How to Create the Perfect Structure to Your Day

Building a structure into your day is an important and useful habit to become accustomed to, and if blogging is factored into that, even better. As part of the #BloggingBreakthrough challenge so far, I sat down and really thought about what I wanted my blog to be this year. This involved where it had come so far in 2015, and also where I want to make improvements, inspiring me to write a list of Blog Goals for 2016.

You may notice that right at the top of the list is “blog more regularly” – something that in my fledgling first nine months of blogging I have found difficult to grasp, with some weeks posting nearly daily and others only once. Having usually planned a whole bunch of great posts, not only does this push your schedule back, the sporadic nature can be irritating to your followers and appear erratic.

Therefore this year on Wooden Window Sills, I'm determined to design (and more importantly stick to) a regular calendar, both for blogging and more generally in life. Don’t know where to start? That’s exactly what Day 9 of the #BloggingBreakthrough Challenge is here for!

How Do I Start?

Firstly, use some of the pointers given on days 1-8 of this challenge. Trust me, they will be amazingly useful. For blogging in particular I especially refer to Day 4 on planning your editorial calendar, and equally yesterday’s Day 8 on writing lists. Because ultimately, the key to organization is both of these things – planning when you’re going to do things, and making lists of what you want to achieve.

I tend to use three calendar systems in my day to day life, and the beauty is, you may choose to not use any of them! The main thing here is finding what works best for you, so that it fits into your life and is easy to stick to.

What System Do I Choose?

To start, think about what style suits you.

Holly SuttonJanuary 12, 2016blogging breakthrough challenge, planning, organising, bloggersComment

How to Sort out All Your Blog Files Really Quickly

The other day I needed to find a pretty important document that was in my bedroom. I remembered that I'd put it on my desk. But over a few days (plus Christmas), I'd also put a lot of other things on my desk. So much so, that I couldn't see the surface.

I was going back to work and my untidy bedroom had made me feel like my whole life just wasn't organised. So I tidied and cleaned it - afterwards, I felt a whole lot better.

So let me ask you something - can you relate to this with your blog?

Something we all want as bloggers is to be organised. We've got so many images, documents, calendars, ideas, printables and so much more that we want to be able to find quickly.

But if these are all over your computer, then it makes it quite difficult to stay organised, right?

Welcome to Day 7 of the #BloggingBreakthrough challenge. Today I want to talk to you about how you can create dedicated places on your computer for all your blog-related items that will save you a massive chunk of time. Plus, you'll be able to get it done quickly. I'll be telling you the system I use so you can start using it too. All you need is some motivation and your drink of choice (tea for me). Let's go.

Spoiler alert – I don’t have anything on my desktop.

Nope. It’s a free zone of everything. All I’ve got is my pretty desktop calendar from The Blog Market and that’s it.

Some people have their desktops full of everything. And that might work for you. But to me, that just shows mess and clutter, which makes me feel like I’m not on track with anything.

The method I use takes away all of that. It’ll feel like a breath of fresh air!

If you’re on your computer reading this and you’ve got your folder open with all your documents that’s a fab place to start. But first, there’s something else to tackle.

Holly SuttonJanuary 10, 2016blogging, bloggers, organising, blogging breakthrough challengeComment

Five Tips For Making The Best To-Do List Ever

You know that highly organised person who is incredibly productive all the time? The one that you envy a little but also admire? They have the ability to manage their time effectively, complete tasks to the highest standard and actually get everything done. But it's not just a matter of luck or hard work. This person has the one weapon that we all probably use on a daily basis. We're just not using it efficiently enough.

Holly SuttonJanuary 14, 2015creativity, free worksheet, lists, making lists, organisation, organising, prioritisation, to-do listComment

What's Always On Your 'To Do' List?

Everyone loves a list don't they? Whether you use sticky notes, pieces of paper or cute printables, we all love to note tasks down and try to complete them.

I read something earlier about 'to-do' lists that said:

Today's To Do List

Make to-do list

Cross things off to-do list

Celebrate completion of to-do list

If only it was that simple.

This then got me thinking about my own to-do list. Every night I write out my to-do list for the next day which usually consists of job hunting and then all things blogging, along with other errands and jobs thrown in between.

At the moment, these two areas - job hunting and blogging - are so important that I'm devoting practically all my time to them every single day. But recently, I was thinking about other hobbies that I have and other fun tasks that I've still yet to complete on my to-do list. So as well as job hunting and blogging, I'm going to try and fit in one of my other favourite tasks every day, just so I'm that step closer to crossing it off my to-do list.