Focusing on work outside of the blog

blogged

I was just joking with someone about being "blogged out"! (and I have only started blogging very very recently) I thought humor would help me but it didn't.

I started making lists, lists of things I have to do before the blogs. They seem to help a little. Blogs sure are tempting little critters aren't they?

I occasionally get information overload and I have to go do something else creative. Or not creative like watching tv, reading a mindless book or even just staring out the window. I have gardening in the spring, summer fall. But winter really stinks with motivational lag.

I'd say ignore the blogs for awhile (it's so hard to do!). Maybe I should take my own advice huh?

You can set aside a scheduled blogging time and other than that time you have to be working on other writing.

Who else has a good idea?

I use timers a la FlyLady. They help me keep track of time better, especially how much time is actually passing as opposed to what I think is passing. Huge difference.

I use a timer for writing, editing, whatever I need help focusing on or limited, including how much time I spend on breaks in between. I also regularly test myself with writing, for example, to find out how much time spent on writing is the most effective use of my time. What's my wpm count for 5 minutes vs. 15 minutes vs. 20 minutes vs. 30 minutes, for example. For me, I'm most effective with 15 minutes, followed by 30 minutes, and 20 minutes and 5 minutes at a dead last.

If you spend too much time on blogging, why not set the timer for 15 minutes or 30 minutes and go like gangbusters, then move on to other writing or editing or whatever needs to be done. Or use blogging as a reward - for every 30 minutes of writing you do, you get 15 minutes blogging.

Hey, I fully believe in bribing and blackmailing my muse.

Lately, I've been writing for my blog every other day. That way the work isn't so demanding and allows me time to work on my present Work-In-Progress.

I realize it's only by pure accident that I do this, but it does help me out with the demands of the blog versus the demands of my novel writing.


I hope this helps you out to some extent. Good luck to you.

I just came across y'alls' posts and wanted to tell you that I appreciated the information that you posted. Time management is such an issue for me! Working on it, though.

kdnxdr

Time management is very important if you have several fish to fry. I just started my blog and thus I spent quit a bit time to set it up and tweaking the template until I was happy with it.

But as has been said here. There are other things to do too, My plan is to work on my writing 4 out of 7 days at least for 4 to 5 hours. The rest of the time is spent for my website and the blog. I might adjust that time management as required but to me it seems important to get the priorities right. The blog never should become more important than the actual work, at least in my humble opinion. For me the blog is like another outlet where I can share things that I usually do not write about in my work but also to improve my language skills (My native language is German).