I’ve always subscribed to a laid-back method of blogging. Basically, I have no specific schedule I stick to (except in the case of blog tours, which I rarely even participate in anymore). I also almost never write posts in advance or have specific days or times that I blog hop and comment.
There are several reasons for my lack of a schedule:
- I’m horrible at sticking to a schedule (in life as well as blogging)
- I enjoy the freedom of not feeling like I have to post anything specific or on any specific days
- When I do write a post, I’m usually excited about it and I want to publish it right then
This haphazard blogging style has worked surprisingly well for me for the last eight years (my eighth blogoversary is next week!). I would just blog when and if inspiration hit me—and it usually did! I didn’t have specific days that I posted, but I would generally put something up at least 3 times a week, often more. I had ideas for discussions (and I followed through on them), I wanted to write reviews, I liked participating in a few specific memes occasionally… I could go on.
And then 2020 happened.
I don’t know exactly what happened (I mean, the year was sort of a blur, right), but 2020 was bad for me creatively. If I had been getting tons of writing done instead of blogging, that would be one thing, but that wasn’t the case. I just wasn’t managing anything. And some weeks the only post I’d manage to publish was my Sunday Post.
But I realized that I did always get my Sunday Post up. Why? Because I felt like I had to. It was Sunday, therefore the Sunday Post needed to go up. And it got me thinking: maybe I do need to try putting myself on a blogging schedule for a while. I mean, the state of my blogging can’t get much worse, so it’s worth a shot, right?
I have no idea if this will work (check out my aforementioned issues with sticking to a schedule), but I’m going to try to post every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday for the foreseeable future, whether I’m feeling inspired or not. The only exception I’ll make is when I have posts that need to go up on a specific day for some reason. In those cases, I’ll allow myself to change the days I post, but I’ll still aim for three a week.
Can I do it? We shall see. Wish me luck!
Do you stick to a blogging schedule? I want to know!
Good luck with your schedule! The only reason I post (somewhat) consistently is because of Top Ten Tuesday and The Sunday Post. If I didn’t have those, I’d just post whenever I had a post done.
Yeah, I think one of my main issues is that I no longer consistently do any memes (besides the Sunday Post) and I rarely participate in blog tours anymore. So, I don’t have anything I NEED to post—I’ve been horrible about feeling “inspired” to post anyway. 🙂
I used to, but sometimes, inspiration is just not there, you know? I’m going to try next week, though.
It’s always worked fine for me to just wing it, but lately waiting for inspiration means waiting forever!
Wishing you all the luck! We don’t have a consistent schedule at all for blogging and just take whatever days are free to post whenever we have a post. But instagram we have a schedule for who posts on what day. But that’s changed in the last few months cause of Cassie having her baby ♥ and Chelsea moving soon.
I would imagine with three of you, you’d need to be a little more coordinated about some things. Babies are a great reason to have to mess with the schedule, though!
A blogging schedule does work for me. I post every Friday, which is the most I can handle, and I like setting that deadline for myself. Otherwise I would feel like I would forget about my blog. I wish you the best of luck with your new schedule!
When I was a baby blogger, I posted every single day. Now I think about that and laugh. I was insane!
Good luck!!! I don’t really have a set schedule, but I do have plenty of posts through the month where I KNOW something will be posted, and that does help. I don’t necessarily want to choose certain days of the week but I do need to get better at writing and scheduling ahead. Having that type of structure will be nice and I won’t feel so last minute all the time.
-Lauren
I mean, I worked for years without needing to schedule things and didn’t have a problem, so I’d say keep doing what you’re doing if it works. The only reason I’m doing this is because I was getting to the point where I’d be lucky to put something up once a week at the last minute because I’d suddenly realize the week was gone! Now I just have to figure out scheduling for blog-hopping as well.
Congratulations on 8 years! (I’ve been around just 3 months longer than you are).
I know a lot of people who HATE schedules, sometimes to the point of rebelling against them once they’ve been set LOL. To me, they’re a lifesaver…I don’t set specific posting days (also because I don’t have the time to post more than one/twice a week…twice if I’m really committed LOL), but I know in advance what kind of posts I want to do in a month and how many of them there are, so I’m able to be more consistent and to spice up things a bit more (unless I have specific review or meme commitments). The problem is, bit by bit I’ve started to go all out and overschedule – as in, plan ahead for a few months in a row – and that never works well when you don’t know how many books you’ll be approved for or, you know, how much life will get in the way. So, I will recommend trying a light schedule with a month-by-month scope, and always allowing yourself to change it up if needed without feeling guilty (which I’m not good at LOL). Good luck!
I forgot to mention I love this post’s title ?.
Ha! Thank you!
Yeah, if I tried to overschedule myself I absolutely know that my chaotic brain would rebel. For right now, I’m ONLY planning out days of the week that I’m committing (to myself) to post—if I tried to plan out exactly what to post when I’d probably end up breaking the rules I set for myself almost immediately. 🙂
I’m so bad at sticking to blog schedules, but I keep trying! In an ideal world I’d like to have my posts written in advance and be ahead, so I’ve been trying to schedule out what I want to post when, but it all depends if I feel like writing about the planned topic on that day.
I’m horrible at it too, so I’m only cautiously optimistic about this. But I need to try SOMETHING because what I’m currently doing definitely isn’t working!
I like to keep a loose schedule of what I want to do during a month: have a book post towards the end, a wrapup post of the previous month at the beginning of a new month, etc. But I’m about to break all those rules for #Write28Days again for February where I try to post every day. I make a specific list of topics ahead of time; otherwise, it gets too draining. (And it still gets draining.) Why do I do this to myself? I’m not sure! ha. I think I love the organizing part more than the actual writing part. 🙂
The beginning and ends of the month, I have specific things that I post, but in-between I’m a mess lately! Good luck on #Write28Days!
I feel you so much here. I am seriously considering joining you, frankly, because Idk how else to motivate myself. Like I will just stare at the screen, watching the cursor blink, until it is time to get up and go to bed. It is BAD. I even have a few ideas for posts, which is highly unusual for me, but zero motivation, and I can’t even figure out why! I think you have a good point though about the Sunday Post thing- because I do reviews by certain dates because I feel like I “have to”, monthly recaps, our posts, etc, so maybe if I could find a good way to think I “have to” do another post a week or whatever, I may do it? At least for the short term, because like you, I am bad at being an organized, scheduled blogger ? Good luck, definitely keep us updated on how it’s going!
I have always had a schedule, but for a completely different reason lol. I do create posts ahead of time. So without a schedule, my blog would be like, “Here are four posts in one day!” and then two weeks of nothing. I also like to let my posts marinate, then I go back and edit them because I realize how much of a mess my thoughts were when I wrote them. So making a schedule lets me have that marinate time 😛
I am the opposite of you. I have always loved structure, and it’s been something that kept me sane during this past year. Knowing I had some items to check off the list was good for me and kept me from getting too deep in my head. When I was teaching, I had no structure in the summer and hardly accomplished anything. But, that’s me. I hope you find some inspiration, and WOW! Eight years! Congratulations!
I hope your new blogging schedule works well for you! It sounds super reasonable.
Have you given any thought to occasionally blogging ahead? I like to have at least a couple of extra weeks’ worth of posts ready to go in case in accident, illness, loss of Internet, etc. It’s hard to wait to share some of them like you said, but working ahead has saved me so much stress on more than one occasion.
I publish new post on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There’s definitely something to be said to getting into a rhythm no matter how posts a week/month you decide to shoot for.
[…] Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction asks if it might be time for a blogging schedule […]
I have to say I used to be someone who lacked using a schedule and didn’t ever schedule my posts until I got the confirmation email. Since 2020 though I had to start going about life and blogging differently. I’m a big mood reader so it’s difficult for me to keep a schedule, but since 2020 I started using Google calendar to schedule my posts and log my sign updates when I sign up versus when I got the confirmation email since some places don’t send them anymore. That’s about all I do in terms of scheduling posts. I’m not so good with keeping track of things ever.
Sharrice @Reese’s Reviews
I know what you mean. I’m horrible at sticking to a schedule. BUT I do need my theme calendar to guide me because otherwise I just don’t know sometimes what to blog about. I know you can do this though!
I started to post on a schedule last fall and it has really helped me out! I post twice a week now, and try to stick to Wednesdays and Saturdays. For me the key is not to beat myself up too much if I miss it, but rather use it as a loose template, because it’s a good way to motivate myself honestly. It also helps to plan in advance when I am in the mood for blogging because sometimes I have no idea what to write, haha.
I’ve never had a blogging schedule, and perhaps the eratic state of my blog is the result! On the other hand, I’ve kept going for almost 15 years now, which I think I couldn’t have done if I’d tried to be stricter. I have phases when I have more time for blogging, but then life gets complicated again, and I barely have time to write anything in a month. So the flexibility works for me. But I admire your dedication, Nicole, and I hope the schedule works out well for you! By the way, your monthly roundup link-up gives me an incentive to write at least one post in a month and gives me some structure, so thanks for that 🙂
I definitely hear the argument both ways! Chana and I started with a blogging schedule, and even though we tended to stick to it pretty well, it made blogging too stressful for us. Up until December of 2020 we did pretty well just posting when we wanted, but sometimes it’s hard to push yourself to post when you’re not inspired. I think that even though we haven’t officially announced anything, we’re on a quasi-hiatus, where we post infrequently and sporadically, up until we have the time, energy, and excitement back to stick to a more regularly structed blogging schedule.
I hope that setting up this schedule works for you though and that you manage to stick with it for long enough to see if it’s something you’d like to keep long term!
I’ve been blogging for about 15 years. For a long time I faithfully participated in the Monday book haul memes, I ran a Sunday link-up for Catholic bloggers and participated in blog tours. Then I quit a lot of that, and I found that my overall blogging also decreased, as did my readership (what a surprise). Now I’ve decided to get back “into”it and so I’ve started back with the Monday memes and I joined the discussion challenge to give me some structure. I read NetGalleys but I don’t pay attention to publication dates except when it comes time to schedule the posts–and I don’t request so many of them that staying on top of them is a problem. So, I guess the answer is that a little structure is good but this is a hobby, not a job.
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