I wear so many hats {figuratively speaking}. Wife.Mommy.Sister.Daughter.Friend.Maid.Nurse.Blogger.Auntie.Cook.Laundress.Me.
The problem with wearing so many hats is that there are only 24 hours in a day to wear them, and only one head to put it on. With so many responsibilities and so little time, I need to be strategic and organized about how I spend my time. Even more so now that I've started this blog. Let me say this up front...I do NOT have it all figured out {just ask my hubby}. There are times when he needs to practically pull me away from the computer, but I'm trying to be better about drawing the lines, especially when everyone is home together. With that, let me tell you how I am trying to draw those lines and create boundaries with my time management.
As a stay at home mom, one might think I have all the time in the world. If you are {or
truly know} a stay at home mom, that is
not the case. The secret I've come to learn is to spread things out over the day or week. Our house is small enough that I can give myself one major chore a day, so if I fall behind a day or two, I'm not totally swamped.
In the days before blogging, naptime was my down time,
my time to do
nothing. I usually caught up on my TV shows or scrolled through Facebook. Now I blog during naptime, but one to two hours hardly seems like enough to run a blog. It's not. This is why my hubs needs to pry me from the computer from time to time. After bedtime is another great time for me to blog. Hubs and I alternate gym nights, and I do a lot of my blogging then. Until our little one goes off to school, I have to wait until he's asleep in order to blog. Other times, I will use his TV time to get some quick emailing done or respond to comments.
How long does it take me to write a post? Well if you account for the time it takes to write, create graphics, and promote posts, I'd say I average about an hour and a half to two hours per post {and more if I have to take and edit photos}. Granted, my posts tend to be on the long side, and I'm working on that too. I just can't seem to stop my fingers from typing away about these topics that I love so much! For this series, I've had to be very strategic and ahead of the game; so for the past month, I've had to schedule my posts ahead of time. I actually really like scheduling posts and want to continue to do so after this series. Now that the bulk of my blog design is done {for now}, scheduling my posts helps keep me off the computer, even if only for a little while.
Being organized, strategic and committed are the areas that I'm striving to improve. I'd love to be organized enough to have my whole month of topics strategically planned out ahead of time. This would give me days that I could let the blog run itself. Doing this will also free up some of the time I spend sitting in front of the computer and help me to be more efficient with the time I am there. Utilizing my
blog planner gets me one step closer to achieving that goal. I also need to be more committed to getting myself away from the computer. I am considering setting a timer for myself so that I don't loose track of time.
It looks like spreading things out into manageable pieces helps in blogging as well as in home making. I really am enjoying the gift of blogging and love that I'm getting better about balancing it with my real life. My prayer for this blog is to turn it into a career, but until then, I will work hard mastering this craft with the time I am given. Just know that I'm getting lots of bloggy inspiration and am ready to fill up my calendar, so I hope that you'll stick around and join me!
This post is part of the Learn As I Blog series
No comments:
Post a Comment