How to Carve Out Blogging Time

Blogging unfortunately is not the only thing that requires my time.  I have a career as an English Teacher, translator and begining as a Teacher Trainer.  I have my recently transplanted 8 year old who is adjusting to her new life in Madrid, new friends, new school, lots of homework; all in Spanish.  A language, that although, was her first language is no longer her Native language.  A new puppy that needs to be feed, walked, trained and played with. Last, and unfortunately sometimes least, my lovely husband who is being very supportive with the blogging as long as it doesn't interfere with the rest of my life.:-)

I have 3 other blogs including this one and about to start another one.  My two other blogs Vanguard Women and Mujeres Vanguardistas are for support and celebration of Women who are braking barriers to find their place in this world.  The other blog I still need to plan more and focus, so that it is as useful as possible and not all over the place.  I am also a guest blogger for Anglo-Info, where I write about my experience as an Expat in Madrid.

Find Uninterrupted Time
With all these challenges how do I carve out time to Blog, so it doesn't take over my life and I can still enjoy my loved ones and not flake out at my job.  I'm a morning person, my husband is a night owl, so every morning as soon as I see that I can't sleep anymore, when tossing and turning is no longer an option, I wake- up and start researching for my blogs on my Motorola Zoom. If my husband catches me and says go back to sleep I continue under the covers with my Android phone, how did I live without one before?

Sometimes I am done sleeping by 2 am, but most of the time it's by 5am. When it's already 5am, I get up and got to my desk and start working on the things that require concentration like editing and putting the final touches on my posts before I publish. It's also the best time for me to write my ideas down because the house is quiet and after taking the dog out and giving her water, she sits by my side and I work on my blog.

Be Ready for Inspiration
Inspiration is finicky it appears when it wants and disappears when you most want it. I carry a notepad with me wherever I go, so that I can catch it and act on it.  I jot down notes fast on, so that it doesn't have time to fly away.  Sometimes I get these great ideas while I am on the Metro and if don't write them down when I try to bring them up later, they are just not as fluid as when I first thought about them. 

Your Cell - Your Best Friend
At times when I wake up in the middle of the night with a clear solution to something I've been pondering for a long time, well I can't very well turn on the light on and start jotting down, because the one who is going to kill my inspiration will be my husband.  So, I reach for my cell phone and jot down my notes on my ColorNote app.  It's easy to use and it keeps my life organized, since it has the choice of entering Notes as Text or Tasks and it also gives you the ability to organize your notes by color.

Just Drafts Please
When I first started blogging it was really hard to complete posts because I didn't have enough time, then I decided to write them as drafts.  During these times when I want to write a post and I am not at my laptop or desktop, or I don't have enough time to research the subject or check spelling and all that is needed to Publish, I just draft.  I use the Blogger app and just write a draft of my post that I can come back to later and put the finishing touches.  I once wrote a whole entry on my notepad as I rode the Metro.  I was so inspired by a woman riding the Metro, that I just wrote away.  Later I typed it and the inspiration was such that it didn't need much revising.

Organize Your Blogging Time
Blogging when it is not your full time job is challenging and there is only a part of a 24 hour day that you can use to blog.  At the beginning of my Vanguard Women blog, which was my first blog, I spent a lot of time on design, actually most of the time.  That's when I started to realize that it was not only important to find the time to blog, but that I needed to organize that time once I found it.  I don't keep to a schedule of posting my blogs for this blog because since I just started it, I am adding posts as much as I can, but most top bloggers recommend is that you have a schedule so that your readers know when to expect a new blog.  Other than the stolen times when I blog I can dedicate about an hour or two every other day to blogging. For me organizing my blogging time meant decide when I would do what.  My schedule now is like this:

• Crack of dawn time - jot down ideas, draft posts, research
• Early morning time - editing, revising and publishing
• Scheduled blogging time (usually an hour every other day)
• adding to draft posts day
• exclusive for design issues day
• promotion day
• research day

I had to break it down like this because I love blogging and I if I let it, it would take over my life.  This way I feel like I am moving forward with my blog, but I still get to enjoy my family and be responsible for my other work.  I keep the schedule flexible because sometimes it's easier to work on some items than others.

This is what is working for me right now. How do you organize your blogging time? I'd love to hear your ideas.