic!

For example, I wrote the title to this post around the 1st November, I wrote the headings to the 7 points a couple of weeks later. I wrote the full post on the 12th November and then edited, added photos and proof read on the 13th. Then on Sunday the 16th, I did a final proof read and scheduled it. Woo. I usually have about 5-8 posts complete at any given time, and about 10 in some stage of progress.

6. Set a date to finalise your posts. And stick to it.

This is probably one of the most important things you can do if you’re busy – if you want a set amount of posts in the next week, have a plan for when those posts are all going to be complete so you can go about your week or weekend without having to worry about getting tomorrows post done.

How I use it:

By the end of Sunday, I like to have the next 7 days of posts scheduled. This is where the previous 2 steps all come together – because most of the photos are done and around 4-5 of the posts are already written, it’s not as hard as writing 7 blog posts seems. A lot of it is tidying up spelling and grammar, adding in SEO and ensuring I’m good to go for the next week.

If I had to sit down and write all 7 posts at once, as well as sort out the photographs, it wouldn’t get done! People often seem astonished that I publish a new post daily, but I’m in the habit of using any spare time to my advantage so it just seems second nature to me now.

7. Only check your e-mail twice a day and stop obsessing over your stats.

This two go hand in hand because they can be real productivity killers.

I’m sure you’ve been there: You check Facebook, then twitter, then you check your e-mails, then your page views, then your adsense account, then if anyone has liked a post or followed you on bloglovin.. before you know it, 10 minutes has passed and you’ve not done one single productive thing.

Then 30 minutes later, you do it all again.

These aren’t things you need to do as often as you feel like you must. Most of the time, you’re doing it to procrastinate anyway (I’m aiming that comment at myself!). While it’s good to know how your blog is performing, you don’t need to check every hour, or even every day!

E-mails don’t need checking hourly either. Even though it only takes a few seconds, the act of stopping an task to check, then restarting probably takes more effort and time thank you think!

I know I don’t work as well with interruptions, or if I’ve taken a break, I can sometimes feel like I don’t want to go back to my task!

How I use it:

Honestly, I’m not fantastic at this and it’s a piece of advice I need to start taking more seriously. While I’m a lot better about checking my stats less frequently, I’m not so great at checking my e-mails only twice a day! I hardly ever check my twitter follows but I’m often guilty of refreshing bloglovin several times a day (or hour!).

I check my page views on WordPress daily, but I only check webmaster tools and google analytics every 1-2 weeks, unless something prompts me to need to check it more, such as a sudden increase or drop in traffic!

What are your top time hacks?

Untitled

65 comments

  1. I used one of those set posting things for tweets and its quite helpful. Though, most times I like to just do it myself. But, when I have too much going on, it’s great to have. I’m not one that checks my stats really, I do now and again, but most times I don’t. I think they make people freak out too much. I may check like once or twice a month and that’s it, ha. I do a lot of drafts of stuff, whenever I find something interesting or have an idea and then I schedule the posts, that’s the biggest helper for me. These are great tips 🙂 Happy Friday xx

  2. Oh wow, this is the first I heard of Buffer and Twuffer! You’re a life saver and I will check both out this weekend! I need all the help I can get and how could a 7 months old keep me sooooo busy is beyond me. There’s not enough time in a day for me to do what I need to do, ugh!

    Reflection of Sanity

  3. I really need to start using some of these social media scheduling apps. I swear by photographing in bulk and post drafts.

  4. Thanks for these Corinne! I didn’t know Buffer was that good, I used Hootsuite sometimes but I’ll give Buffer a go now. 🙂

    I need to come back to this post next time I’m procrastinating away, which happens a lot!

  5. These are some great tips! I’m really needing to figure out the whole scheduled posts to social media thing.

    Shannon

  6. Taking an editing photos in bulk is such a good idea – I started doing that two weeks ago and it has made such a huge difference to the amount of time I have. I’ll have to take on board your tip of only checking emails twice a day! 🙂

    x

  7. these are great tips, I love all of your post about blogs. They are so helpful

    check me out
    xx
    Tyana
    theluxedition.blogpsot.com
    bloglovin.com/theluxedition

  8. I didn’t know about the Buffer, I might check that out, and I’m also need to stop checking my stats 😉 xoxo

  9. Hey! Some really good tips you have there, I love the fact that you shedule things far in advance or have some prep, I’m kind of right here – right now. But i could learn from you! 🙂
    I use buffer also i think its great that something free gives you tweet analytics its brill x

    http://leannewinters.blogspot.co.uk

  10. Hi sweetie
    so amazing tips babe
    Thank you for shaing
    Kisses
    Maggie Dallospedale Fashion diary – Fashion blog

  11. I love these life hacks/time hacks kind of post, they’re fab! Thank you for sharing such amazing posts all the time Corinne! The cheese bit made me giggle. Hope you’re as bad as this guy who became so obsessed with cheese that that’s all he could think of:p x
    | Life as a Petite || Fashion, Crafts & Lifestyle Blog |

  12. Wonderful tips! Absolutely agree about emails and drafts and thank you for the idea about the Buffer – will definitely have a look. x

  13. very nice advise! I loved most of the advise and use many of the alike ideas myself. (but I check my email more often because otherwise my mailbox would drown as well as myself)

  14. Brilliant tips as always how on earth you post for the next seven days I have no idea. But I am removing my imaginary hat and taking it off for you. The editing pictures in bulk is a good one and with winter light sentential. I will have to check out some of the scheduling tools and getting blogger to share on twitter. As always thanks a million Lucy x

  15. This was super helpful! I’m defiantly going to start using the scheduling tools!

    -Ruya
    sweetshortandstylish.com

  16. So true RE checking all the sites. Only takes a few seconds, but do them all and get stuck on one for a few minutes and like you say that’s 10 minutes gone. 10 minutes X however many times you do that a day! x

  17. These are all such good tips – I’ll definitely be tasking on board some of these, as time is the one thing I struggle with when blogging.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Leah

  18. Taking photos in bulk can be a lifesaver – especially during winter! I always try to take as many pictures as possible over the weekend – I just don’t have the time/light to do them during the week.

  19. HOW DIDN’T I KNOW YOU CAN REBUFFER TWEETS? Oh my god, this has made my life so much easier to bulk up my Buffer schedule!

  20. This was really useful. I have to admit as a new blogger I waste so much time checking all my social media accounts for likes engagement everything. Then I go straight in to check traffic. It’s almost like in addicted to this. Lol and I totally agree with it being an interruption to whatever you was doing because it does take me a while to get back into the flow of the actual task.
    Seriously loads of important points here to remember.
    Thanks !

  21. Great tips as always, Corinne! I rely so much on Buffer that I upgraded to the paid account and it’s totally worth the £6 -7 per month to be able to schedule so much! Especially when you can rebuffer them all.

  22. I used to discipline myself to only check email 2-3 times a day. Now I check it perhaps 2-3 million times. Ok, maybe not that many times. But seriously, it is a time-waster. Thanks for reminding me to kick this bad habit. And checking Google Analytics too many times in one day is another bad habit I have. These things really break up your workflow. Thanks again for great tips.

  23. I swear by Buffer! I actually upgraded to Awesome because I’ll usually schedule a weeks worth of tweets at once and then just use the app to tweak them on the go, it’s so handy. I wish I was better at taking photos in bulk though, for some reason I take loads and then never use half of them.

  24. Buffer is an absolute life saver! I never knew you could rebuffer things though so I might have to give that a try since it sounds like such an awesome feature!! Thanks for the tips!

  25. Love this post! I’m so strapped for time at the minute I need to get more organized. I’m definitely going to try these things out. I especially need to work on just writing a post gradually over a couple of days because I get so stressed out if I can’t do something right away.

  26. Great advice! I need to take and edit my pics in bulk more often. Will inspire me to create more posts too.

    Emma xx

  27. I use co schedule to schedule tweets and posts I’ve found that it has given me so much time back!!
    As for not stressing about Stats! I am the worst for this and check literally every five minutes. I have no idea why but it does drain a lot of time from your day!

    Claire xx

  28. These are really handy tips! I’ve been using Buffer for scheduling tweets but I didn’t know about rebuffering! That’s going to save me so much time now! I’ve been strict on myself recently and I now check all my stats/social media followers etc once a week and record it all so I can see my progress and then I don’t get too worried about it day to day! Thanks for the time saving tips though!

  29. All great tips!! I’ve never heard of Twuffer so thank you! Latergramme is also great for bulk scheduling Instagram on your phone! I also find that having all of my planned blog posts and social media posts on a spreadsheet with days going down in columns and each platform Twitter, Instagram etc. going across in rows, really helps me to stick to a posting scheduling and make sure that I’m ticking all the boxes! I also keep a daily tick list in Word of things like replying to blog comments. Once I’ve done something I strike it through in Word and then I unstrike and start it over each day – really helps! Jade x

    My Blog: Jade With Envy

    My YouTube Channel: Jade Mercedes Fraser

  30. This has been so helpful. I loved buffer but hate how limited it is without paying for it. Ive switched to tweetdeck which I love but miss posting to Facebook and Google+. Wish it was free :(. I’ve stopped dwelling on my stats, I’ve accepted I won’t get the 1000s of views a day any time soon and just to enjoy it. Uni is finished tomorrow so I have the summer to concentrate again xx

    Tamz | http://www.throughneweyesx.com

  31. Great post and lots of tips I can take from this. I am also a major partial post writer…not necessarily intentionally but, when the mood strikes to write a few sentences I figure I better get them down! Definitely need to get better about planning and organizing – just seems hard to find the time to set myself up with a good plan for planning…

  32. Hey great tips! I use Buffer myself but never heard of Twuffer before. A lot of these techniques are things I do daily, I need to personally work on preparing posts in advance. Either way this is very helpful! Thank you Corinne!

  33. I’d never really thought of drafting posts and writing them bit by bit, but that’s actually such a great piece of advice! I often get stuck on writing on post, get tired of it and then find myself in a writing block! When really what I probably should be doing is moving onto another post and then going back to the annoying one later! Great tips as always Corinne!

  34. Great hacks.i have a problem with bloglovin’,whenever I post a new post on the blog it doesn’t show up on bloglovin’! Do you know how can i fix it?

    Todaysouhaila.blogspot.com

  35. This is super helpful Corinne. As a new blogger I’m still looking for tips and tricks to suit me and you’ve really got it down – although I’ve been put off of the multiple blogging platforms as I’ve used a couple such as HootSuite and struggled with them. However, Buffer seems a lot easier to navigate. Thank you so much, keep ’em coming! x

  36. I’m really starting to get the hang of scheduling at the moment, so I’ll definitely be giving Buffer a try! Thank you for sharing x

  37. Great info! I love Buffer and I make it a point each day to set it up. As for that stats, THANK YOU for saying that! We get so caught up in numbers that we forget what we are writing for!

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