This is a guest post from Ryan over at WritersAddict.net, I love Ryan’s work he works way harder than me and still manages to pump out an amazing amount of quality content. Ryan over to you;
For those of you that may not know, I am in the military and you can imagine how hectic a soldiers schedule can be. Some days I may work a 20 hour day and the other days no less than 6 hours at any time in the day.
This kind of schedule can be very hectic for anyone who is trying to maintain and advance their site. You may find it hard to provide fresh content for your readers and still maintain the other things in your life like family or responsibilities.
If you are one of these people that is struggling to keep up due to your obligations to a hectic work schedule. This post may help you. I want to cover a few things that help me keep moving forward.
Dedication
You must have the drive to put that extra effort in between your hours of work. This I think is the most important quality you must possess to make it work. Not having the dedication to providing fresh content on a regular basis will show in how you write.
Dedication will help you mow down any obstacles like exhaustion, minimal time, and many more. You have to sometimes dig deep and get done what you need to for your readers. They are what made you!
Time Management
From the many hours that you put in to pay for your necessities in life, how many minutes/hours do you spend not working and taking a break? Use that time to your advantage, carry a notepad with you and jot down some ideas and notes that will decrease the time you will need to write later. If you have a mobile phone with the abilities, use it to your advantage. Browse around the web and find something inspirational. If your content is news related subscribe to the source that you use for your published content.
Routine
If your schedule is never the same and you work different hours each day. Set yourself in a routine. You can set up a routine even if it is not scheduled. Set for maybe the first hour you are off work to relaxing and cleaning up. Then the second hour sit down and write the content for your site. Maybe wake up a little early before work and while you drink that cup of coffee throw out a quality post before your wore out again from the work day.
Improvise
Things will always come up in your day. It is a way of life for many things not to go exactly to plan (well for me at least, maybe I need to read a book on how to properly plan). Always have a backup plan for your schedule, what happens if the power is out when you get off work from a recent storm? You have readers that are looking forward to some content. It can be easy to not write and place the blame. If you are dedicated you will find a way, post from your mobile since you still have reception.
Another example is recently when my location for work prevented me from using a reliable internet connection. When I was done working one day I travelled 20 minutes away to a internet café and was able to throw in an extra post between my scheduled ones thanking everyone for being patient with my inability to reply to their comments due to time crunches.
There is probably more or better ways to managing your content with a hectic work schedule. These are some of the things that helps me write fresh content for my readers. They deserve the time you put into your content because they will be the reason you are successful. The more rewarding things are, the more you will have to work at it.
Let me know what you think or if there is a way you find easier.
Time Management is most important no matter what. I have always advised my readers and friends about Time Management. For me Time has too much of importance.
.-= Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Readers Are Your Very First Priorities =-.
Time if used correctly is a powerful weapon, if it is managed poorly it can be your ultimate downfall. It takes some strategy to balance everything you have in your life and still come out on top.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Balancing your life between virtual reality =-.
Great post and set ideas, I pretty much have them done, I have a regular job but I am good a time management. I would hope my dedication is good i have accomplished alot with my writing. But I love it when people write like you in an orderly fashion Excellent job.
Thank you Butterfly, I think everything will always pay off in the end as long as you show the proper amount of dedication.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Balancing your life between virtual reality =-.
Then again, you also have to be careful not to do too much, sometimes this stuff just has to take a back foot, commendable that you drive 20 minutes away just to get the connection to do a post for your readers, but did you have to?
Not saying this in a negative way, I am sure most of your readers know what you do, aside from writing this content, so no doubt they wouldn’t expect a post at those times, I’ll wager they would prefer you enjoyed that 40 minutes you spent driving resting, or something else, important, you know, take that time on you mate.
Hopefully I make sense there?
.-= Rob Sellen´s last blog ..Do A-listers turn into bullies? =-.
Ya I do agree with you on that, my curiosity of how well my scheduled posts were doing got the best of me. I like the feedback and interacting. Plus I had to get some supplies from the store that was attached to the internet cafe.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
Had to get supplies?
Well that is ok then
But yeah, gotta look after yourself before the blog.
.-= Rob Sellen´s last blog ..Do A-listers turn into bullies? =-.
Ya it was more of a 2 for one trip. They were both conveniently in the same location.
The purpose for the trip was driven to see the comments though
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
Time management is very important to me. Blogging, commenting and social media have to be scheduled or I miss out on the busy days. For me, I found the best thing to help out on a busy schedule is scheduling blogging time during my changing schedule, is to create a weekly calendar of the known hours that I will be busy. Once the schedule created, I then add my blogging time in the free spaces through out the week. If I need to fill the space then I know when I can find the time to blog.
.-= element321´s last blog ..11+ Tutorial Sites For Adobe Photoshop CS4 =-.
This is a great way to work your schedule also. I try my best to do at least 2 hours devoted to my blog or my reader not matter what my schedule is.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
Great points. I personally think jotting down notes on paper or on your mobile phone while you are outside is a very good idea. I do this to prevent those small golden ideas from passing by and escaping my mind.
.-= Julius´s last blog ..Closed-Circuit Televisions =-.
I try to incorporate this into my day. The only problem I have had with it is I forget my notepad so then I later forget my idea’s
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
The only easy way to get anything done is the way you decide it must be done.
You have to find a way. In fact, just a few days ago while my girlfriend and I were driving to our new apartment (we’re soon moving in there with her Mom to help get things started for us) I thought about just how much time we really do waste that we could use to be doing something productive.
If you quit complaining about things and just get in there and figure out how to do better and manage your time wisely, things really can get accomplished. If you just spend all your time complaining and making excuses you really do waste more time.
Things do happen and we all do need some sleep but the important thing I want to say here is that we can still use each day just a bit more effectively and wisely than I’m sure we all are.
Great post!
.-= Eric´s last blog ..Build Your Blog With Fire In Mind =-.
Well said. I can admit to having my fare share of complaints through out the day and can manage my own day a little bit better. So far how I am doing it works for me, it can be a little bumpy at times but I feel comfortable and enjoy it.
Thanks for adding to the post man, everything you said can improve anyones day greatly.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
Ryan,
Thank you for the wonderful insight to dealing with the challenges of time management. More recently I’ve started to categorise my tasks into urgent and important; this has helped prevent me from spending too much time on the less meaningful tasks.
I don’t think I have the same daily challenges that you have.
Regards
Paul
.-= Paul´s last blog ..When the time is right! =-.
Prioritizing is a big part of my life, even though sometimes I get my priorities mixed up. I think this makes the biggest difference in the overall picture.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Social Media changed my life =-.
This is a great post: being a student, it really inspired me, I have to face my studies, write quality posts on my site, write quality guest posts for other sites and even try to reply to every comments on my blog(I just learned that helped recently).
I just don’t know how it is happening, but I am becoming more addicted to the infopreneur’s website, and this is because there is a lot of quality content here and even more posts than I can finis in a month time.
Thanks for the great pos.
Onibalusi,
I am glad you found my post to be inspirational. It is comments like these on this post that really make me want to strive even more to produce quality/more content on a daily basis.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Don’t get worked up =-.
Wow. Great insight. Working in media my schedule is barely ever the same and requires a lot of split shift work. I def. took all that in. What a way to break it down.
.-= Doug´s last blog ..Wash Your Hands =-.
Thanks man for stopping by! I am glad you have made some use of my post
It is always a project in itself to successfully display good time management.
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..Find your rabbit hole =-.