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Productivity Tips For Bloggers That Work ALL The Timeby JaneSheeba

Productivity t ips are always sought af terby bloggers. Thanks to the overwhelminginf ormation on the internet, the massivenumber of places to get distracted onlineand the nature of work involved f or ablogger, blogger productivity is alwaysin danger!

In order to get blog content ideas, in orderto expand those ideas, in order to dokeyword research, market research andcontent research and in order to createthe content, a blogger has to use theenormous number of online tools that areeasily available.

Now this comes with a price. The “enormous” usef ul online tools that help bloggers to do what theygotta do also keep them f rom doing what they got to do.

Productivity rests in peace in the lif e of most bloggers.

Let me give you a scene so that you can picture it yourself .

You wake up in the morning and open your computer with a nice cuppa cof f ee. You start checking emails.And then, oh there’s Facebook. No, you’re not wasting your t ime – but you’re engaging! That’s whatYOU think.

Wait a moment, you need to login to Youtube and check those “best blogging tips” tutorials. But this catis so cute while it plays the piano.

Bam! Lunch time!

Af ter lunch, let’s say you take a nap. You come back to your working (?!) table with yet another cuppacof f ee. Now you’re determined to do the work.

You need to write that blog post. You need to do the background research. You go to Google. You endup reading 55 blog posts, share them, pin them on Pinterest, get lost on all the shiny objects out thereuntil your eyes go blurry, and red.

Now you take a serious pledge that you WILL work seriously without wasting time f rom tomorrowmorning.

And the story continues…

In this post I am going to tell you what exactly you need as a blogger to boost your productivity. Theproductivity t ips I’m going to share here are no theory; but they’ve been tested (on me) and are f ound towork perf ectly.

Let’s get to productivity t ips for bloggers 101 class.

Have clear goals

It all starts with clarity. Without this it will not be hard f or you to get lost in the sea of inf ormation that’spresented bef ore you on that computer screen.

Get over with the f oggy clouds and multiple voices that are over your head 24/7. Eliminate all the unclearthoughts and goals. Find out exactly what you want with your business and your blog.

In f act, as a blogger, you should get clarity f rom day -10 – I mean, even bef ore you start your journeyas a blogger. If you do not have clarity then don’t start a blog or an online business unless you knowwhat you want to achieve.

This not only applies to bloggers but to all businesses and even starting something new with yourpersonal lif e. But in the case of blogging, having a clarity is very crucial since this is a crowded business.

We see blogs being started every minute and they also die that f aster. Without clarity, you won’t be ableto succeed as a blogger.

OK that’s the big picture. When we see at the detailed level, without clarity you cannot accomplishanything in one single day. I mean, you cannot even think about being productive.

Plan for the long term

Once you get clarity about your business, you look at the bigger picture and make long term plans. Thisis the f irst step to increase your productivity as a blogger.

Why? Because having a long term plan will put a target in f ront of you and motivate you to work towardsit.

Without a long term plan and a goal you will simple be checking emails, hanging out on social mediaand occasionally work on your blog. This is not the best working model for a blogger.

As a blogger, if you want to be productive every day, you should have long term goals, that are split upinto short term goals, which again are split into manageable chunks (tasks) that you handle on a dailybasis.

Now let me ask you: What will you work on everyday, as a blogger, when you don’t have a long termplan?

Let’s answer this question f irst and talk about productivity later!

Have focus

Remember I talked about distractions in thebeginning? Well you cannot eliminate them as ablogger, coz you need to do a lot of research,be on social media and put your f ace all over theinternet. And this can lead to a lot of distraction.

But that doesn’t mean you’ve to get lost in thesea of things to do. Of ten times, you get lostwhen you don’t have clarity, which we talkedabout earlier.

But having f ocus is another bit of the story.

Now, assuming that you have your long termplan > short term action plans > daily tasks andstrategies, you have something to work oneveryday, right? You have a precise list of stuf fthat you need to take care on a daily basis.

When you have that stuf f in f ront of you, workon that and that alone.

If you f ind yourself getting distracted quite of ten, use the appropriate productivity tools f or bloggers(more on that below).

These are the bits you need to stay focused:

Have a clear long term goal

Create an action plan to achieve that goal

Organize the baby steps

Split big goals into chunks to easily get them done

Take action and approach tasks one by one

Stop regularly and analyze the results (more on this below)

Work in blocks

The working hours of bloggers can get boring by the day since all we do is sit in f ront of the computers.This can be really t iring. And this will seriously hit your productivity.

To avoid this boredom and kinda sick f eeling f rom emerging inside you, try to work in short blocks oft ime . The Promodoro technique is the best bet in this case.

Choose to work say 25 minutes and compulsorily take a 5 minute break. Or you can also choose to workan hour straight and take a 10 minute break.

It is very important that you take your eyes and f ocus of f your blogging activity at regular intervals tomake yourself more productive.

And one important advice here > Have everything ready when you start working in a block of t ime.

Do not set aside time f or writ ing a particular blog post until you have all the material ready and have donethe research.

Tip > Set aside a separate block f or doing research to start writ ing that blog post and really limityourself to work on that task only f or that amount of t ime!

Analyze your plan regularly

Do not keep working hard monotonously on a strategy. Itis very crucial in any business to pause and analyze.

Whenever you are implementing something new, orwhenever you are working on a strategy, you need topause of ten and look back. And, analyze the results.

If you keep on working on a thing without looking back,you are not being productive . You could be wastingyour energy on strategies that don’t work and you couldbe missing out on strategies that work.

Stopping by and looking back helps you to f ind out whatworked and what didn’t work.

This inf ormation is crucial f or any business (not just f orblogging).

In short > Find out what works and do more of it. Find outwhat doesn’t work and eliminate it or tweak it.

Have the RIGHT productivity tools

As a blogger we use so many tools every day f orblogging, social networking, promotion etc. It is alsoimportant that we use the right tools in order to keepourselves productive and to keep us on track.

Here is a post where I talk about two tools I use on a daily basis >> 2 Task management tools I use anda f ew handy tips f or bloggers.

I use Swif t to-do list to keep myself alive in this chaos It not just helps me plan things, but also tostay f ocused and keep an account of my productivity.

Also you should subscribe to my newsletter at janesheeba.com to receive amazing productivity and timemanagement t ips!

Just visit any post and you will f ind a subscription f orm either on the sidebar or at the bottom of thepost. Here’s a post you should visit:

>> People have asked me these questions since I started my online business

Takeaway

What productivity tools do you use? What do you do to keep yourselves accountable?

Or are you the blogger who doesn’t worry about being productive and just perf orms tasks everyday whenand as they come in (I won’t be surprised)?

Let me (and everyone else) know in the comments!