11 Time Management Tip - How I manage Work and Blog

Part time blogging is one of the most difficult things to do or rather difficult to manage specially when you have a family also to look around. I have a day job which takes away around 10 hours , stealing the time where I can be most effective. Even though it’s not easy but I do manage both of them along with preparing for interviews and keep upgrading myself.

This is one of the most common scenarios which is faced by many bloggers. As a part of group writing project, I would share my 11 tips which can help you to manage both work and blogging activities.

Maintain a Diary : Keep a diary where you can write your daily things I.e things to do, random ideas, quick notes. This will help you to save a lot of time and you will never scratch your head to think what you were thinking before.
Make a Schedule : When it comes to manage more than one thing, a smart schedule is the only way. Decide how much time you need to give to a particular thing and stick to it. It might be difficult initially but once you get into the flow, your productivity will increase.
Be Flexible: Sticking to a schedule does not mean you cant spare another minute extra. If you need to give some more time for a particular project go ahead. I had to change my timings depending on what kind of article I have to write and balance it out the other day.
Read More than staring at your blog stats: This is one of biggest mistake many bloggers are still making. Checking your stats is a good thing but looking at it every 10 minutes is pretty bad. I realized this 3 months back. Read more articles and good blogs to understand what and how they do.Here is What I used to do every 20 minutes and spent 3 hrs , PLEASE DONT DO IT
1. Checking My Adsense Account.
2. Checking Analytics/ 103 Bees Stats.
3. Checking feedburner to see how many live hits I have.
4. Admiring how much money others are making and again checking my Adsense earnings
First Write Then Read what others wrote : If you get to learn something which is new to you , don’t try to find what others have written. There are 2 reasons why I am saying this, First if you read others article you will loose your creative thinking, Secondly you might drop the idea of even writing it thinking it will be considered as copying. NOPE, you are wrong there. There is always a chance that you will come up with better explanations. So write at least a draft post and then go for exploring more. This will always give you a boost. Research only if you are very doubtful.
Make Your own Bloggers Toolkit : There are many plugins, firefox extensions, feed readers and writing applications which an help you write or manage your posts faster. Find out more about them, make a list which can be useful to you and use it.This can not only save a lot of time but also allow you to more productive.
Have a Blog Management Day: Nobody wants you to keep writing articles everyday and neither you will loose if you don’t write one day. Set aside one day like Sunday or Saturday where you can give a thought on
1. What I had been doing this week.?
2. Do I need to optimize or re-check my articles.?
3. Do I have any pending emails to be answered.?
4. How is my site stats doing ? Have I improved ?
5. Do I need to read more about SEO and Designs ?
6. What is my plan for the coming week ?
Have some time separate for Social Networks: Blogging is not just writing article , its like a life where you need to communicate. Participate in social network sites like Digg, stumble, delicious and others. This will not only increase your points on them but also allow you to see what kind of articles are selling hot.
Don’t waste your time on useless chatting : Networking is important but then nobody has time to waste. Its a bad habit of many people to waste time on chatting. Chat for fun but see what is important to you. Many people have suggested to at least turn your IM’s off when you are writing an article. It really helps
Don’t answer comments immediately unless… Its not necessary that you need to answer a comment immediately unless its really important. Readers are always important but then your are not always siting there 24 hrs. Best is to answer them together after you get some comments or may be after a day.
Make you own set of Time Management Scheme: What worked for me might work for you partially. So have your own set of rules which suits your work and environment but make it for sure. It will allow you to follow a self guideline of YES or NO.

So this is how I manage my blog and work. Many of them will be applicable to you and it rally helps. I had been following since 3 months now and Now I spend only 3 hrs on blogging. except Saturdays and Sunday.

How you manage your work and blog or may be school / college . Share with us in comments and I will learn some tips from you

About The Author of this article:
Ashish is one of the co-author of this blog and writes on various interesting softwares, PC tips and more. You can read more of his articles here.

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39 Comments and Link-Backs to “11 Time Management Tip - How I manage Work and Blog”

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23 Comments from Friends and Readers

inspirationbit, September 27, 2007:

Nice image work, Ashish

They are all really good tips. You’ll get more from others on the weekend, when I publish the results of this group project
Dj Flush, September 27, 2007:

Brilliant set of Time Management Tips Ashish

Its really really hard to manage between real life events, studies and blogging and I have realized recently

But only one thing can help a blogger save his day and that is a proper schedule and proper time management.
Shankar Ganesh, September 27, 2007:

Very interesting, Ashish. Especially point #7. I think I’ll devote a day or a half to reflect on what I’ve done the previous week.

I’ve learnt to practise #10

Thanks for those great tips!
Nirmal, September 27, 2007:

Important points you have mentioned Ashish! Great post on time management. But I differ on point number 10, I answer to comments quickly, may be because I’m online all the time during day.
Ashish Mohta, September 27, 2007:

@Nirmal: I can agree with you on that. Best is to answer what is important but reply to anybody new as soon as possible.

@Shankar: Thanks buddy, And Thanks to let me know about this project.

@DJ: Yup When I saw your Uni schedule and blogging. lOl its difficult.
@Inspirationbit: I will be waiting for the final list. I need some more ideas.
Ken Xu, September 27, 2007:

I love the idea of point 7. It’s important to do a self-reflection of what we have done. I do it at night before sleep (but not so regularly). And I will also make a good use of what you call a diary (I called it a ‘Inspiration book’) to write down what is the idea that attacking me in a sudden time. You will amaze about how fast the idea is going to devoured if you don’t note it down.
Ashish Mohta, September 27, 2007:

@KenXU: You are so right. I had missed many a time some ideas like this. I ususally keep a small diary which helps me to write anywhere I am . Its fast. I have seen Darren Rowse even managing one diary like this. He even has a proper schedule managed
Madhur Kapoor, September 27, 2007:

Great tips Ashish sir , i will try to follow them .
Brown Baron, September 28, 2007:

Excellent tips there buddy. Whatever time management system I have goes down the drain as soon as my 3 kids come near me haha.
John, September 29, 2007:

Thanks for the tips… A better tip for me is how do you entice people to come to your blog and leave comments?

I have had my blog for a few months and no one has stopped by to comment. One thing I started doing was making sure I leave comments on other blogs.

Again, thanks for the tips… I have added your site to my blogroll…
Ashish Mohta, September 29, 2007:

@Madhur: That sounds great :). Do tell me if you stumble upon a new idea,

@Brown: I know what u mean lol, same happens when i get home family, sister , wife….lol there is no escape after that
Ashish Mohta, September 29, 2007:

@John: If you keep on leaving comments which makes sense ( like the one you just made ) you will definetly grab some people towards you. It takes time
Shashank, September 29, 2007:

i really like the 5 th tip which i ve personally experienced many times..indeed great time management and i would say productivity tips
Ashish Mohta, September 30, 2007:

@Shashank: Thanks a lot for the support. I hope many people link it so more people get to know about it
Manav, October 4, 2007:

too guud bro….
Ashish Mohta, October 4, 2007:

Thanks Manav, When R u getting your internet connection?
RJ, October 6, 2007:

I have been blogging more from an hobby standpoint thus far. With my recent ascent into self-hosted Wordpress arena, I am taking a more serious look at blogging with a purpose and reason (and ofcourse one keen eye on the ‘returns’!)

Your blog and most others on the ITB have been extremely helpful.

I find myself with so many things and ‘how-tos’ that I can blog about and I would like to blog about. The difficult thing laying down a bit of structure. Have been following your blog as it has giving me a lot of insight into that area.

One of my collection methods is a box with 3×5 index cards which travel with me in my bag. Whenever I get a moment I jot down relevant information of a thought on a website, or how-to or a tip with the date/time.

As and when a particular piece has been dealt, it gets crossed out, discarded etc.

I have a nice collection. Now I have to transfer to an efficient blog-structure! And they said: “There’s nothing to blogging”!! LIARS!
MoneyBlurbs, October 18, 2007:

Those are nice tips. Spending 3 hours is really cool. Is it per day or per week? One of the techniques that worked out for me is, to allocate units of time for each task. This helps in calculating the quantity, if it is repeating.
Ashish Mohta, October 18, 2007:

@MoneyBlurbs: I usually spend 3-4 hrs on my blog. Talking about 3 hrs, Was just for this post finding the points about it. Even i plan things like you said. divide and rule still works
Time Management, November 16, 2007:

Agree with #1, #2, #3 and #11 100% and as for the others, it’s just that I’m not a big blogger, not that I have anything against it, so, not in a position to comment on them.

And to make the above quoted four tips to work for you, try out some simple and good and free Time Management tool, and don’t expect instant gratification.
Technology Guru, January 11, 2008:

Ashsih

this is a wonderful article.and let me tell you that you have included all real facts.Serious blogger should take a note of it and learn from your past mistakes.

Hats off to you Ashish!!!!
Regards
Technology Guru
http://techno-globe.blogspot.com
Jasmine, February 11, 2008:

Really nice tips. I found several blogs never been up dates by the owners…In fact, they have left the blogs for a long time due to other activity and ” loosing the spirit of blogging”…I am impressed with you Ashish as you spend 3-4 hours daily for blogging. 3-4 hours a day seems not a long time for some people, but to keep do this needs disciplines and self commitment.
Ashish Mohta, February 11, 2008:

@Jasmine: Thanks a lot. Its not easy but I had to be very consistent. It happens with time and there is no limit to it.