We covered the issue of laziness and discipline in Part I and II of this series. We looked at how they can affect the issue of generating fresh contents for your blog. Part III will focus on the issue of time and how to handle it.
There are people who started their blogs with gusto and kept at it but along the way, other activities came up and took away their ability to dedicate time to generating fresh content. Let us look at how we can deal with the issue of time.
The Source of the Problem: Attention
Understanding the beginning will help deal with the present and proffer solutions for the future. People who have an issue with not having enough time to focus on their blog usually started such blogs when they had a lot of “free” time on their hands. They continued blogging and generating content until the time that “free” time was taken by something they had either been waiting for or something that is “better”.
Let us look at this clinically; if you started a blog because you had “free” time, there is every chance that once you find something that you can occupy that time with, something that is “better” or more “productive”, you will shift your attention from the blog and focus on that thing. The problem here is not the blog, the problem here is that you only used the blog to fill an empty space.
Redefining The Value Of The Blog
When time is a problem it will continue to be one until you re-evaluate and redefine the value of your blog. If you started the blog because you were out of a job, it will only be natural to pay less attention to the blog when a job comes along. The issue is not writer’s block but the fact that the blog was just there to fill time until a job, which has a higher value to you comes along.
Redefining the value of the blog is the first step to solving the problem of time. If you still weigh the blog to be less than anything you are currently doing, the blog will remain low in your list of important things to do. Even if you rank your blog high and worry about not having time for it, you still rank it low enough to focus on other things more than you focus on you blog.
If we stop here this article would have failed in achieving its purpose and failed at meeting up with what part I & II of this series achieved in the area of finding a way out in dealing with situations that hinders the continuous generation of fresh content. It is not about identifying the problem as such but proffering a solution.
How to deal with the issue of Time
Necessity can make you place your blog low on your list of important things even when you score it high. There is still a way of dealing with time but the first thing is that you must re-appraise its value and come to the point where you are willing to pay attention to it. That is, you must still sacrifice time for it if you want to keep on generating fresh content.
However, there are ways to go about allocating time for your blog and you do not need to abandon other things that are arguably more important.
Give it Less Time
You may have already started doing it, but you are still disappointed because you can see that you are not churning out as much content as you used to do. The first thing you have to settle within is that situation has changed and you just have to accept the fact that you cannot give it the same attention you used to do.
But giving it less time can still be fun if you use the time you give it wisely. If you have completely abandoned your blog up to this point, you can start by applying the 30 minutes rule. This rule involves you dedicating 30 minutes of your time daily to the blog.
Rudiments of the 30 Minutes Rule
These laws are sacrosanct and must be adhered to at all times. They are to be followed on a step-by-step basis. Start from the top and do it over a period before moving to the next bullet point.
- Dedicate 30 minutes daily to pay attention to your blog
- Start by reading posts and comments. Do not go beyond 30 minutes
- Then respond to only comments. Do not go beyond 30 minutes
- Resist the temptation to write. Do not go beyond 30 minutes
- Write short posts, possibly in response to comments that needs more response that is expansive. Do not go beyond 30 minutes
- Write and posts new articles. Do not exceed 30 minutes
- Do not break the 30 minutes boundary. Do not go beyond 30 minutes
Stick to the 30 minutes rule. Fight the temptation of going beyond it until it beats you.
Become More Mobilized
Work on the go. This is working with the little time you have. Use multiple devices to upload content to your blog. Portability is the operative word here. Stay permanently logged in but only access in-between moments.
- In the taxi
- In the train
- In the bus
- Waiting room, reception area
- Lounge, lobby
- Waiting for the waiter or date to arrive
This is about writing or responding to comments in short bursts. You do not have the time to sit down, you do not have to sit down to still create and post content.
Create A Blog Day (your very own holiday dedicated to blogging)
You have a write to create your very own blog day. It is a celebration of your right to shoot yourself in the foot. Have a bloody blog day. It is your self-imposed holiday. It is not a once-a-year holiday. You should do it at least 4 times a month. There are holidays for all sorts of things, marking all sorts of occasion. You will not be doing anything strange.
Buy Someone’s Time
I kept this for last because it is arguably the most common sense approach (and we do not want to have anything that is common). It could also cost you a few quid. The upside is that you finally become an editor, a boss.
We are done here. Moving on to part IV and looking as the problem of waning passion when it comes to generating new content. Remember that we are still addressing the question of is it a personal blog. After looking at the issue of waning passion, we will move on to the second question that would give more insight into generating fresh content for your blog.
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