I struggle with time as a mom + a blogger. (If you have kids, I know you do too.)
Making it all happen is HARD. From the moment I started my blog, I’ve been short on time.
I’m always on the lookout for time-saving hacks for bloggers to get more done faster.
(I hate the word hacks, tbh. It just sounds cheap to me – like the plastic stuff from the dollar store. What I’m actually on the lookout for is time-saving skills and ideas for bloggers.)
I’m looking for REAL changes to the way I do things that will have REAL impact on how much I can accomplish for my business.
I noticed something interesting the other day…
Of all the best time-saving ideas and tricks (a little better than hacks?) I have ever learned for blogging, 99% of them came from passing conversation with successful bloggers.
When people who’ve been doing this for years take the time to share their best tips with me, I listen!
I know that you can’t necessarily run out right now and ask some other blogger how THEY save the most time, so I wanted to share the 3 most amazing productivity tips for blogging I’ve ever heard:
Create Pins one your phone in your downtime
Katie (from clarkscondensed.com) shared a tip with me that was literally the most exciting thing that’s happened to me so far this year.
She said she’s got the depositphotos app on her phone – and the picmonkey app, and she can create AMAZING pins ON HER PHONE.
(I ALWAYS create pins on the computer, because I love photoshop and canva is very wanting as far as I’m concerned.)
I immediately (and I do mean immediately) purchased picmonkey (I did the yearly plan, and that’s only 10 bucks/month. The picmonkey app is just SO MUCH BETTER than canva. Honestly, once you get into it, you’ll understand why picmonkey is paid for and canva is free.)
Anyhow, now I can create awesome pins FROM MY PHONE – and super easily!
Like when I’m waiting at the doctor’s office or laying in bed at night waiting for my kiddo to fall asleep.
The app is really easy to use – so making pins actually feels EASIER on the phone than it does on the computer… and that’s something I never would have imagined!
(I’ll get a video tutorial made to share with you.)
Use dictation apps to get your posts/emails out
My friend Caroline, (from carolinevencil.com) told me a year ago that she “writes” her blog posts/emails/eebooks – while she’s cleaning, doing the dishes, or driving somewhere – with dictation apps.
OH MY WORD.
This is such a time saver, because not only does it allow for multi-tasking, but I can’t “just get the ideas out” if I’m typing.
My brain INSISTS on editing while I go – which is definitely not the fastest way to write.
I would ten times rather edit something that I’ve just talked out than try to find the time to sit and write.
Just try it with google docs- or, if your hands are free and you want to manually add punctuation as you go, speechnotes is good for that.
Set up “If this, then that” rules for email
Ok, so this wasn’t in conversation, but it was at a conference – where she said it as a speaker.
Ruth Soukup (the creator of EBA – one of the single best blogging courses I have ever taken) suggested creating “if this, then that” rules for email, and to set up canned responses.
This is one of the BEST things you can do for yourself to make answering emails FAST FAST FAST – and to stop spending so much time answering the same exact questions over and over again.
By the end of 2017, I was spending upwards of 2 hours per day in email alone.
(We actually took this rule a step farther and set up an auto-responder for my inbox that answers the MAIN questions we get asked over and over and over again – and we often get replies to the auto-responder that say “Don’t worry about my email – your auto-responder answered my question!” – this saves SO MUCH TIME!)
Just these three things have the ability to save literally HOURS in my week – and I hope they’ll help you too!
The more tricks you learn to get it all done FASTER, the more time you have to either invest back in your business or else reclaim your life (I know when I started blogging, I STOPPED doing everything else because it is just such a time-intensive investment!)
Click here to download 6 more time-saving hacks for bloggers!
Haven’t started your blog yet? Get my free step-by-step tutorial for setting up a successful blog here.
