FEELING OVERWHELMED WITH BLOGGING? THESE ARE THE BEST THINGS TO DO
Let me guess - you’re planning your content for the remainder of the year and you don’t know where to start.
You’ve got so many ideas and things you want to do that you don’t know what to focus on.
You know you need to be on social media, nurture your email list and do #allthethings.
I feel you.
When I first started blogging, these were some of the thoughts swirling round my mind:
Is i better to publish content five days a week or once a week? She posts five times, she posts once. So what do I do?
Why do I need an email list? It’s just another thing to do. And it’s not like anyone will sign up anyway.
How do people do it? How do people stay motivated? I don’t know what to do!
I was consuming SO much information and concentrating SO much on what other people were doing that I lost my way.
I was completely overwhelmed with blogging.
So what’s the right step to take? What’s the best thing to focus on?
It’s so hard to stay motivated with your blog when there’s so much noise out there telling you what to do. And what happens? You consume content, you get overwhelmed and you don’t take action.
So what do you do?
In today’s post, I’m going to give you some strategies to help you stay focused and determined with blogging, to beat the overwhelm for good.
#1 | WRITE DOWN WHERE YOU’RE AT IN YOUR BLOGGING JOURNEY
Being aware of where you’re at in your blogging journey is so important. This is what’s going to help you decide what goals and strategies you need to focus on.
When you determine what stage you’re at in your blogging journey, it can really help you to become clearer. It prevents you from feeling overwhelmed, because you can focus on what you need to do right now.
So let’s take me for example and a brand new blogger - our goals and strategies are going to look completely different, right? I’ve already got 1,000+ subscribers on my email list, but they might just be starting out with email marketing. So the strategies we use are going to be totally different.
When you’re realistic with yourself about where you’re at and focus on strategies related to your current stage, that’s what’s going to help you move forward.
#2 | SET YOURSELF SOME GOALS
It can be so hard to stay determined with blogging, because our industry is ever-changing. You’re constantly seeing new ways of doing things.
It’s so easy to try one blogger’s strategy one week and another the following week. I hate to say it, but this is a recipe for disaster, because you’ll completely lose your path. You won’t have a clue what to do next.
This is why you need to hold yourself accountable by setting some blogging goals.
Here’s what I do. I have one big goal and I break that down into much smaller, manageable tasks (to prevent feeling overwhelmed).
How To Set Big Goals
Big goals aren’t ones you can accomplish overnight. They also aren’t ones you can accomplish in a month or two.
Your big goals should usually have a much longer time frame. Anything from six months upwards.
Once you decide on these goals and write them down, it’s about what you’re going to do to get there.
So every time you feel stuck, confused or overwhelmed with blogging, you’ve got these goals as your focus. Each time ask yourself: what is going to help me get closer to achieving that goal? This ensures you’re staying on task and focusing on the strategies that are going to help you get there.
If you’re struggling, just think of six months or a year to start off with.
These are both very decent periods of time to really accomplish something, plus, neither seem too far away, which will push you to achieve the goals you set yourself.
Let’s run through some examples of big goals:
Create and start building an email list
Create a freebie to giveaway on your blog
Create a solid content strategy
Write a guest post for someone else’s blog
Build a community and start your own Twitter chat
How To Set Small Goals
These smaller goals are determined by the big goals you decide.
So you take a big goal, break it down into stages and then set yourself one smaller goal or each month or quarter.
It’s completely up to you whether you do this monthly or quarterly. I guess it’ll totally depend on the type of smaller goal you’re setting yourself.
Remember, not all smaller goals will be equal - some will come with different weights. So from the examples above, here are some smaller goals we could set:
Plan content calendar for email list
Outline freebie idea for blog
Survey audience to come up with blog post ideas
Research blogs to guest post on
Set aside 10 minutes per day to network on Twitter
As you can see, some of these goals seem bigger than others.
Planning the content calendar for your mailing list will probably take longer than the 10 minutes you set aside to network on Twitter.
But what matters is that you’re treating each goal individually, depending on where you’re at in your blogging journey. That leads us nicely onto the next point.
#3 | CHOOSE TASKS YOU CAN WORK ON RIGHT NOW
Many bloggers set themselves goals, but many also go about it in the wrong way.
Why? Because most bloggers say they want X number of pageviews, X more social media followers and so on. They’re focusing on the numbers.
I’m not saying these aren’t good things to focus. But they shouldn’t be what you solely focus on, because they’ll end up making you feel overwhelmed. You can’t control these. Sure, you can put the SEO strategies in place to increase your pageviews - but there’s no guarantee what they’ll increase by.
This is why one of my biggest pet peeves is “How I made 6 figures in a year”. You can’t take control of that right now. You can’t make that happen right now. But you can break it down into tasks that you have control over and that you can work on. For instance:
Publish content twice a week on your blog to build your authority and expertise
Create content upgrades so you’re actively building your list of subscribers
Start a mastermind group to help you along your journey
Survey your audience to find out what they’d like to invest in
Get it?
So instead of focusing how much you’re earning or how many pageviews you’re getting each month, you can focus on things you’re actively working on.
And trust me, you will see a difference.
#4 | CUT DOWN WHO YOU LISTEN TO AND HOW MUCH YOU CONSUME
If you take anything out of this post, let it be this point right here.
When you feel overwhelmed with blogging, it’s usually because you’re listening to too many people and consuming too many things.
If you’re not ready to start an email list yet, then don’t read about it.
Ask yourself: what do you need right now to help you move forward?
That’s the kind of content you need to be consuming.
It’s like the email list example. If you’ve no interest in starting an email list, don’t consume any content that’s related to this, or you’ll just end up getting overwhelmed. Plus, you’ll also be going in a different direction than the goals you set for yourself.
I know how great it is to consume so much content. But I got to the stage where I was reading so much and not taking action. What’s the point with that?
Pick 3-5 people you’ll go to for blogging and online presence tips.
Pick 3-5 people you’ll actually buy a product from.
Pick 3-5 podcasts you listen to.
You need to do this in order to beat the overwhelm for good.
Consuming too much is a form of procrastination. Picking just 3-5 resources will provide you with plenty of information. Plus, it’ll be from people you trust.
The sooner you recognise and understand this, the further along you’ll move in your blogging journey.
It took me eight months to launch this blog for this reason. Trust me here.
#5 | ONLY INVEST IN PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS YOU TRUST
I’m getting ready to start creating my first paid product and let me tell you - there’s a lot of competition out there.
So how do you know what to invest in? How do you make sure you won’t regret it?
This is the answer. And it comes back to where you’re at in your blogging journey.
What do you need right now? What is going to help you move forward at this point in your blogging journey?
Is there a new strategy you need to implement that you need help with? Do you need to invest in a course that’s going to help you get unstuck from where you are right now? Or do you have an online business and you need an assistant to help you complete all your tasks?
There are different options, but it’s crucial that you only invest in products that match where you are now and how you want to go.
Top tip - be sure to complete whatever course or product you buy.
I bought a course recently and for when I start it, I’m going to set specific chunks of time aside.
I’ll dedicate a lot of time to it.
Because I know the sooner I work through the material in the course, the sooner I’ll be to finishing it and the closer I’ll be to reaching my goals.
It’s so exciting when you buy something from someone you trust. You’re excited, passionate, motivated. You can’t wait to get started.
So you work hard to complete it as soon as you can.
#6 | BE REALISTIC WITH THE TIME YOU HAVE
Oh the big T word. The one huge problem for every single blogger I speak too.
Often, we don’t have enough time to do everything we want to do.
So work with the time you have available each day and work your tasks around that.
Some nights you might have one hour available to work on your blog. Other nights you might have three hours. So schedule your tasks around those chunks of time.
You wouldn’t want to work on putting together a 1,000 word blog post when you’ve got a 30-minute lunch break, would you? Maybe you should do some proofreading or social scheduling instead?
This is such an effective way to plan time to work on your blog. And that leads me perfectly onto the final point.
#7 | KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR YOUR BLOG
Writing, proofreading, taking photos, scheduling social content, editing - there are a lot of tasks we need to complete to keep our blogs up and running.
When you flit between so many different tasks, you’re going to feel overwhelmed and you won’t be productive. There’s a scientific reason that working too much kills your productivity.
Your brain can only focus for 90 to 120 minutes at a time - so two hours max. At this point, it needs a short break before you can launch into your next 90 to 120 minute period of focus. This cycle is known as your ultradian rhythm. What does this mean?
You need to learn your own rhythm to maximise your productivity.
This is where time management becomes so important. Let’s say one of your tasks for the week is writing a blog post. If you have a plan that you follow for the creation of each blog post, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done next when you have some time to work on your blog.
So say you proofread your post on your lunch break. That night, you can create the graphics and format the post ready to go.
This will help you get so much more work done and you’ll be taking active steps forward too.
BONUS POINT: REMEMBER YOUR ‘WHY’
When it comes to blogging, there’s never a stopping point. There is always room to improve and new things to learn.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed when we look at the task list in front of us.
But all you need to do is focus on where you’re at right now, what needs to be done next and what you’re going to do to get there.
Try your best and take action every single day.
There’s no point in planning how to reach your goal if you don’t know what you want to achieve.
If something doesn’t fit in with where you are right now in your blogging journey, push it to one side for now.
This truly is one of the best things to do to help you stop feeling overwhelmed with blogging.
Do you feel overwhelmed with blogging right now? What strategy will you be trying from this list? Share your thoughts in the comments!