6 Unusual Productivity Tips for Bloggers

Becoming a blogger involves a lot. You’ve got to choose a good hosting plan, come up with a catchy business name, build a WordPress site, and be strategic in your content creation.

Starting a blogging business can become overwhelming quite fast, and staying on top of your to-dos is the key to success.

If you want to attract your ideal reader avatar and see results quickly, you need to create a brand around your blog and produce as much high-quality content as you can. But juggling it all is a challenge.

While this post serves as a reminder to me, too, I am pleased to share my best (and rather unusual!) productivity tips for bloggers at any stage.

You see, I needed to find strategies that worked around my life as a mom and that would get my productive vibes back on track. Having left my 9-5 almost three years ago and now working from home, this wasn’t the easiest task.

But I know how important it is to get content out there! In fact, I have recently read statistics that show how the amount of content you have on your blog strongly correlates with the amount of income you can expect to make.

I recommend that you read that article too. Eb has done a fantastic job at analyzing and compiling all this data!

You’ll quickly gather that the main goal of a new blogger should be to produce as many high-quality blog posts as possible in the shortest time possible. That’s what these productivity tips for bloggers aim to help you achieve!

How to Boost Your Productivity as a Blogger 

1. Create a Blogging Business Plan

While we’ll discuss content creation later in this post, we all know that blogging is much more than writing.

You need to plan your blogging business and treat it as such from the start. Organize your ideas, lay out your mission, and have a well-defined strategy.

Creating a blogging business plan can help you in many ways. Planning will set the foundations for profitability, which is why I recommend this as your first step. 

Writing down a blogging business plan will set the tone for long-term success.
Here are a few things a blog planner can help you with:

• Figuring out the real reason why you are starting a blog
• Setting goals for both the short and long-term
• Creating a monetization plan
• Structuring your website like a pro
• Identifying your competitors and learning from them
• Understanding your audience so that you can serve them well
• Implementing a strategic content calendar
• Establishing priorities based on results

The Blog Business Planner at the BST shop will help you with all of this and more. In addition to the business side of blogging, it has a blogging diary and monthly trackers that you can use for years to come. 

For most of us, if something isn’t on the list, it doesn’t get done. Simple as that.

Well, that’s where a blogging diary helps you thrive. Write down everything that crosses your head, every idea, every thought. If it’s not there, you’ll likely forget about it.

Once your site is ready and your blog’s mission is down, it’s time to produce content! Perfection doesn’t exist. However, following a winning plan from day one will undoubtedly help you reach your goals faster.

Check out the Blog Business Planner and all the bonuses it comes with.

Resources:
→ Blog Planner (fillable workbook for Google Docs – 200 pages)
→ Blog Planner (printable planner – 50 pages)

2. Use the Pomodoro Technique

I first heard about the Pomodoro technique in one of the business podcasts I like listening to. I’d love to link to it, but unfortunately, I can’t recall which one it was.

The Pomodoro technique is about working in time slots. It tells you to pick a task, work on it for 25 minutes, and then have a 5-minute break. Every 4 pomodoros (or 4 sessions of focused work) take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

This helps you put all your energy into what you are doing without burning out. It makes it easier to tackle each task on the agenda and ensure that you complete it. Since you only have 25 minutes, and you cannot go over that time slot, you’ll be fully focused on the time set and get more work done faster.

In essence, it makes you break down large and daunting tasks into smaller actionable steps that can be accomplished in only 25 minutes. Once you have a plan, you’ll easily complete those big things because you can see what needs to be done and when.

I just found this website, where you can read more about the Pomodoro technique. And this free online app will help you track the time from your computer or mobile phone.

Resources:
→ 25 and 5 Minute Sandglass Pomodoro Timers (desk accessories, in case you’d rather have a physical timer)
→ The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work, by Francesco Cirillo (book)

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule

Putting more effort into your blog doesn’t necessarily equal better results.

The secret to boosting productivity as a blogger isn’t only about scratching more items off your to-do list. The real benefits come when your to-do list is filled with the activities that bring you the best results.

That’s such a simple concept, but I needed a reminder of it. Reading the 80/20 Blogging e-book was eye-opening. I almost felt embarrassed about the way I was handling my blogging tasks. 

You see, I like to think of myself as organized. However, setting priorities is often not my strongest suit. Especially since I’ve become a mom and left my 9-5, it feels as though things get out of control rather quickly!

The 80/20 principle (also known as the Pareto Principle) helped me realize I needed to change my game radically. The concept was first brought to light in the 20th century by the Italian Vilfredo Pareto. It states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

Essentially, the idea is to be tactical about the tasks that will lead to the biggest impact on your business and prioritize those.

The 80/20 Blogging e-book helps you identify your 20% activities and cut back on tasks that represent the other 80%.

4. Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix is a principle originally presented by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, and later expanded upon by Stephen Covey, a famous American educator and author.

It helps prioritize tasks into 4 quadrants and easily decide what the next focus should be, based on urgency and importance. 

If you’d like to try this, head over to the whiteboard or grab a clean sheet of paper and divide it into four quadrants. Here are ready-made stickers that you can use as inspiration.

Each quadrant will represent the following:

1. Urgent tasks

For us bloggers, this could be finalizing a sponsored post you have agreed to publish tomorrow morning.

If you don’t complete this task, you can face serious consequences, such as losing a client (and potentially money).

2. Important tasks

These may not have immediate or tangible detrimental effects but can negatively impact your long-term goals.

For example, working on an online course that will bring an extra source of passive income to your blogging business.

3. Non-urgent task

These are things that could be beneficial, but if they are left for next week, that won’t have a big impact on your strategy — for example, a casual chat with a blogging friend.

4. Non-important tasks

These are tasks that don’t necessarily need to be done by you and that you could easily delegate. For example, editing the content that you have already researched and produced or creating graphics to go along with it.

If you’d like to know more about the Eisenhower Matrix, read through this article by Asana.

Resources:
→ Pinterest graphics that will help you speed up your workflow without hiring out!

5. “Don’t Break the Chain” Technique

The “Don’t break the chain” technique, also known as the Seinfeld Method, was originally shared in the early 90s by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Its main purpose is to quit procrastinating and achieve your goals. Its focus isn’t on the result but rather on consistency and habit-building.

It’s pretty simple, really! 

Seinfeld suggests that you get a large calendar of the whole year and, each day that you do what you’ve set yourself up to do (in our case, it could be writing 500 words per day, for example), you cross it off.

Essentially, all you have to do is mark a large X on the calendar each day (as long as you have completed the task at hand). And, in Seinfeld’s own words, “Then it’s as simple as not breaking the chain”.

Impressive, right? 🙃

As you can see, the Seinfeld Method is nothing special. But there’s something powerful about a good visual. You will get competitive and won’t want to break the chain, especially once you’ve built it up. 

Sometimes, building consistency and staying the course to achieve productivity is as simple as setting yourself up for a challenge.

6. Participate in a Content Challenge

One of the questions I see asked the most in the Facebook groups where bloggers hang out is how many posts you need to write. As we have seen, the number of articles on your blog can significantly impact your achievements.

The more content you produce, the more likely you are to increase traffic and, with that, make money blogging.

I do have to say that, as I see it, producing high-quality content that is relevant to your readers and is optimized well, is far more important than pushing out a new post every day.

I am blown away when I see pro bloggers say they publish 3 to 5 articles per week. Right now, I am only publishing one post per week. I don’t see how I could write more and still make each post the quality I aim for.

While I wish I could publish more frequently, I am happy to see many of my articles ranking on the first page of Google, especially given that this blog is a recent project that I started only a few months ago.

In any case, if you can do more than one per week, you should do it! That will likely fast-track your blogging success.

Before setting up my website, I participated in a blog content challenge that helped me organize my ideas and create content quickly. I scheduled that content for the next few weeks, so I could concentrate on setting up my website the way I wanted, joining more affiliate programs, and enrolling in new courses.

The 30-day challenge is an excellent program that Ana created and made available on her website. You can take it at any time, but I recommend that you set a specific start and finish date and clear your agenda for that time frame.

Ana will show you how to create (and optimize!) one full year’s worth of blog posts in just one month. 

If you want to brainstorm, outline, and create high-quality articles quickly and strategically, check it out here. Use the code TSA5OFF to save $5.

Conclusion: Unusual Productivity Tips for Bloggers

This wasn’t your typical list of tiny hacks to boost productivity as a blogger. I’ve got one of those if you’d like to get all the practical ideas.

But the clever strategies outlined in this post can revolutionize your blogging game!

Here are other fantastic productivity resources that will change the way you handle your business:

1. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey (book)
2. The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss (book)
3. Atomic Habits, by James Clear (book)
4. Profitable Productivity (online course)
5. One Year of Content in One Month (online challenge)