By on • ( 34 Comments )

A Blogging Tip -Pre-Schedule Posts How many Weeks In advance?

A Blogging Tip -Pre-Schedule Posts How many Weeks In advance?

Hi Friends,   Sometime in March  2018 I will be celebrating two years of blogging.  Some of you may say wow.  But,  honestly,  I have been all over the place with blogging, I have loads of bad blogging habits for example:-

  • Doing an entire blog post on my mobile phone and typos all over the shot
  • Last minute .com blogging just before a post is scheduled to go live
  • Totally lazy about getting my laptop out to blog.   But, when I blogged on my laptop it was much easier than a small mobile screen.
  • In last min .com ways, I forget to use categories and tags -and all this matter if you want your blog post to be found.

I have read so much about blogging and have tried to implement so many of them.  Frankly, everything is hit and miss when it comes to blogging.

What I do want to say is that the advice out there for blogging is good and can really help. But, I would not pay for blogging advise as so much out there is for free.

I would like to share two post that actually have been super helpful to me especially as I approach two years of blogging.    Blogging is not easy at all, followers don’t just happen, topics don’t just appear in your head and life happens meaning the blog suffers.

Please, Do make a point of reading these two blog post in your time, they are worthy of a read and worthy of taking notes. Neither of them are written by myself.

  1. Blogging Tip – Editorial Calendar
  2. 13 Blogging tips For New bloggers

I have tired an editorial /scheduled calendar many times. I have tried to be scheduling my post a week in advance many times. I have failed and succeeded.

I had an internal battle, that I didn’t want to schedule blog posts more than a week in advance, because then they won’t be current, or hot of the press, well that was what I felt.

But, then I booked our first holiday since 2012,  8 days to a warm beach, where I wanted to relax and meditate, and I didn’t want my blog to suffer.

The post on Blogging Tip – Editorial Calendar  helped me figure out how I could get both  (holiday and keep the blog going) .

So, I gave it ago.

  • By the 17th Jan  I had prescheduled post from 31st Jan to  9th feb.
  • By the 25th Jan I had scheduled post from 11th feb to  18th feb.
  • By the 9th Feb I had scheduled post until the week of 4th March.

The peace and the space I gained by all this prescheduling meant,  I could

  1. focus on comments,
  2. reading other bloggers blogs,
  3. having a holiday and intensifying my meditation with my meditation challenge.
  4. Draft blogs and edit them properly.  Rather than last min.dot.com
  5. Space for any unexpected things in life.
  6. Blogging became enjoyable again
  7. I started to operate the way I do in the rest of my life, planned and organised for my blog
  8. I started to think of topics in advance ( which is a super hard thing for me to do with blogging).
  9. Blogging became tension free.
  10. I could blog without it impacting the rest of my life and my commitments at home, work, charity etc.  Because, my chores were slipping, exercise was slipping and tension was increasing.
  11. I could try and do my own images and reduce reliance on http://www.freeimages.com (still have a lot to do here).

Prescheduling blogs so far in advance wasn’t something I was keen on doing.

When I scheduled just a week in advance. It still felt  quite tough for me to fit in with my job, volunteer activities, home life etc I still felt a stress.

When I tried to be 2 weeks in advance it really helped.   But, I still felt stressed, there was not enough space that allowed me to fit in my life.

But, when I was scheduling  3 weeks in advance, that is when I felt the greatest peace,  and space.  Otherwise, my time was very stretched and Blogging really was getting to the  point of  I want to Quit.  Now, those of you who have been with me since I started,  know that I have been wanting to quit since day one.  Those of you who are new, don’t be fooled – blogging is not easy!

I am no expert blogger, I still mess up.   For Example, today is Friday 23rd Feb,  and I am drafting  this post for 11th March which means I am not at my  3 weeks plus comfort gap in yet.  I finished this post on Saturday 24th Feb.

Anyway,  what I really wanted to share with this rambling post, was my editorial calendar.  I have finally created one that really works for me. It follows my blogging schedule – see below.  i no longer blog 3 times a week 6th match 2019.

NewSchedule4 5th oct2017

My Editorial Calendar:–

bloggingcalendar

Editorial Calendar -2018 http://www.thoughtsnlifeblog.com

Find Your own Rythm

As a blogger,  I think you need to find your own rythm.  The mistake I made was, that I researched  far too much on how to blog.  May bloggers saying, write your post x days before, edit x days before, then publish.   Now, all of that is what you do anyways.  The problem with me was, I was trying to fit a schedule of another blogger, into my life style and frankly that won’t work, especially if you are not a full time blogger!

After several tries and retries I found something that works, it gives me the visual I need, and provides me the deadlines and statues I need to make it work, or to feel ooops I have lost it again.  It works for my work style, it is not perfect but it is fine and I am feeling the rewards of it.

Parting thought

That is all I wanted to share in this rambling long post.  Just my honest experience and clip of my spreadsheet that I print out and scribble over. The difference is life changing.  It gives me peace and joy.  Now, I can enjoy blogging and not have it come in between the rest of life.  Now it has a place in my daily routine and is visual.

I hope you enjoyed my non expert blogging editorial calendar post and it might inspire you to try.  The other blog post i have linked are definitely worth a read as the writers of those post are experts.   I just wanted to share my raw blogging ways that currently work and I am sure will get refined.

Thanks for popping by.  Please like, share or subscribe.  Please comment below about what you think of this post, do comment on your blogging calendar and how you work, it will be so great to learn from you.

© 2018 thoughtsnlifeblog.com

Schedule

How to Schedule A post in WordPress.Com 2018 http://www.thoughtsnlifeblog.com

images :  Mainly mine,  and some from http://www.freeimages.com

 

 

 

 

Categories: #Thoughts, Blogging and Social Media, Writing

Tagged as: , , , ,

34 replies ›

  3. Congratulations on two years of blogging Bella. I love your blog. Finding our own way takes time and like you I have found pre scheduling helps me enormously. It takes me a while to edit what I have written so I can tweak away until a post feels right. 🌼

    Liked by 4 people

    • I know me too. So what i had started doing is brain dumping a VERY messy draft in word or word press, in front of the tv or on my bed. Do a couple of them, which gets the creative juices going. Then leave the draft as is. Come back to it the next or second to next day and i am ready to pre schedule. It gets a bit confusing but that where my calendar comes in…

      Wishing you luck in finding your rhythm.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Congratulations on your two years blogging Anniversary Bella! 🙌 I think that I am still trying to find my rhythm with blogging. Sometimes my blogging suffers as a result other things I have to attend to. I simply try to post at least once a week for now and I have come to accept that part about not been a full time blogger who gets to post like three articles a day or everyday. But I choose to enjoy myself and do the best I can. Thanks for sharing this.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Thank you so much Bella! I have done pre-scheduling before and have gotten away from it. Now I have trouble finding the time to write. But it does make sense to sit down and write a whole bunch at once and then schedule it, rather than trying to sit and write every day. I may just try and get into that again! Be blessed

    Liked by 2 people

        • Omg… i don’t what i am doing right or wrong. I actually dont know what works. And i might loads of follower, but not all are active at all. Sometime facebook, twitter, instagram draws people in and mainly wordpress. I am not sure what works and sometimes i get a like and comment that say come to my blog. It is a bit of a joke i am honestly clueless.. i think people like what i share and its positivity, that meditation commentaries ate accessible and the quotes. I personally dont like long blogs so i try to keep mine short. Scott i am clueless what magic is working. But one trick is schedule your post early, then in that same day rescheduled it two more times, that works a treat… i wrote a post it..

          Sorry totally not helpful..i am miss clueless in blogging. Oh yeah you should join in blogging parties they help a tonne and commenting others blog..

          But for me your post are polished , professional -much better than mine. And you are published that is just huge.

          Okay i am supposed to be meditating.

          Like

    • Thank you for your kind, sweet, nomination. Please forgive for not accepting. I find it so hard to accept and then nominate other bloggers. Blogging is hard and every blogger does a good job. When i was new i accepted two awards no realising i could decline until somene declined my nomination of them. But the hardship of nominating for those awards is clear as it was two years ago. So i hope understand. And thank you again for your kind nomination

      Liked by 1 person

      • No problem. I debated accepting it myself. It took me a long time to post about it. Blogging is hard and more people deserve recognition. It was hard to pick 10 blogs and post this at this difficult time. If some people take a look at your blog though because of the link, that would be great. I find great blogs from others blogs. Thank you for writing me back. All my best.

        Liked by 1 person