Welcome to the Productivity Blog

We made it – today officially marks the final day of the Blogging Breakthrough Challenge. Can you believe it? I really hope you’ve found this series as worthwhile as I’ve found creating it. But it’s not over yet. We've still got the final day to go…

Over the past 28 days we've covered a lot. We've talked content. We've talked social media. We've talked organisation. We've talked inspiration. We've talked about all the main things you need to get a breakthrough with your blog.

Really, there’s only one thing left to do. So to wrap up the 28 Day Blogging Breakthrough challenge, it only seems right to talk about how we can put everything into action. It’s all well and good doing these tasks for 28 days. But you want to keep on doing them. Some are tasks you can do every day – some are ones you can do every month. So on Day 28, we’re going to go through all the tasks we've done and block out when they need to be done so you can achieve a constant breakthrough with your blog.

I figured that the easiest way to do this would be to split these into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and one-off tasks. That way, you’ve got this to come back to or you can make notes in your own planner to remind you. I'm going to put the number of the task by each point so you know exactly what day of the challenge you need to refer to. So here we go!

Every day

Plan your day (9)

Find something that inspires you (11)

Snapchat away! (20)

Interact on social media (21)

 
Every week

Write a list (8)

Find your optimal social media posting times (17)

Do something on Periscope (22)

Every month

Create your editorial calendar (4)

Sort out your blog files (7)

Write a list (8)

Plan your images (13)

Create and review your social media plan (18)

Plan content for your mailing list (23)

Take a break (27)

This online space has been running for over two years now. But I've actually enjoyed it and learnt the most about it during these past six months. This is my number one side project above all others, and it makes me so happy to create content for you and interact with you all each day.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not easy. There have been plenty of tears and stress levels have been high. But it’s been more valuable and rewarding than I ever could have imagined. Now, I couldn't imagine my life without this blog. I know it won’t stay the same – it’ll grow as my life does. But I want it to always be there.

But there’s something I always wanted to try – daily blogging. When I first started out, I posted three times a week. Then for a while I went up to five posts a week. As of this year, I'm pushing myself to publish a blog post every single day.
 

Why? Well that’s exactly what this post is going to tell you.

On Day 12 of the #BloggingBreakthrough challenge, I want to talk to you about why you should definitely consider blogging consistently for a whole week. By the time you’ve finished reading this post, I think you’ll start to see the benefits.

Finding a space in which to work that makes you comfortable and free is an essential part of developing your voice.

How often has someone told you not to work in bed? That you should create an area in which you can be strict with yourself and focus, probably at a desk or kitchen table.

The people telling you to work that way will only have had your best interests at heart. They will have been teachers, tutors, parents, whoever and they’re correct - but only to a degree.

What's essential to being able to write, is having a space that is entirely your own, somewhere you can disappear into your own thoughts, theories and ideas.

And if you’re in your pyjamas under the covers, who cares?

In A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf wrote: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

While Woolf used the rest of her famous essay to put forward some of the trailblazing feminist theories that shape our thinking today, the practicalities of the situation remain the same as they were in 1929. It is essential for a writer to have personal space in which to write.

So while it might not be ideal to write from your bed, and you should try to ensure that you have the correct orthopaedic support, if your room is the only place that you have to write privately, then you should write there.

Whether you live with your parents, with friends or housemates, distractions are everywhere. Coffees being made, dinner being prepared, discussions about the day at work, university or school, all waiting to suck your attention away.

Writers need to be able to lock into a thought process and get thoughts onto paper as soon as possible, without being distracted by the delicious smells of a Sunday roast.

If there’s one question I know we all hate answering it’s this: “so, what do you do?”  We pause and think. What’s the right thing to say here?

I’ve been asked this question many times over the past few years. And if like me, you stumble across the words and can’t think of how to answer this question, then today’s post is for you.

The #BloggingBreakthrough challenge is all about getting a breakthrough with your blog, right? Part of that means you’ve got to be recognised and remembered.

How you answer this question makes all the difference. I was so sick of my response being “I work in marketing and I’m a blogger.” That sounds so boring, right? I mean, how many people work in marketing? And how many people are bloggers?

You want to be different. You want to be the only one that a person will remember when they ask you this question. So you need a good answer. You get that by creating a brand statement,

HOLLY, I'M LOST - WHAT EVEN IS A BRAND STATEMENT?

I first learnt about brand statements during my Masters course in Journalism, two years ago. For every brand we created during that time, we had to create a brand statement for it. This was so we knew exactly what each brand embodied. It was so if someone said, OK, tell me about [insert brand name here]”, we knew exactly what to say to blow them away.

Let’s say you answer “so, what do you do?”  with “I’m a marketer and blogger.” Boring, right? Or you could answer it like this:

"By day, I market one of the top sixth form College’s in the country through online content, email marketing and social media strategies. By night, I write for my online community about building a fulfilling online presence, reaching your dreams and getting to where you want to be. I also use what I learn on a daily basis as content ideas to teach my audience. It seems that people know what sort of what they want to do in life but they don’t believe they can get there. That’s what A Branch of Holly is for."

Which one do you think is the better answer?

Which one would be remembered the most?