How To Keep On Blogging When You’re Really Busy

This is a guest post I did for Bethany.

You know how it is. Your schedule’s crammed to the brim, and you’re running around getting ready for the start of school, unearthing your desk from a mound of junk, shopping for clothes, and sorting all your new books out.

Then you’ve got new novels to read, dance class, swimming, and hanging out with friends, and before you know it, you’ve checked Blogger and it’s been a week since you’ve been on. You haven’t commented in AGES, and you look at your Dashboard and nearly faint from the weight of the 77 blogs you’re following. You feel MAJORLY guilty you haven’t posted, and open a “new post” button...only to find you have nothing to write about.

How can that be? You’ve been experiencing anything but boredom in the past couple days. Maybe just nothing inspirational has popped into your brain. Let’s think of something...oops! Time’s up and you’ve got to dash to your next activity. All the while Blogger is hanging over you like a weight, just like another one of the 300000 pressures crowding your life, when all you really want to do is sit down and read Star Wars.

So what to do? Delete your blog? Take yet another blogger break? Resort to guest posts? Nothing so drastic.

The key to stress/Blogger management is simplification! This method works(in theory. I know I’m not the best example of this, but whatever.)

1. Get all your high stress work done the earliest you can. Whatever’s taking the biggest toll on your conscience right now, do that first.  An email you’ve been putting off, your chinese homework, whatever. Try as soon as you can to clear up a spot for Blogger.

2.  Do simple posts. I have a ton of elaborate posts I’ve been putting on hold for months. Something thoughtful and short will do for now. A picture, a quote, a paragraph about your life, an insecurity, anything you can jot down and send off. Your followers are busy too, remember.

3. Comment. I know this is hard, but just try one comment on one blog a day. Just one. Comment on the most well-written post you read, the most thought-provoking post, Amaranthine’s posts, comments are like solid gold and earn you a ton of cred with your followers.

4. Manage the blogs you follow. Did you know there’s a way you can get out of reading posts without hurting people’s feelings? You can hide blogs on your dashboard(go to “Manage Blogs”) so you don’t have to unfollow but aren’t drowning in posts either.

5. Don’t feel guilty. Blogs weren’t made to be posted on every day. No one expects you to. You might lose followers, but you probably have so many already you  wouldn’t be able to tell who it was anyway.

6. Post as soon as you can. No apologies, no nothing. Just move on.

DON’T

• Rely on guest posts. I don’t mind writing them when I can, but you don’t want to make your blog one big warren of guest posts. I’m not a fan of having people guest post on my blog. I don’t think I’ve ever had one done before.
• Get discouraged or quit. See #6
• Wait till things “calm down” to post. I make this mistake tons of times. It’s never going to “calm down”
• Trade your charm, your humor, or your online personality for desperation. No one follows you to hear you complain about what a bad blogger you are.

Hope this helps,
Amaranthine

Amaranthine Scylla Degada blogs and is busy at Amaranthine Forever. (www.amaranthineforever.blogspot.com) She has blogged for a year and a half and is also a forum moderator. She lives with her lizard, two and and a half goldfish, and pet rock underneath the counter of a Starbucks in Antarctica.No, not really but when she sees that sort of stuff in author biographies it always makes her laugh.