How to Consistently Blog

One question I get quite frequently is how to do you find the time to blog each week? It’s really not that hard, especially if you break up the work amongst your team. I blog each week for Brand Constructors, but my team blogs once a month for our parent company’s blog, Design the Planet.

Set a Time to Blog – Knowing when you plan on blogging is key. I regularly blog on Thursday mornings before my team gets into the office because it is quieter. This helps me plan my week and also builds expectation for my readers. You may be surprised how many people actually read your blog and being inconsistent may lead them to look elsewhere for information.

Schedule it like a meeting – I’ve learned to schedule blog tasks in my calendar like a meeting. This way, I can’t procrastinate (as much) and if something comes up during my normal time to blog, I move that meeting to another time. This technique works great for those To Do list items that do not have a deadline.

Schedule your blog post – Every blog platform that I know of allows you to schedule your blog posts. If you know you’re going to be busy on the day you blog, write it before hand. For example, I am at SMPS SRC this Thursday. Instead of waking up early or trying to cram it in, I’m writing this blog on Monday morning – sorry for that Earth shattering revelation. (This also works for past posts too. Occasionally, I do get busy and I write last week’s blog post & this week’s post on the same day.)

Have a list of topics – What has helped me & my team is to have a list of topics. I’m not sure if it is a fact, but I feel the number one reason why people do not blog is because they do not know what to write about. In December, I set my blog schedule for the year by creating quarterly themes and monthly sub-themes. At Design the Planet, they brainstormed numerous ideas almost two years ago. There is a master list and anyone can refer to it if they get stuck on what to write about. This also helps you stay on topic too.

Write It Down – Sometimes a topic just hits you. Great topics to write about are what you’re reading in publications, discussions in LinkedIn, conversations with clients & team members. I regularly email myself notes & topics and use Evernote to draft a blog post or whitepaper. Write it down because a few hours later, you’ll remember that you had a good idea, but no clue what that idea was – it’s lost forever.

Just Do It – Nike was right, sometimes you need to “just do it”. When you have all the tools available including the topic and the time, you need to just do it.

Now blog!