For the last 3 months, I have been AWFUL at blog posting.  Between launching my new podcast, She Runs The Show, and writing 1 Kindle eBook a week AND launching a new 5 week online course, things have been CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!  But it doesn’t change the fact that I love to write, I love to share, and blogging is a passion of mine.

So I had to have a Get-It-Together-Talk with myself and evaluate A- Why I wasn’t blogging consistently (or at all), B- What it was going to take for me to get back to a blogging schedule and C- What strategies I needed to put into place to ensure that I stick to my blogging schedule (no whining, complaining, or excuses allowed).

And that’s what we’re going to cover in this blog post.

By the end, you’re going to learn:

1) The 3 reasons why consistent blogging doesn’t happen

2) How to spend less than 5 minutes creating a blogging schedule

3) How to produce valuable content in the least amount of time possible

Let’s go!

THE 3 REASONS CONSISTENT BLOGGING DOESN’T HAPPEN: 

Reason #1: Your day isn’t planned in advance and you allow time to run you instead of you running your time.

This happens to me EVERY time I don’t plan out my week in advance…and not just in the area of blogging.  If I don’t schedule out my workouts (NOTE TO SELF: book your spin bike for the week so your slot isn’t taken), prep my meals for the week, and set up my calendar to reflect where I’m supposed to be when, I’m screwed.  What winds up happening, from there, is a whole bunch of “stuff” that never has much of a rhyme or reason and never turns into massive success by the end of the week.  That doesn’t work if your goal is to build something amazing in your life.

Reason #2: Your blogging time (although it might be on your calendar) isn’t a NON-NEGOTIABLE use of your time.

Ever have a 5 minute Facebook excursion turn into a 1 hour FB time suck… and then wonder why you don’t have enough time to blog?  Yup, me too… What I’m starting to realize is that when I blog, I need to put WHOLE mind into PRESENT action.  Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook cannot be up on a tab of my computer while I’m writing a post.  My phone can’t be zinging and dinging with new updates as I’m writing this post (NOTE TO SELF: turn your Samsung face down- check!).  All of these things are distractions that can lure you away from doing something consistently and persistently that you “say” is important to your business.  At the end of the day, it’s not about what we “say” we’ll do; it’s about what we actually do…

REASON #3: You didn’t create a content calendar in advance.

In December, I spent 4 or 5 hours researching topics, blog titles and generating blog topic ideas which lead to a 9 page (front and back) listing of EVERY blog post I’m going to write in 2015.  If I hadn’t spent the time to develop a content calendar (which I still need to put in a Google spreadsheet), it would take me hours to research AND write each blog post.  Having a content calendar (whether it’s on paper like mine or on a Google doc or in Excel) is critical to being able to focus on efficient, effective blog writing.

HOW TO SPEND LESS THAN 5 MINUTES CREATING A BLOGGING CALENDAR: 

For those of us who are prone to over-thinking things, here’s an easy way to create a blogging calendar:

• Pick 2-3 days a week that you’ll blog (for me, it’s Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday- I’ve found that Mondays are way too hectic with the podcast to even thinking about blogging)
• Open your calendar (I have both an actual calendar and Google calendar) and block out a recurrent, weekly 30 minute appointment for those days
• Set up reminders for each blogging appointment that goes to your phone and to your email (and pops up on your computer)
• Follow it!  That’s it!

HOW TO PRODUCE VALUABLE CONTENT IN THE LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME POSSIBLE: 

1. Check out the top 3 blogs in your content area and see what their top 50 posts are (topics, headlines, etc.).  Examples like Mind Body Green, The Daily Love, and Entrepreneur come to my mind when I think about my niche.
2. Set up Google alerts for your subject matter so that you receive the latest articles and news right in your inbox. Here’s an article on how to set up a Google alert: https://support.google.com/alerts/answer/4815696?hl=en
3. Pull from your own life experiences and provide lessons so people can learn from your mistakes.
4. Find the loopholes in your industry and write about them (What aren’t the leaders in your industry saying that needs to be said?  Maybe it’s time you said it!)

At the end of the day, these are the things that I’m MAKING myself implement so I can blog more consistently.

I’d love to hear from you.

What tools do you use to blog consistently?

What strategies are you incorporating into your work schedule so you do blog as consistently as you’d like?

What are you struggling with in terms of blogging?

Leave a comment below!