As I briefly mentioned in
this post, I struggle sometimes juggling the right balance between blogging and school. I want to try and put as much into my blog as I can to make it the best it can be, but I also need time to revise and do my homework to get on with tasks in school.
I find is so frustrating how non-bloggers think it's just a quick type up and go. It is so extremely difficult to be a blogger whilst still at school because blogging is practically a full time job. By the time you've photographed and edited the photos (1 hour), wrote it up and published (another hour and a half) and then shared it on all of your social media platforms, it can be a 2-3 hour job, and that's just half of it. You need to reply to comments, get involved with other people and juggle hundreds of emails - it's a full day's work and not just a quick type-up and go.
I've been using a few easy tips to help get the balance right between working at school and not neglecting your blog.
Know your school schedule
The chances are, if you know your school schedule, you'll be more efficient in getting blog posts up. You'll know when your deadlines are and you can blog around that. Say if you want to post every two days but you know you're approaching a school deadline, plan in advance so you're not rushing both your school work and your blog post just to get them done.
Photograph in bulk
Probably the one of the most useful tips I'll ever give you. If you take photos of 5 or 6 products in one go, upload them to your computer/laptop (or whatever you blog from) and save them there. This means that if you're stuck for a post or struggling for time to take photos, you'll always have them stored on your device for you to use whenever. This is especially important in Winter - it's usually too dark to take blog photos when you get home, so I take all of my photos at midday at the weekend to ensure I get good photos for my blog.
Use your weekends!
As I said earlier, take your blog photos in the afternoon of the weekends if you can. Here, you'll have natural sunlight (so your photos look better) and you'll have all of the photos needed during the week.
Use a printable weekly timetable
I just made this in a matter of minutes and it can be used as a timetable for the whole week. You are welcome to use this and write down your school deadlines and what date you want to publish which post. I also added the 'other' section for things like the dentist, doctors etc. You can print this off and write what you want to happen throughout the week. If you keep it in your pocket, you can also write on the back of it any blog post ideas you have.
Using planners like this will make your blog and school life much more organized. Write in your deadlines and when you want to publish a post. You can even write in what you want to do that day. For example, if you want a post up on Thursday, write on Wednesday's entry "write blog post on .... for tomorrow!" and cross it out when you've done it. Schedule the post and it'll go up whenever you chose.
I hope this has helped! How do you juggle blogging and school?
Elise
♥