I’ve been thinking lately about all the ways that my personality affects my blogging (there are LOTS of them!). One major issue I have in life is my lack of organization. I’m the queen of ADHD – I need solid deadlines in order to accomplish anything, otherwise I tend to get bogged down and overwhelmed. I do okay with scheduled posts (like reviews and things that I have to do for tours) – but the rest of it all goes up a little … haphazardly. And even the scheduled things are always getting done last minute. I never leave myself any room to breathe!!
I’m so jealous of those of you who have posts scheduled for the next three weeks (or longer!). I’m lucky if I get tomorrow’s post written today! Every once in a while, I think, I’m going to get organized and plan out all of my posts! It never lasts for long.
And I guess I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I’m okay with that. I mean, after all, this blog isn’t a job. No one’s sitting out there judging me if I don’t get a post written one day. And nobody really cares if it took me a week or a day to review that last book I read. I have editing deadlines that I have to meet, and I have to teach my kids some stuff (oh, yeah – I’m disorganized when it comes to homeschooling too!), but other than that, my life – and my blogging – can be a little messy. I can either learn to live with it or be miserable about it, so I choose the first one.
Procrastination and disorganization have been lifelong friends, so I guess it’s no surprise that they’ve visited me on my blog!
How about you? Are you an organized blogger or are you forever scrambling to write tomorrow’s post or to get that book read before the review is due? If you’re organized, share your organizational secrets. (Let’s face it, I’ll probably try them for a week or so and then give up – but I have managed to learn a few things from others and actually hold onto them. It’s certainly worth a try!)
I’m definitely a fellow disorganised blogger! I think that most of my posts have been written the night before! I think being more organised (in general, as well as in regards to blogging) is going to be one of my New Year’s resolutions, and I might even take a couple of weeks off posting over Christmas to try and get a couple of weeks worth of posts ready for the New Year as a bit of a head start. I’ll try anyway, but I doubt it will last long! Disorganisation has been a life long friend to me too!
Taking time off over the holidays is a good idea. I always think it would be great to get ahead, but it seems like you have to have double the amount of time to blog in order to do that (because you have to get current posts written in addition to the scheduled ones. That would be a good solution!
I try to be organized but of course that doesn’t happen. I like to have at least a week scheduled in advance but it just isn’t always the case.
Don’t be hard on yourself though, this is suppose to be fun and when it starts to turn into a job, is when it isn’t fun anymore. 😉
You’re right about the fun vs. job thing. I often start treating blogging like a job and it loses all of it’s excitement!
Funnily, the busier I am, the more disorganized I become. I have a good month ahead at the moment and some posts are scheduled through April. I like to do memes early if possible so I might get 10 done in one sitting. I also review a book before picking up another book. When I first started blogging I would not review immediately and I wound up wasting a lot of time. My daughter and I also write poetry so she sometimes will write a post and I’ll get it scheduled. I try to stay ahead so if an author asks for a review I will hopefully have time. 😀
It took me two years to get ahead though! Tomorrow I plan on doing 15 posts before I do anything else!
10 memes in one sitting! Wow! That’s impressive! No wonder you’re ahead. Maybe I should try to do a marathon posting session like that some time. Sounds like you’ve got a great system down!
It makes setting up the blog so much more fun too. I only do that when I’m in the mood! So then I’m not having to set up posts when I don’t feel like writing. I keep finding stuff on painting fingernails and I love that so much that I may have to do a weekly thing with polish… It’s fun and I’m finding the pictures anyway so it would only take a few more minutes to do a post for all the pics I already have in pinterest. 😀
Those 15 posts I had done? Nope. Didn’t get to them! Hahaha
Sam over at SIK Book Reviews puts her nail polish design on her blog. You should check them out! 🙂
At the moment, I think I fall into your ‘organized blogger’ category. But honestly the main reason I’m able to schedule posts a week in advance is because I’m currently laid off. Have been since beginning of September. It’s a LOT easier to manage to read 3+ books a week and make 2 discussion posts when you aren’t also balancing a RL job.
Got an interview for a job this week finally though, so it may be the last week I have an entire week of posts scheduled past the week I’m currently on. And then I’ll be in disorganized land right there with you. Which is usually where I am anyhow. Way too easily distracted by shiny things!
Oh, good luck on the job interview! Yes, extra time on your hands sure helps! I sometimes during the day while my kids work independently on things (I homeschool them), but it’s rarely focused time, so I don’t feel like I get a lot done. Still, better than people who have full-time jobs on top of blogging! I should be ahead!
I am a disorganized person by nature. And I don’t really sit there and write out a schedule and what not. I guess you can say I blog “by the seat of my pants”. If I managed to schedule some posts, it just means that I was actually able to sit down and write something. Which is why blog tours are a rare occasion on my blog. Lol.
Yes, I’m definitely disorganized by nature too. I have learned this about myself and I try not to stress too much about it (though it sometimes causes stress when I’ve waited till the last minute for something important). Oh, well. I get by!
I go through spurts of being organized does that count? I always seem to let life get in the way, and my post are getting further and further apart. I aim to be organized…does that count 😉
Hey, it’s good to have goals! I have spurts of organization too, but they are very short spurts. LOL!
I am a Type A personality, so there has to be a plan, schedule and organization…although lately I have been slacking a bit given all that’s happened in the last 2 months. I just keep a desk calendar, and color-coordinate my pens to the main blogs I do tours with. It’s just so that I know whose emails I should be expecting to see for the posts prep and can follow up if I need to.
I always put my weekly memes down first because that’s super easy – just look for the correct days. I will admit that I’ve forgotten all about a couple of them since starting, and was scrambling the night before or day of.
Then I just fill in with my personal reads reviews, discussion posts (as they crop up) and anything else. I try to keep a balance each week, so if one week has several posts already, I’ll schedule an item for the following week to have content in advance and not have to worry about it.
It is very hard to get started on that track, and for the first year I was only haphazardly keeping track of things. Once I decided I didn’t have the extra time to deal with the last minute hustle and needed to start prepping in advance, I feel it’s been much smoother. I actually got started last Christmas by reading so much I was ahead in January, and it just carried over month to month.
I hope this helps! Either way, procrastinating and messy, or organized, I love Feed Your Fiction and all the good stuff you share! Do what works for you.
Aw, thanks, Charlie! I would imagine that things have been a bit more hectic for you lately – if I were you, I would have fallen into complete disarray by now! LOL! Sounds like you have a great system. I definitely want to infuse a bit more organization into my blog. I’m good about posts that have to go up on certain days – those are in my calendar, and I’ve almost never missed one (except when I was on vacation and I improperly scheduled something) – but I still manage to do it all last minute. Ah, well. I guess it’s all working well enough for me!
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Well…. I am pretty organised. I have posts scheduled for January already. I just like being organised, so that if I do go away for a week, the blog will run itself. Right now, I think I have about 28 posts scheduled!! Whoop whoop!!
Naomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
Oh, I know – you’re one of those people that I’m totally jealous of!
Oh, I’m most definitely disorganized! I saw someone tweet about making sure their scheduled posts for 2015 had that right year and I scoffed. I wish I had posts for next year already! Ha! Recently, I’ve been scheduling my memes for the month at the beginning of each month, just to relieve a little bit of the pressure, and because they’re so simple to write, but otherwise I’m generally writing the night before. I think we each have our own methods and there’s no right way. Whatever works, works! 😀
Yes, next year might as well be next millennium for me!
Oh, I am such an unorganized mess! I try, I really do, but there simply is not enough time! Also, I have a pretty strong feeling that it is the fault of the children. Seriously, I *try* to schedule stuff, and I have plans, but then someone won’t sleep, or someone is hungry, or whatever, and it all goes right out the window. Then your schedule is doomed, and there is exactly zero minutes to pull from to regroup.
Like you though, I have come to terms with it, because no matter what I try, it doesn’t happen. Why stress over it if I can’t change it? So I roll with it, at least as long as it continues to work!
Kids definitely don’t help. Mine are old enough that they can now do a lot of things for themselves, but of course if I’m sitting there, they’d much rather I do things for them! 🙂
I’m an organised one, I just have to be. It is the only way I can fit blogging into my lifestyle and knowing that I’m organised and scheduled allows me the freedom to then be more creative. That is the only way I can work it. I think we all find our own little system that allows us to just do it the way that works best for us though. There are no right or wrong ways to do it!
That’s great that you have a system that works well for you! I agree that there’s no wrong way (though I still can’t help but be a little jealous! 🙂
Do whatever works for you! I do schedule ahead – it’s the only way I can manage it – I can get well ahead before vacations etc but at the moment am struggling to be a week ahead. Because I blog about a number of topics I do have a forward schedule of topics eg Mondays is music or art, Tuesdays and Sundays are food, Wednesday is book day etc. Cheers from Carole’s Chatter
I would like to get myself at least a week ahead – that would be nice!
I’m definitely like you. I think I drive my co-blogger, Rashika, crazy with my being disorganized. Haha. My reviews are never scheduled. I write them at the last minute and sometimes I don’t even write what I plan at all because I haven’t bothered to read them yet. I’m so disorganized like that, it’s crazy. I don’t mind it, though. This is just the way I am. I just can’t be expected to plan. I go with the flow and am very spontaneous and I hate having to have deadlines because the pressure piles up and it drives me bonkers. In the end, I enjoy the way I blog so I think a “change” in “blogging lifestyle” isn’t in order just yet ;P
Sometimes the ability to be spontaneous can be a benefit! Why change? Hopefully your co-blogger won’t be driven too crazy! LOL!
I think I’m in-between. I have my posts all sorted out for December (because I want to enjoy the holidays!), but think things are going to get really hectic in 2015. Yikes!
Yay for a relaxing December! Enjoy!!
I’m totally a disorganized blogger – I’ve linked a post from last week where I talk about my hilarious attempts at making calendars for reading, and then throwing them out the window. I see them as guidelines…and that’s probably fine, right? Whatever works for us – no one else knows how disorganized we are. But yeah, I am amazed by people who can have posts up three weeks in advance. HOW?!
Yes, reading by a calendar sucks a lot of the fun out of it!
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I am terribly disorganised when it comes to my blog. I hardly ever get posts written and scheduled in advance and I usually stay up late writing things last minute which definitely affects the quality of my content. I just don’t have time to do it any other way though! I’d love to have an editorial calendar full up weeks in advance and everything planned but I don’t think its going to happen!
I’ve given up on getting things done way in advance, but that’s okay. At least I’m in good company!
I am massively disorganized but I have good intentions. Obviously that means I’m on my way to he11. I am thinking about buying Parajunkee’s book blogger organization thingee. It’s only 7.99 so I figure it’s not like I would be losing anything major and if it helped even the littlest bit I would be way ahead.
Yes, try it out! I think I downloaded it when she had it for free, but I soon realized it wasn’t for me. Surprise, surprise. But it might work great for you – who knows?
I don’t know…. Now I am wondering. There’s nothing worse than feeling like a failure because I am disorganized and then b/c the organization thing I bought did not help.
I didn’t mean to discourage you! I actually mostly decided it wasn’t for me because it was a paper system, and I pretty much only use things that are online. I’ve learned this about myself. 🙂
At first I attempted to be organised. I utilised that schedule button you know? And then I realised that I was just lying to myself. It’s because I’m incredibly disorganised in real life. Horrible, really. I’m probably a tad to lazy for my own good. The point is, the schedule button stuffed me over (in my head, I’m thinking this a little more aggressively lol) I don’t know if it was me (lol it wasn’t me, pls) but it started spitting out my posts early. And the thing is, because I’m unorganised and lazy, I often write half finished post KNOWING THAT I WILL COME BACK BEFORE THE DATE. But that’s just the thing. The schedule button would spit the post out early and I wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. SO I SCRAPPED THE THING AND I’M STILL SO ANGRY. I’ve come to terms with myself. I’m disorganised. I know I want a tag post up. Hell, I wanted it up two weeks ago. I’m going to have to write it today for tomorrow, or heck, technically it’s tonight. I haven’t started. Which I probably should, bleugh. With ARCs, I either read extremely close to realise date or I stuff up the order and read certain things MONTHS ahead. It’s so silly. Like, last week I didn’t read ANY OF THE EARLY JAN ONES but I read ones for February and MARCH. What is wrong with me? I’m debating whether or not I should star the April ones now lol
I’m disorganized in regular life too, so I don’t know why I would expect blogging to be any different! Oh, and I definitely have that problem with ARCs too. Ah well.
As long as YOU are happy with the way your blog is working, then everything is good! I like that you have accepted that, and yes, blogging should not be seen as a job. I am someone who has a lot of prewritten posts which may not need to be posted for ages, and then might have one due in a week and not be ready for that one! I don’t usually preschedule posts even if I have the opportunity to do so – I don’t know why. Hopefully one holiday [not this one because I am away] I can preschedule a bunch of posts and make life easier ^^
Yes, I’m hoping to get some pre-scheduling done over the holidays, but we shall see! 🙂
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Back before kids I was very organized. Everything was scheduled. Now, it’s just crazy. You never know which way were are going or what I feel like doing.
Kids definitely make things more difficult – I homeschool mine, which limits my time too!
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