How much time I spend blogging in a week

I’ve wanted to this post for a while but first decided to wait until Christmas was over when my schedule was a bit more normal.

People often ask me how I do as much as I do. How is it possible to blog daily, do social, go to the gym and work full time? Well, I wasn’t really sure either. Adding a CIM qualification and trying to get more graphic design skills means I am more pushed for time than ever.

So I thought I’d spend a week noting down how much I spent doing what.

Just a bit about my lifestyle:

I don’t have kids or any pets to look after. I work full time. 5 days a week, 9-hour shifts. I live in York and work in Leeds and my commute can take me anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the time of day. I can get home in 40 minutes when I leave at 10 pm, but it can take me over an hour when I leave at 5 pm.

I go to the gym 4 or 5 days a week, my workouts range from 50 minutes – an hour and a half depending on how much time I have.

So, let’s see how my week went last week!

Monday:

My alarm was set for 5:35. I groaned a bit before getting up. I put my gym kit straight on, made coffee, had a protein bar and spent  5 minutes or so on Tailwind scheduling some pints on some tribes I’m in before heading to the gym. I then shower and drive to work.

Lunchtime at work, I spend 12:50 pm – 1:40 pm writing about 1100 words to proofread and finalise at a later date.

I have another break around 5:20 pm where I have just enough time to send an invoice and reply to a couple of emails until I get interrupted by someone and have to go and deal with something. I had planned to spend a bit more time on my blog.

I get home just after 6:30 pm, make dinner and by the time I wash up (while the boyfriend irons our work shirts) it’s around 8:20. I decide it’s too late to do any more work so we watch a TV show that we recorded about alcoholism by some sports presenter and go to bed around 9:40 pm.

Social: 5 minutes
Blogging: 1 hour 10 minutes
Study: 0

Tuesday:

Alarm again at 5:35. Send help. I’m working from 7 am until 4 pm.

I spend my first break in the canteen and then my lunch, I eat and then go into an office where I schedule some blog posts from 1 pm – 1:40 pm

I’m a bit annoyed because I spelt something wrong in the graphics for today’s post so had to spend 10 minutes sorting that out.

I’m home at 4:45 pm. I’m usually working until 10 on a Tuesday, so does my boyfriend, which means I’ve got some time to myself which will be spent on my computer.

I change into my PJs, put some fish in the oven and spent 10 minutes sorting out the social media images for today’s post. I only manage to get the Twitter graphic done and scheduled a few times before I have to finish tea and eat.

At 6 pm I’ve eaten and washed up. Time to create some pins for today’s post. This takes me 30 mins to create, add to Tailwind and schedule a few extra pins.

It’s 6:30 pm now and I need to work on my Adobe Illustrator course as I’m a bit behind. I spent 3 hours doing the course, watching the videos and practising drawing, brushes and a bit more. It was not as productive as I had hoped as I kept getting a bit distracted.

Just had a lightbulb moment that I have a fitness blog that needs updating. So off I pop to do that!

That took about 40 minutes, but it’s scheduled! My boyfriend just texts to say he’s on the way home which is fab because it’s way past my bedtime.

It’s 10:15 pm and I’m going to comment on some blog posts until he gets back and we go to bed around 11 pm.

Social: 40 minutes
Blogging: 1 hour 40 minutes
Study: 3 hours

Wednesday.

I got out of bed about 7:30 am today. I have a PT session at 9 pm so spend the morning eating porridge and getting ready. After my session, rather than heading home to shower and get ready for work which usually takes longer than it should, I shower and wash my hair at the gym and go to a Costa shop near work with my laptop.

I have a bit of frustration with the wifi which won’t connect then end up just connecting to my phone.

I spend an hour there and get 2 blog posts scheduled. Although I create out the images, I can’t get them to upload on my phones 4G connection.

I hope to spend a bit more on my laptop at work, but as I’m duty manager and also have some other things to deal with, getting a bit of alone time isn’t an option for me. I do play on Instagram a little bit o my phone!

I leave work at 10 pm, go home, spend a bit of time on my phone catching up with my friends and I’m in bed by 11.

Social: 10 minutes
Blogging: 1 hour
Study: 0

Thursday:

My alarm goes off at 5:35 am. It’s like a knife going through my head.

I get up, weigh myself (1lb down!), throw my gym kit on and then make coffee and eat a protein bar. While I’m drinking my coffee, I flip my laptop on, do a bit of manual pinning and upload the images for posts I scheduled in Costa. I feel happy that I have a post scheduled each day until Tuesday, then 3 more posts written out and that just need polishing off.

Good, it’ll give me some time to work on my CIM, social and Adobe Illustrator course.

I go to the gym to train legs, then go to work for 9 am. On my break, I spend about 40 minutes creating some pins for that day’s post and scheduling them, then I do some blog comments.

I don’t remember why, but I don’t have a chance for a second break. I think it’s because I was in meetings from 2 pm – 4:30 pm and my head were a bit mashed! I get home around 6:30 pm, make tea and watch TV for an hour or so before heading to bed before 10 pm.

Social: 45 minutes
Blogging: 5
Study: 0

Friday:

Friday was a bit of a disaster for me. I got up at 6 am, went to the gym then had the doctors at 9 am. I don’t get to work until 10 am. My wages clerk is off which means I have to help my admin assistant with signing off wages for the week. This takes ages and I don’t get a break. After our management meeting at 2 pm, I have a short break in the canteen after but not long enough to get any work done online.

I suddenly seem to be given lots of work to do, so I power through and leave at 6:30 pm instead of taking any breaks.

When I get home, shower and make tea it’s about 8:30 pm which means I’ve had no time to do anything on my laptop!

I managed to reply to a couple of emails during work but that’s it.

Social: 0
Blogging: 5 minutes
Study: 0

Saturday:

I get up at 6:30 am. I have plans today!

Usually, I would go to the gym and spend the day blogging. But today I have Katie’s baby shower to go to. I plan to go to the gym at 8:30 and have about 20 minutes on my laptop between eating breakfast and getting ready. Most of that is spent planning in a couple of sponsored posts so I can give people dates when they will be live and then I update this post, which I’ve been doing almost daily all week.

I shower at the gym and go straight to the baby shower in Cleethorpes. I have a great time, but don’t get home until after 7 pm. By the time I make tea and wash up it’s about 8:30 pm. We watch TV for a bit and go to bed just after 10 pm.

Social: 0
Blogging: 20 minutes
Study: 0

Sunday.

I felt tired yesterday and decided to not set an alarm. I woke up about 7:30 am and got out of bed just before 8 am. I went to the gym, came home, showered, had something to eat and started working on some blog stuff from 12:30 – 2:30.

Then I spent an hour studying for my CIM.

After that, it was back to finalising some posts on the blog for 40 minutes before heading to the kitchen for a snack and then doing some of my Adobe Illustrator course.

I spend an hour and a half on the Illustrator course and then spend 15 minutes messing around with Instagram.

I go to make tea and after putting the roast potatoes in, I spend another 15 minutes on Instagram before finishing dinner. We eat, wash up, it’s 8 pm. We watch one episode of Peaky Blinders, then the SAS show on channel 4 and were in bed for 10:15 pm.

Social: 30 minutes
Blogging: 2 hours 30 minutes
Study: 2 hours 15 minutes

Another week over!

Total Time spent:

Social: 2 hours 10 minutes
Blogging: 6 hours 50 minutes
Study: 5 hours 15 minutes

You might notice that I haven’t mentioned any housework, cleaning or washing here. Other than cooking or washing the pots. My boyfriend generally sorts the washing out as he gets home earlier than me in the week and puts a load in. He also cleaned the whole house while I was at the baby shower on Saturday! He’s a star. He also does all the ironing and I tend to do all the cooking. We wash up and dry the pots after dinner together.

To be honest, I feel like I usually spend more time than that on blogging! I usually have an hour or so after work most evenings but my shifts haven’t been my normal shifts. I would also spend time on a Saturday blogging!

You can see how I try to squeeze time out of every spare minute I have. I spend my breaks at work blogging when I can, I’ll use 10 minutes in a morning to send emails or work on social.

I felt I got ahead pretty easy this week due to a few sponsored guest posts which really takes the pressure off and allows me to focus more on other things. I find I work well under pressure. If I only have my lunch break to be online that day, I really do make the most out of my time. I find if I have all day, I get much more distracted and don’t get much done at all!

How much do you spend blogging a week?