Prewriting, Scheduling Blog Posts, Time Management And All That Jazz.

How I manage to keep up my blog, instagram, uni work and basically still have some sort of a life…

“Oh so what have you actually done today then if you have been home all day?” A phrase I HATE. If I am not at work, or at uni I will most likely be at home or working on my blog (or Starbucks but shhhh). I hate that phrase because I feel very judged by it. For example recently we have had a builder in jazzing up our bathroom #goodbyebluecarpets. But to him, I feel like I just look like I am doing nothing but watch TV or sit on my Mac all day. I assume you are aware of the assumption that working at home looks like you do shit all. But I can confirm that its further from the truth. 

Whilst I have had a nice long break from uni, I know that once I go back it is going to be SO FULL ON. By the time this post goes up I will be back to uni. So as I am sure you know, I will be juggling my blog, my degree and my part time job all at once. And somewhere amongst that I am going to have to keep up some sort of a social life for my own sanity. But how is this all physically possible?! 

The real truth to time management is understanding the commodity of time. Since I have upped the blog game I have become more aware of the time I need to spend on it. Which has made in turn made me appreciate my time more. This is not going deep… but in other words I have realised that there are more important things to be doing that sleeping in until 10AM everyday. As some of you asked on my Instagram how I managed all this including the realms of prewriting and scheduling posts I thought I would throw it into one big blog post. Grab that glass on wine babe… 

1. When you have time to pre-write blog posts make the most of it. 

 I often show on my Instagram stories that I pre-write the majority of my content. Just take this post. You are reading this in the middle of October… but I am currently writing it on the 17th of September. If you know you have a busy month or period ahead of you plan to take some time to write all your content for that period. I am using the time before I go back to uni to write all my content to take my up until the end of my first semester. YES that is a lot. But I have the time to plan it and get it done.

This doesn’t include photos or SEO or your basic checks but once you have the main bulk of your content it doesn’t take long to pop a post up. I make a visual calendar on a Numbers document for each month. Here I plan all my content for the month ahead and then you can also put in any other tasks, PR events or ADs you need to remember. 

2. Understand you only have so much time on your hands.

There is physically only 24 hours in a day. You have to be honest and realise that there is literally only so much you can do in a day. You have to leave time for the essentials like eating, sleeping, wine drinking and you don’t want to push yourself to breaking point. I am currently turning down gifting opportunities and PR events because I know I don’t have the time to go to them or make the content for them. I post one Instagram photo a day – and I don’t want every post to have a gifted item in it. Things like this shouldn’t get you down or be seen as a failure. Just being more careful about saying ‘yes’ to anything from social events, blog collaborations or extra shifts. Fitting in that me time, where you do nothing but lounge on the sofa in your PJs is also ESSENTIAL. 

3. Schedule the crap out of your blog.

Scheduling blog posts has become part of my every day blog routine. I always schedule my blog posts to go up on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 5pm. It has become a routine that I try and stick to hence me writing all my blog posts when I get the chance. To schedule your blog posts all you have to do is change the upload time in the settings of your blog post. It means even if you are out having a little dance, a nice romantic meal out or are at work, it will still go up. Then you don’t have to worry about getting home or to a decent WIFI spot to make sure it uploads. 

4. Seize the day or whatever… but trust me here. 

I know you see those cheesy ‘Carpe Diem’ quotes on Instagram but the best way to manage and juggle everything is to have an understanding of your time and not to waste it. When I am at uni, I always ask one of my course mates to grab a quick iPhone pic or ‘just go over there for that backdrop’. They know the routine well, are happy to help and its little breaks like these which will really help you out. *Thanks Lauren*. Of course lunch times are for catching up on coffee, facebook feeds and text messages. But there are always small pockets of opportunities.

5. Bulk shoot is a must. 

I don’t have a set shoot day. It is more of a whenever me and my Mum (my pro photographer) are free and can spare an hour or so to get some pics. Often its a Sunday or mid week in the evening after work. But when we do go out I always take multiple outfits. Getting two or three outfits shot in one session means for the rest of the week you don’t need to worry about content. Yes it comes with awkward car changing, trying not to hit your head on the mirrors and the possibility of passers by seeing your tits but it means you have a little extra time to watch your fave Netflix shows. 

You can always have a scroll over on my INSTAGRAM or if you wanna tweet me then find me at @EMILYCBEAUTY!

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