The subject of this entire post is in the title. Get organized, make a schedule, and use your blog to keep yourself focused and accountable. I’m positive 80%+ of the bloggers out there already have this figured out and need not read on. For guys like me however, those who are just starting down the path of this virtual adventure, we’re still figuring these things out.
Getting started
Excitement. Fulfillment. Anticipation.
These words describe me when I started my blog. It felt really good because starting a blog was a bucket-list-item and I knew inside that I needed something else in my life. However, excitement and fulfillment quickly became overbalanced by anticipation.
What happens next?
Write a few posts and run out of ideas?
Have too many ideas and don’t know how to stay organized?
What tools do I need to have in place to capture the ideas and post them?
Being a part of the blogging community is rewarding and I have almost come to enjoy reading the works of others more than writing my own…almost. But, reading what others are writing is important and has taught me a valuable lesson.
Publishing Schedule – Discovered
I didn’t realize a publishing schedule was a thing or even applied to blogging until I started, not just reading, but started following and reading other blogs.
Not only is it important to increase your reading, it is important to consume new ideas and expand your perspective.
I started noticing a pattern. A clear pattern of when good bloggers posted content and what they talked about.
In every blog you read you’ll notice specific themes as well as topics that they write about. It’s interesting to get to know other blogs. They almost have their own flavor or personality.
The important takeaway here though is schedule.
Write a Post Everyday – Choose your day(s)
Neil Patel is an unofficial mentor of mine.
Unofficial because he doesn’t know I live and breath. Just the same your mentors don’t choose you, you choose your mentors. In any event, I’m sure he doesn’t mind inspiring a guy like me.
A recurring theme of Neil’s is to post everyday. And to accomplish this feat of literary prowess, one must read more than they write.
I am an avid reader by nature, though Neil’s advice helped me direct my reading which consequently circles back to my discovery of a publishing schedule.
When he said write every day, it got me thinking. I started thinking about a schedule, the days of the week, and if I should post on the same day every week.
And at that point it just clicked, take the subjects (blog categories) I’m interested in and pair them with a day.
So, this is what I have come up with.
My Publishing Schedule
- Monday – unk
- Tuesday – Technology & YouTube projects
- Wednesday – Working out (Health & Fitness)
- Thursday – unk
- Friday – unk
- Saturday – unk
- Sunday – Self-help (Self Improvement)
Right off the bat, you’ll notice that not all of the days have a category assigned. We’ll get to that in a second, but suffice it to say these are my writing interests at the moment and I currently struggle to publish one post a week.
This schedule is important to me and will help me in a couple of ways.
First, I have a target! I know (more specifically) what I’m shooting for. Aim small, miss small, right?
Second, readers and subscribers of my blog will know what to expect.
I believe understanding and managing expectations is important. The first is key when dealing with others and the second the key to maintaining personal happiness.
Now, back to the unassigned days.
Crawl – Walk – Run
I am a firm believer in progressive learning and doing. A product of over 20 years in the military, I have been conditioned to learn using a crawl walk run methodology.
Now, if Neil Patel’s “write every day” standard is run, then what is crawl and walk?
I am currently in the “crawl” phase of blogging. No doubt. In fact, it might be in a pre-crawl phase (it may be a squirming and wiggling around on the ground phase) and following my new publishing schedule is the crawl phase.
The walk phase will include adding a category or increasing the production frequency of current categories. But, It’s important that once I can consistently maintain a crawl that I move to walk.
And the run phase… I honestly don’t know what that will look like exactly, but I have faith that over time I will find a balance of topics and posting frequency until everything feels right.
All I have to do is master the crawl phase and then progressively master higher stages until I can “run.”
Accountability
I have bombarded myself with amazing quotes and words of advice for most of my life. It has been an effective way for me to stay motivated and maintain momentum. So, as I’m thinking and writing about personal accountability, a seemingly endless stream of goal-thoughts are going through my head.
The best goals are those written down. Make yourself accountable by writing down your aspirations and cross each one off as you satisfy them. Goals are stars to steer by, not stones to hit yourself with. If you see a man on top of a mountain, you know he didn’t fall there…etc…
To date, my best method of accountability is my blog.
The best way for me to to hold myself accountable and to encourage (pressure) myself to achieve my goals is to not only write them down, but to post them and tell the world that I’m going to do it.
So, I know. If I want to follow the publishing schedule above, I need to post it in a blog to get it done.
That takes me back to how I started this post. Get organized, make a schedule, and use your blog to keep yourself focused and accountable.
Thanks for reading!
