18 Time Management Tips for Busy Bloggers

Are you a busy blogger? If so, you know that there never seems to be enough time in the day. Juggling work, family, fitness, blogging…sometimes it seems downright impossible to manage. But not to worry – let’s take a look at 23 time management tips for bloggers that will help you stay on top of your business (and life).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn a commission on qualifying purchases.

1. Set Priorities

When you have a lot on your plate, it’s important to set priorities. Ask yourself what’s most important and start there.

Think about the actions that you need to take that will move the needle the most in your blogging business, and prioritize those. For the work that doesn’t take priority – perhaps you automate that, delegate that, or eliminate that.

For example, let’s say your biggest source of income on your blog is ad revenue (or perhaps that’s what you’re hoping it’ll be). And of your blog traffic, organic search traffic accounts for 80% of total traffic, while your social media feeds account for the other 20%.

If that were me, it’d be a clear sign to prioritize time creating new SEO optimized posts and updating older posts to help them rank higher. I’d shift away from spending too much time on social media, since that’s not moving the revenue needle.

You might also choose to shift these priorities based on goals you’d like to meet. In the example above, maybe that blogger wants to start doing more sponsored content, and as such would need to prioritize consistent creation on one (not all) of those social platforms.

2. Embrace Routines and Planning

When time is tight, routine can be a busy blogger’s best friend.

Routine gives structure to our day and helps ensure that we get the important things done – while still leaving time for the fun stuff. It also allows us to use time more efficiently, since we’re not wasting time trying to decide what to do next.

In business, this might mean that you only schedule meetings (like brand pitches or mastermind meetings) on Wednesdays and Thursdays, leaving your Mon/Tues/Fri open for writing and social content. Or maybe you allocate the first two hours of each work day to writing new posts, because you know that’s you’re most creative time.

But routine doesn’t have to apply only to business. In daily life, routines and planning can reduce decision fatigue, leaving your brain open for more creative work thinking.

For example, maybe you sit down every Sunday to plan your family’s meals and grocery shop (or order your groceries). That means each day of the week, you know that a) you’re stocked up on food, and b) you don’t have to decide what to make for dinner each night – it’s already been decided.

Reducing those daily decisions is so helpful for leaving your brain fresh and ready to write as a blogger!

3. Time block and batch work

One of the best ways to manage your time is to time block. Time blocking is when you set aside specific blocks of time for work, and batching refers to doing the same (or like) tasks at once. Combining these allows you to stay efficient.

I went to a social media session recently where the speaker mentioned that he films an entire month of Instagram reels in ONE day. He scripts them out the week before, then takes one day where he sets up his filming background, outfit changes, etc, and spends about 6-7 hours that day filming.

Not everyone might like to do that in one go, but you can imagine how it would make the rest of his month so much easier knowing that all the content was filmed and ready to roll.

Here are some things you might consider batching:

• Writing blog posts
• Editing blog posts
• Creating social media graphics
• Filming reels/TikTok videos
• Pitching brands
• Answering emails (I HIGHLY recommend blocking this instead of answering emails as they come in. If you want to start with one tip, let it be this one. Only check and respond to emails 1-2x/day).
• Keyword research
• HARO queries and other link building activities
• Cooking and photographing recipes (for food bloggers)
• Editing photos
• Scheduling pins

4. Automate as much as possible

As a busy blogger, time is your most precious commodity. If there are tasks that must get done, consider any ways to automate them to help reduce the amount of time you spend.

Here are some ideas for automation:

• Utilize a tool like CoSchedule that automatically shares out old content to Facebook and Twitter. (You can also use it for standard scheduling, but I do love the “Requeue” feature that automates old posts)

• Create an email automation series so that new subscribers get valuable content without you having to lift a finger (well, except the first time you need to write it all out).

• Create a tripwire page, so when someone enters their email to download a freebie, they’re taken to a special limited-time deal for one of your paid products. This can be a great way to generate additional sales!

• Set up your bills on autopay for key blogging subscriptions and tools (i.e. hosting, domain, keyword research tool, etc.) so that you don’t have to remember to manually pay them each month/year.

5. Eliminate distractions

A University of California Irvine study found that interruptions and distractions during work lead to more stress, feelings of a higher workload, more frustration, feelings of more time pressure, and subjectively feeling like it takes more effort to get the work done.

Eeek. That doesn’t sound good!

As such, when it comes to time management for bloggers, eliminating distractions can help you focus and feel better about the work you’re doing.

Try turning off notifications on your phone for email and social media – or even putting your phone in another room while you’re doing important work. Similarly, avoid logging into social on your computer, and resist the urge to just pop over for a “quick check” when you’re in the middle of another task.

If you frequently work at home with kids, be sure they’re set up with activities so that you can get a solid amount of interrupted time. Or, even better, see if there’s a local babysitter that could entertain them for a few hours while you work from home.

Work at a co-working space or coffee shop? Try investing in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones which can help you drown out the chatter.

6. Take breaks

It’s important to take breaks throughout the day, both for your physical and mental health. When we sit and work on projects for a long periods of time, it’s easy to start to lose focus. Prolonged sitting also isn’t great for our health or posture.

While there are different expert opinions on the “right” amount of time for focused work – like 25 or 45 minutes – I really believe this is likely individualized. Monitor yourself during your workday and see where you start to get easily distracted, or start to feel a little stiff or antsy.

If that tends to happen every 40 minutes, then make it a priority to stand up and take a 5-10 minute break. I love to try to get outside in the fresh air and walk a few times a day, but you might choose stretching, a few quick yoga poses, some jumping jacks – whatever floats your boat.

If you don’t have time for a full break, even just standing up and stretching for 30 seconds can make a difference!

7. Aim for 80%, not 100%

This is a tough concept for a recovering perfectionist like myself, but probably one of the most important ones to embrace. Just because you have all these tasks to complete, doesn’t mean that they need to be exactly 100% perfect.

In many cases, especially with blogging, something that’s pretty good and finished is much better than something incomplete because it’s not perfect.

First, your 80% is probably much better than you think it is. Second, remember that your readers are likely not going to be as nit-picky as you might be. And third, you can always go back and update posts later.

From an SEO perspective, I do recommend trying to make your posts solid content up front (i.e. good keyword research, adequate length to answer the query, proper structure) – but don’t worry so much about making sure the introduction and writing style are perfect.

8. Wake up early

This tip should come with a clarifier, which is go to bed early so that you can wake up early. Getting enough sleep – that’s a minimum of 7-8 hours, y’all! – is essential for health and productivity.

But once you put that into place, getting up early can make a world of difference in your blogging routine. Just think about it – if you got up an hour earlier each day of the work week and spent that exclusively focused on blogging, that would be an extra 260 hours a year (the equivalent of more than 6 full time weeks!) towards your business.

If you struggle with mornings, try setting your alarm clock just 15-30 minutes earlier each day until you reach your desired time.

9. Give yourself quiet time

Ever hear that many people get their best ideas in the shower or out for a walk? That’s because the brain is more likely to generate new and interesting ideas when it’s in a relaxed, low-stimulus environment.

These days we have so much stimulation all the time, from TV to Alexa to social media and everything in between. If you want to be more productive, try giving yourself some time each day where you’re not engaging with any screens or outside stimulus.

This could be drinking a quiet cup of coffee each morning before you check your phone, maybe it’s taking a 30-minute walk midday, or perhaps it’s a series of bedtime stretches at night.

While it seems like it’s the opposite of productivity, I promise that having that extra quiet time can help your brain to think through innovative concepts and solutions to business problems.

10. Break Down Big Projects

When you’re staring at a huge project – like writing an e-book or developing an online course – it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and not even know where to start. One of the best pieces of time management advice I’ve ever received is to break down big projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Instead of getting bogged down by the enormity of it all, try breaking the project into small, actionable steps that you can complete in an hour or less.

For example, let’s say that you are a fitness blogger and you’re developing a course to help beginner women start strength training. You can break that down by the following tasks:

• Choose a course platform
• Outline the different modules of the course in a notebook or using sticky notes
• Break down each section with the major talking points or exercises you want to cover
• Decide how each of those sections will be put together (i.e. video, PDF, etc)
• Schedule the days to film or put together each of those sections
• Upload content to the course platform
• Write the sales page copy
• Write blog posts and/or social media content to promote the launch

By breaking down a big project into smaller, more manageable chunks, you’ll not only be able to get started, but also make significant progress quickly. And that’s a huge time management win!

11. Use tools that make blogging faster

There are a lot of time-saving tools out there that can help you to blog more efficiently. Some are an investment, but there is always a trade off between time and money. You may find that a small investment in a tool helps save you time that you can spend on higher revenue generating tasks.

Here are just a few of my favorites for saving time:

a. Canva – Canva is a free online design platform that’s great for creating graphics for your blog posts, social media, and even marketing materials like e-books and workbooks. For many bloggers, it’s a lot easier and quicker to grasp how to use Canva than a fancier tool like Photoshop.

In addition, the pro version of Canva has helpful features that allow you to resize graphics for multiple social platforms, allowing you to save time.

b. Jasper – Jasper is an AI content platform that features both writing and art tools. This means you can use the writing tool to help speed up finishing a blog post, create social media captions, write sales page copy, and more.

I love Jasper and use it all the time – it works particularly well for list style posts and persuasive writing. They’ve recently added a Chrome extension which allows you to use it directly while working in Google docs, WordPress, Facebook, etc.

(Keep in mind, Jasper is not a fact checker – it’s a creative writing tool. You need to guide it and you need to be sure to fact-check. You can read more about Jasper here.)

You can also use their AI art tool to create unique social media or blog post graphics.

c. KeySearch – When I started blogging, I made the grave mistake of not learning about how to do keyword research properly. This led me to write a bunch of articles that no one ever read because I wasn’t using the right keywords. Wasted time and effort – boooo!

Investing in KeySearch made a huge difference in getting my main blog past 100K page views a month, because it helps you find keywords that get decent search volume and aren’t super competitive. (Learn more about how to use KeySearch.)

*You can save 20% off KeySearch using code KSDISC and signing up here.)

d. RankIQ – I know some people like the content optimizer in RankIQ, but I truthfully don’t use it that often – I feel pretty good about my ability to write good content. However, I do LOVE the keyword library that’s broken down by niche. It can save me time when I want a new, interesting idea to write about, but I’m having writer’s block and can’t think of any good keywords to search in KeySearch.

12. Consider outsourcing

If your blog is already bringing in revenue, you might also consider outsourcing. While you can outsource from the start if you have enough start-up money, I realize that’s not an option for many bloggers. However, this can be a great investment back into your business once you’ve started earning a profit.

The key is to outsource the right tasks. You want to focus on outsourcing time-consuming tasks that are essential to the business, and start with tasks that you don’t like or you’re not good at. Do not outsource random work just because you think it’s a task bloggers “should” do.

For example, if social media hasn’t been a part of your blogging business and you have no interest in doing sponsored content – then it doesn’t really make sense to outsource that to a virtual assistant, right? It’s not leading you towards your blogging goals.

But maybe another blogger has Facebook as a primary traffic driver, and they simply hate spending time on Facebook. That might be a great option for outsourcing for them.

Here are some tasks you might consider outsourcing:

• Bookkeeping and tax filings
• Social media management
• Creating an email nurture sequence (one time project)
• Creating Pinterest images for blog posts
• Additional writers (this is probably a task you enjoy and are good at, but hiring additional writers may be a good step to help you move towards an income goal or traffic goal more quickly)
• Keyword research
• Legal templates for contracts (this could be a one time project for a lawyer, or you could purchase pre-created templates. I’ve purchased these templates from Businessese; you can customize after downloading)
• Formatting blog posts in WordPress
• Editing your podcast
• WordPress tech support (I’ve use Grayson at iMark Interactive for years for this, and am always happy with his support).

Outsourcing can free up a lot of time for you to focus on the tasks that will help you make more money – like writing blog posts, affiliate marketing, or creating digital products.

PS – Don’t forget, outsourcing can also apply to home tasks. It doesn’t have to just be work related. You might consider grocery delivery once a week, or hiring a house cleaner to come in once a month and do a deep clean. This can save you time in your personal life which is equally important.

13. Track your time

If you’re reading all these tips and thinking – “but I don’t have time to even think about planning my time better!” – then tracking your time is an essential first step.

You may not realize where all the minutes in your day are going. Start tracking every single activity you do from wake up to sleep, every day for a week. You can use a pen and paper, or there are time tracking apps out there if you prefer a digital approach.

Once you start tracking your time, you may be surprised by what you see.

There may be some areas that you can eliminate to help you better manage your time. For example, are there portions of your day that you spent scrolling social media that you didn’t even realize? Maybe you put your phone in another room while working.

But this method will also help you set realistic expectations for your work. You may notice that every blog posts takes you twice as long as you planned, leaving you less time to do that other work that you had planned. Moving forward, perhaps you can better schedule tasks to account for the actual amount of time they take. Or, maybe you can reassess if you’ve got a perfectionist mentality, and could actually stop tweaking the post a little earlier and just get it live.

14. Set boundaries

There are only 24 hours in a day, and at least 8 of those should be sleeping – leaving you just 16 hours total for all of life’s responsibilities.

The reality for most bloggers is that we will always have work to be done. There’s always another post you could write, another social video you could film, another affiliate you could try to market.

But you can’t work all day, every day. You need time to relax, enjoy life, and recharge your batteries. Otherwise you’ll quickly burn out.

Set boundaries with your time. If you want to take weekends off, make that a firm rule and stick to it. Want to spend time with your family each night after 6pm? Close the computer and don’t open it again until the next morning.

Similarly, as your site grows, it’s important to set boundaries in your actual work time. People will want to “pick your brain” or ask you for advice via email. While building relationships is fantastic, you also have to protect your time so that you can actually get work done and maintain some semblance of balance.

In these situations, it may be helpful to have some template emails prepared with answers to common questions. If you get the same questions frequently, that’s a great blog post you can create that could then be shared out! Or, maybe people need individualized advice, and you send them a link your Calendly calendar with times they can book for a paid session.

15. Do not multitask

Contrary to popular belief, multitasking is not an effective way to work. In fact, it can actually make you less productive.

When you’re trying to do two things at once – like write a blog post and answer email – you’re really just switching your focus back and forth between the two tasks, which takes time and energy. You’re also more likely to make mistakes when you’re trying to do two things at once.

Instead of multitasking, focus on one task at a time and give it your full attention. Once that task is done, move on to the next thing on your list. Your work will be of better quality, and you’ll be able to complete tasks more quickly overall.

16. Simplify your life and business

There is something to be said for simplicity in life and business, and it’s impact on our calmness and happiness.

The more complex our lives are, the more time and energy we have to spend on managing those complexities. That’s time and energy that could be spent on other, more important things.

What does simplicity look like in your life and business?

Perhaps it’s decluttering your office space so that you have a peaceful place to work. (There is ample research on the negative effects of clutter!).

Or maybe, that means saying “no” to being on the PTO this year, so that you can have extra time to spend with your family.

See everyone jumping on the latest and greatest social trend? Maybe you hold steadfast in focusing on good SEO-optimized content, because that’s working for you and you like it.

Take some time to step back and simplify things to make your life and business feel good to you.

17. Follow the 10 minute rule

Have you been procrastinating a certain task? Dreading something because you think it’ll be hard to work on?

Use the 10-minute rule. Tell yourself you’ll sit down and work for just 10 minutes on one small part of it.

If after the 10 minutes you’re not feeling it, you can give yourself permission to put it away until tomorrow, and use the same rule again.

But odds are, once you get started, you’ll find that you can keep going after the 10 minutes and make significant progress.

18. Utilize 1.5-2x speed when learning.

This is probably the silliest tip on the list, but also super practical.

In the blogging space, there are tons of podcasts, YouTube videos, and courses that you can listen to in order to learn just about anything.

But sometimes, they can take up a lot of time.

By listening at 1.5-2x speed (set it as fast as you can comfortably listen), you’re able to learn at a faster pace.

Many video systems have the ability to change speed built in, but if not, you can use the free Video Speed Controller Chrome Extension. It allows you to adjust the speed on any videos you watch on your computer.

The Bottom Line

By following these time management tips, you’ll be able to take control of your time and get more done each day. Just remember to be patient and give yourself time to adjust to new routines. Soon enough, you’ll find that managing your time is a breeze!

Share: What time management tips do you swear by? Share them in the comments below!

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