As a blogger, I'm often asked how much time I spend on the blog each day/week. Being that I work in creative fields, my days vary all the time! It's hard to be able to say exactly how much time each day I spend on the blog and other projects, however I know a lot of people who have just started blogging or are thinking about starting one often ask this question. Although blogging may seem lucrative and fun on social media, there's a lot more hard work, time and dedication that one might expect in order to maintain a consistent following. Scheduling out the time to blog is so important in order to be successful, so here's a peek into what a typical day might look like for me!
5:00am: Wake up and get dressed for spin class
My days usually start at 5am so I can have enough time to wake up and be ready for 5:45am spin class at my local YMCA. This doesn't happen every day or as often as I'd like, but it does help me start the day on a positive note.
5:45am: Spin class
Since I put this on here, I now HAVE to go to spin class tomorrow, right? HA!
7:00am: Shower, get ready, have breakfast and coffee, check blog post and analytics
After spin (and a shower - no one looks or smells cute after spin!), I like to take a couple minutes to sip my coffee/green smoothie, watch the Today show and check on my blog post to make sure everything is working properly. This time of the day might be my favorite; I love seeing other blogger's posts in the mornings and finding really inspiring content!
8:30am: Drive to work
I live about a half hour from where I work, so I have to be on the road 30 minutes before work in order to get to the office on time! I don't mind the drive because it allows me to switch my focus from blog/personal to work.
9:00am: Open up the office & check emails
9am is when my "professional" life starts, and one of the first things I do is check my emails that came in during the night. I try not to respond to every email that comes in during the night, however if things are really important I always make myself available.
9:30am: Daily Staff Meeting
We have a 5 minute staff meeting everyday, and that helps me and our team stay focused on what we need to accomplish for the day. After this meeting, I'm usually off to meetings, writing press releases, or putting together some sort of details for an event.
Noon: Quick lunch and blog/Instagram check
I don't usually take a lunch, so instead I'll take 5-10 minutes to eat quickly and check out the blog and Instagram! Around lunch time is usually when I will post an #ootd Instagram picture or a shot from that day's blog post. I also love to comment on other people's Instagram pictures when I love their pics!
Noon - 4:30/5pm: Off to meetings & finishing up professional work for the day
It's not everyday that I get off work at 5pm! I work in Events and Marketing for an economic development organization, so it's common for me to be out and about after 6!
5:30pm: Shooting pictures for blog
My mom takes most of my pictures, so when she's in town we'll try to schedule an hour after I'm done with work to take a few pictures of my outfit. This usually happens 2x/week and the rest of the photos are taken on the weekend. During the winter, all of my photos are taken during the weekend because it's dark outside by the time I get home from work. As you can imagine, during the winter my weekends are busy with blog work!
6:30pm: Dinner
I do a lot of meal prep on the weekends, so usually when I get home all I have to do is take something out of the crock pot or throw chicken in the oven for 20 minutes to make a yummy dinner via Pinterest!
I have a pretty close group of friends in Okoboji, and we love getting together at least once a week to have drinks or see some live entertainment. They keep me sane!
9:00pm: Blog post writing & relaxation time
Late at night is when I have the most time to write my posts for the next day. Sometime I have to triple check my grammar because I'm pretty tired at this point in the day, but it's not common I have to change wording after the post is live! For each post, I download the pictures from my camera, do some light editing if needed, adjust the sizing, upload selected pictures to the blog, find all the clothing that I'm wearing via Shopstyle and link them to my post, and write the content. To do all of that, it usually takes 2 hours to create one blog post. I always schedule out my posts for the same time each day - 5:00am CST. That way my readers can expect when to see new content and I don't have to wake up before 5am to maintain consistency.
10:30/11pm: Make a cup of tea and go to bed!
I'm currently obsessed with Detox Yogi Tea, so I'll make a small cup of that (it's caffeine free!), light a candle and crawl in bed for a few minutes of solitude before falling asleep.
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Sorry for the novel! Have a great Tuesday!