HOW TO USE A BLOGGING JOURNAL
A lot of people think blogging is a walk in the park. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
We have to put a lot of love into our blogs to make them what they are.
Not to mention all the hats we have to wear. Marketer, graphic designer, writer, editor, photographer….it just goes on and on.
And while it’s really enjoyable work, there’s still quite a lot to do.
So how do you do it? How do you manage all your jobs, tasks and to-do lists? I recommend using a blogging journal.
A blogging journal can be used in the same way as a bullet journal and it will become your new best friend.
This planning system is as flexible as can be and can be designed based on what’s right for you.
So I’m going to break down the different ways you can use a journal to juggle all the things that come with running a blog.
The first section we’re going to cover is goals and trackers.
As a blogger you need to plan ahead for future blog posts, holidays and other events so they don’t sneak up on you.
Using a journal is great for this because you can plan as far in advance as you want. You can plan weekly, bi-weekly, monthly - whatever works for you.
I think a monthly planner is great for checking in on your personal and professional goals, and there are a few other things you can do too.
A MONTHLY MASTER PLAN
This allows you to grab some of the bigger goals for the month and break them down into more manageable pieces. You could split your double page into one masterplan on one page and then a four week breakdown on the other.
Then you can break down what small tasks you need to do to get to those bigger goals and put them into your weekly breakdown. That way, you’re working on the important things every single day.
ANALYTICS CHECK-IN
You could dedicate a whole monthly spread to looking at your blog’s analytics.
It’s important for you to understand what’s working and what you need to improve so you can adjust your strategy.
Then you can set yourself goals for the month looking specifically at your analytics. This helps you to see a general overview of your analytics and helps you see where to go next.
HABIT TRACKER
A habit tracker has so many uses.
You can fill in your tracker every night to see how often you’re doing certain tasks. So you can see how often you’re doing blog-related activities like replying to emails or posting to Instagram.
It holds you accountable and provides you with data points long after the month is gone.
Now we’re going to move onto the daily planning section.
This is where the bulk of all your planning will happen. Your daily planning part is where you get running with all the things that need to get done that day.
I love the daily to-do list, I really do.
Having all of your tasks in one place including the level of completeness creates a detailed log that you can reference whenever you need.
You can see what day you sent a certain email, make notes for important dates and see if you didn’t complete a task, where you moved it to.
COLLECTIONS
Having a blogging journal means you can brainstorm to your heart’s content.
Each new page is blank so you can do whatever you want. Here are a few starting points.
Project checklists
This is where you can use subject-specific checklists.
So let’s say you’ve got a presentation coming up. In a page in your journal, you can lay out the outline, draw up a draft for what you need to create for the presentation and list some steps to prepare for it. It’s simple and all in one place.
You could also do this if you’ve got a launch coming up, you can keep all your tasks together on the same page just for ease.
Brainstorming
You’ve got to have some pages in your blogging journal for coming up with new ideas for your blog.
You can just add a blog post ideas page and keep everything in one place. That way, if you’re not feeling inspired, you can go to that page and bam - there’s your inspiration.
References
A password log is a great example of this.
Some people won’t comfortable keeping their passwords in one place like this, but it can be pretty ideal.
You’re not gonna misplace your blogging journal like you might with a sticky note that has a password on it.
And I know I don’t need to say that you shouldn’t keep your bank information on here. This purely just related to blogging.
You could also create a list of Instagram hashtags or Twitter chats. These are great because you can add to them whenever you want.
Notes section
Whether it’s a webinar you’re watching, meeting notes or research notes about a new strategy, keeping your notes altogether for your reference is really important.
If you want to focus on something in particular, you could try a Pinterest activity log.
Let’s say you want to step up your pinning game and you want to strategically share pins to maintain a cycle and keep a note of all the rules of the groups boards you participate in.
This can be a good system - I used to use a spreadsheet and now I use Boardbooster.
Blog braindump
Everything that’s in your head, everything that’s up there right now - get it out on paper. All your worries and stresses - it can be so therapeutic to get those tasks out on paper.
This can be periodic if you want to when you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed or you can add tasks to it when you need to.
I think this is useful to use when tasks have no specific deadline - they just need to be done at some point and need to be written down.
So if you’re just doing some research for getting on track with your blog then you’re taking such a positive step forward. It’s really useful to make a plan and know what you’re doing before you jump in head first.
Whether you’ve been blogging for 4 months or 4 years a blogging journal can help you so much. This system is completely flexible, you can manage all your tasks, plan in advance, track your efforts and make it completely your own.
Do you use a journal for your blog? If you do, I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments.
Remember to stay organised and keep on track with all your blogging tasks so you can get one step closer to a breakthrough.
