21 March 2011

Scrappy Genealogist Learns to Blog - Time Management

April 13th will mark six months since I started this blog, The Scrappy Genealogist. For all of this time, my biggest challenge has been blog article planning, specifically planning out my posts several weeks in advance. There are lots of other busy geneabloggers, who have jobs, children and other non-genealogical and non-blogging time drainers. I know I am not alone when a whole weekend will be drained doing something like watching my beloved daughter at a horse show.

What I want to know is how do you do it? How do you continue to blog through the chaos? It must involve a good plan. My current one involves a paper planner, but it isn't working. My paper planner has become a great and valuable catch all for blogging ideas, resources and other bits and pieces I pick up from genealogical journals and magazines. My paper planner is not doing its intended job, or rather I am not using it to plan. Does anyone else share this challenge?

If you don't share this challenge and are an organized blogger, how do you plan your blog posts? Have you found a book, website, blog, software program or other resource that is particularly helpful or without which you cannot plan? Would you share your method with me and other beginning bloggers?

Here are a few articles about blog planning to get us started:

a four part series on blogging at The Blogging Bistro
"How to Tame Your Blog with an Editorial Calendar" at joannefaith.com
2011 Blogging Calendar and Planner at BlogEnergizer.com

I hope some of you will take a few minutes to share your challenges or words of wisdom. This Scrappy Genealogist will greedily gobble up your words and hopefully become a better or at least more organized blogger.

Happy Monday!

Scrappy Gen
Let's Remember! 

9 comments:

  1. I use a paper calendar, and I fill in the dates for the upcoming weeks with the holidays and memes I would like for stories. I use Word to write the stories, and then I paste them into blogger about a week or two ahead and add the photos and images. I keep a running list of future stories to pull from the family tree or local history. Sometimes ideas just pop up and I do those posts last minute. Somehow, I'm never at a loss for stories, I just need more time to write them up! This probably be done all on the computer, but it works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know a lot of bloggers plan their posts in advance, but I very rarely do. I usually just write about an idea as it comes to me, inspired by whatever I'm researching at the time. If I get an idea when I don't have the time to write a post, I'll start a new post, jot down some notes, and save the post as a draft. If I'm searching for a topic, I'll read other genealogy blogs or will browse my family tree. And at minimum, I try to write one post a week.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't plan. I just blog when I'm inspired. Sometimes I get "hot" for awhile and sometimes I "cool off". It works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm very sorry but I don't plan.. I write when the feeling takes me... and at the moment it isn't taking me.
    I've been blogging for over 18 months all told and I've never been particularly regular.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm afraid I don't really plan either. I have lots of ideas but very little time. I tend to have a rough outline in my head of what or who I'd like to blog about but I've given up having any sort of actual 'plan'. I usually have four or five posts in draft mode that I work at on and off. I think having an actual schedule or plan would just add more stress to my life!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm a non-planner as well. The only time I plan my posts is if I know I'm going to be out of town or have a really busy week. Then I go ahead and write up my posts, scheduling them to go live during the time I'm away.

    If I have an idea for a post, but don't have the time and/or information I need to complete it, I'll save it as a draft. At any given time, I'll have 5-6 posts in draft for each of my blogs. I'm trying to get a few posts pre-written to hold in reserve for when life interferes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fun post. I don't plan. My ideas come fairly easily because nearly all are based on gravestone photos. If I have nothing to blog about, then it's time to head for the cemetery!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm on the "no plan" plan for blogging. There are always a couple ideas swimming in my head, but I write on the fly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, thank you all for your feedback. You have all made me feel more confident about my let the stories flow non-plan. Several off line comments from bloggers have reminded me that the most important thing is that blogging should be fun. Maybe I have been putting undo pressure on myself. Maybe I should try to be more laid back. The next biggest problem after planning is so many stories...so little TIME!!! A problem many of you do share as well! Thanks again! Jennifer

    ReplyDelete

Please leave your comments, ideas and suggestions. Your thoughts are important to me.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...