At the time of writing this article, I still have my 9-5 day job.
I work full-time in a bank and I have 4 children.
That’s another full-time job if you know what I mean!
Even though I started my blog as a side hustle, I know that if I want to develop it, I have to work hard.
For that, I need to have time. Unfortunately, with my busy schedule, it is not always easy to find the time.
Perhaps you are also in the same situation as me?
Whether you are a parent, a student, an employee or an entrepreneur, we all have very busy schedules nowadays.
If there is one thing I am sure about, is that everyone is not meant to be a blogger.
I know people who started a blog. At first, they were full of enthusiasm and were full of goodwill. But for one reason or another, in the end, they gave up.
Do you know why 95% of people who start a blog fail?
It’s either:
Because they do not know why they created their blog,
Because they do not know what to blog about,
Because they thought blogging was easy and they were not ready to put all the efforts a blog requires,
Or simply because they are caught in a lot of other projects, and they do not have the time to focus on developing their blog.
I do not know where you are today with your blogging business.
Unless you have a real passion for blogging and you’re ready to devote all your days and sometimes even your nights in developing your blogging business, you will quickly realize that growing a blog requires a lot of energy and especially time.
A day lasts only 24 hours and the problem is that with our professional careers, our family and social life, this time we don’t always have it.
So, how can you reconcile your job and your passion for blogging?
I asked myself this question once.
So, today I decided to write this article to try to help those of you that would also have the same question.
Below are some ideas that will help you to find time to develop your blogging business when you have a busy professional life:
1 Do not quit your day job for your blog
Since Internet Marketing gurus display the fortunes they amassed on the internet through their blogs, it seems that everyone wants to become a professional blogger nowadays.
I was reading an article the other day in this direction on the blog of a friend of mine.
The latter was complaining of not being able to make enough money with his blog because his salary job was taking him too much time.
He argued that he could not manage to develop his blog as he wished due to his busy professional life.
Frustrated, he wondered if it was not better for him to quit his job to concentrate better on his blog?
My answer here is NO!!!
Do not quit your job for your blog, at least not as long as it does not allow you to generate a sizeable and steady income to live decently.
Making money with a blog is very time and energy-consuming.
Above all, it is not given to everyone to create a successful blog that will make you the money you need to live and take care of your family.
You will often wait several months and work fiercely before seeing the first fruits of your labor.
So, please do not consider quitting your job before your blog can make you at least $3000 per month.
Making money with your blog is really possible if you know how to do it.
Today many people earn their living entirely on the Internet through their blog.
For example, Michelle from the blog making sense of cents claims that she earns up to 100,000 per month with her blog.
Same thing for Alex and Lauren from Createandgo.com.
If you want to know how they managed to build a 6 figure business empire through their blogs, they created an online training that shows you step by step all their secrets.
Feel free to check out their Pro Blogger Bundle Training and see how they can help you become a better blogger.
2 Get organized so you can blog from anywhere
The advantage of keeping a blog is the flexibility it offers us to work from any corner of the planet.
All you need to grow your online business is an Internet connection and a mobile device (laptop, tablet, smartphone), etc.
From these simple devices, you can write your articles, respond to your comments, send emails to keep in touch with your community, make videos or podcasts and publish them all on your blog without ever having to stay in one place.
You can save time by blogging from anywhere, on the beach, on travel, in your office or to the park…
It just takes a little planning and discipline. There is absolutely no need to blog 12 hours a day to succeed.
To stay organized, you can use an editorial calendar.
For instance, you can use this free WordPress plugin to schedule out posts well in advance.
All you have to do is tell the plugin when you want your posts to go out and the plugin will post them automatically according to the time and date you decide.
Being organized is absolutely crucial to maintaining a consistent blogging schedule when you work full-time.
3 Combine your work and your passion for blogging
Anyone can have access to the Internet from their workplace.
Whether with your mobile phone, your last tablet or even your desktop computer, it is always possible to work on your blog while you are at work.
Here’s what Nathalie Bacon; a successful blogger from nathaliebacon.com said on her “About” page when she was developing a blog while having a full-time job :
With the decision made to quit my job, I got to work on my first blogging course. I got super serious about my business on a whole new level. I was getting up at 4AM to work on my course before work. I was also working on it during lunch in my car. Within six weeks, I created my first course – Personal Development For Her.
Amazing, right?
If for some reason working on your personal activity is prohibited during your office hours, which is perfectly understandable, you can still enjoy your break time to write from time to time a small article for your blog.
This will allow you to combine business with pleasure and it’s a huge time saver.
Back at home, all you’ll have to do then is some small corrections and publish your article. It’s a great way to save time for your blog while exercising its core business as an employee.
4 Organize yourself for blogging before or after work
This advice joins the precedent. Depending on the industry you work in, you probably already know that it is not always possible to blog during work hours.
In this case, you can simply organize yourself a planning either early in the morning or late at night to be able to blog either before or after your job.
If you’re comfortable with waking up at 5 AM to work on you’re blog. Do it.
Otherwise, see if it’s better for you to work from 9 PM to maybe midnight.
It’s up to you, therefore, to see if you’re more of a morning or evening. But whatever your preference, stick to it. You must focus in order to spend at least two hours per day working on your blog.
This is the price to pay if you want to quickly create a successful blog and attract visitors.
5 Remove from your life all unnecessary distractions
Watching the Sunday night football game on TV or following his Facebook fans when we had planned to work on our blog are all distractions that can prevent us from focusing on our blog.
If relaxing and taking life easy from time to time do not hurt, and it is even advisable, always be careful not to let these little distractions distract you though.
Make a list of all the distractions that disturb you and try to get rid of them. This will allow you to spend a little extra time to work on your blog.
6 Do your best to avoid any distraction as small as it is
The world around us is so full of distractions that it is so easy to get out of its concentration and ultimately waste time doing something we had not expected at all.
Consider, for example, the other day I had a lot of action in mind that I had planned to carry on one of my blogs.
All-day, I was eager to find myself in front of my computer to work at last.
But when I log into my email account to respond quickly to some contacts, I found a link to a YouTube video that someone had sent me and that only lasted two minutes.
I convinced myself that the video was not too long, and I could watch it before starting to work so I clicked on the link that took me to YouTube.
The only problem is that from this single link, I found myself watching dozens of other videos on the same topic.
Before I realized it, I had spent like 2 hours or more on YouTube watching video after video.
In the end, I was so tired that I left my computer without having done nothing of all that I had planned on my blog.
Identify all the little distractions that can keep you away from your primary objectives and avoid them altogether as long as you do not reach those goals.
7 Disconnect from time to time
Your family and loved ones are essential to you as a person and for your equilibrium.
Many bloggers tend to want to work 12 hours a day and forget despite them to pay attention to the people around them.
Do not make the same mistake.
So, take the time to disconnect from your blog from time to time and live the real life with your friends and relatives.
This will prevent you from the “burn out” and will do you a lot of good.
The other way to find time to develop your blog when you are too busy is to stay focused on your goals.
8 Why being focused is important if you want to see results in your blogging business
By creating your blog, you certainly had goals and a precise idea of what you want to do with your blog.
So, never forget why you started your blog.
I don’t know about you but before I login to work on my blog, there are certain routines I always follow in order to make sure that everything is ok and that I won’t be disturbed.
I set goals I want to achieve with my blog in 2 to 3 years.
So, to reach my goals, I focus on my business as much as I can.
Here is how I organize myself to develop my blog despite my busy schedule.
Being a father of 4 young kids and running a blog while having a 9-5 job at the same time isn’t always easy.
It can be really challenging sometimes to find the appropriate moment, the good environment and the mood to cope with all my commitments without neglecting anything.
If working at least 2 hours per day on my blog is very important for me, I know that I also need to be available when my ninja kids need my attention.
So, it’s very important for me to have everything organized before I jump on my daily tasks.
The first thing I do, I stay in front of my computer and I spend like 2 to 5 minutes trying to concentrate on what I’m going to do on that day.
Just to make sure that I don’t get lost into too many directions, I always try to ask myself the good questions such as:
- Am I going to work on content creation, network marketing or traffic generation?
- Should I spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or should I rather spend my time reading other people’s blogs to find inspiration for my own posts?
- What topic can I write about today?
And so on…
Having these questions answered helps me establish a plan which I then follow to the “T” to get the results I want.
If I decide to work on content creation for my blog, for example, if I decide that I will write articles for my blog that day, I only do that and nothing else until I reach my goal.
I always like having two or three articles in advance so I can free up a little more time the rest of the week to work on other aspects of my blog.
So, I write often.
Once I reach my goal, then I can move on to another activity, such as creating images to attract traffic to my blog via Pinterest or focusing more on my marketing.
Running a blog takes time, patience and a lot of effort.
We all know that!
But if you really want to succeed and see results, the most important key is to stay focused on what you’re doing and never give up even when the going gets tough.
If you want to find high-quality royalty-free images for your blog, you can check this article out :
13 Sources to find royalty-free images for your blog…
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9 My inbox; my best friend or my enemy?
After all, my questions are answered and my plan clearly established, then I’m ready to work.
But do I always do it right away?
Unfortunately… no!
And you know why?
Because I have another routine that I always follow: checking my emails just to make sure I don’t miss out on any important information from my affiliate network company, my friends or any other persons who may email me for whatever reason.
As anyone in today’s world, I receive tons of emails every single day.
Most of them are useful for my business, others are just some spams from other marketers trying to sell me their “magical push button to get rich products”.
Even though I know from experience that these kinds of emails are just spams and that I shouldn’t pay attention to them, pushed by my curiosity, from time to time I find myself clicking on them to see what offers are behind them.
And the big problem with doing that is that when I realize that I’m just wasting my time… it’s too late.
I’ve already spent half an hour to nearly 1 hour on my inbox and all my concentration is gone.
If you too can find it sometimes hard to focus on your business because of all these distractions around you, with this article, now you know how to avoid de-concentration and better focus on your business.
Your email can quickly become your best friend… or your enemy.
Unless you need to send an email to your list to promote your products or to give them value, checking your emails too often can ruin your productivity.c
So, try checking your inbox either before you start working on your blogging business… Or after you’ve finished.
Not in the meantime…
10 Focus, focus, focus…
I know from my own experience that it’s very easy to get distracted and lose your focus.
There are plenty of distractions out there that can disturb you such as TV, your friends, social media and even your dog.
Without even realizing it, you can spend an entire day focusing on things that won’t bring any benefice to your business.
For that reason, it’s very important to establish a clear plan before starting to work on your daily activities.
Jumping eyes closed on your blog or your website is not something I would recommend because it’s like driving a car without knowing exactly where you’re going.
In order to go straight from point A to point Z, you need to plan your itinerary and follow it just as you would do with a GPS.
To see results, you must follow your plan and leave aside any activity that may take your concentration away.
When you’re about to work on your blog, for instance, I recommend closing all the windows open on your computer, such as your inbox, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
Your smartphone can sometimes be a source of distraction too.
So, if don’t need it when you’re working, you can switch it off.
If someone really needs to reach you, he still can leave a message so that you can contact him back later.
Once you have all these distractions gone, then nothing can hold you back from giving the best of yourself for your online business.
11 Focus equal results
The more you focus on what you’re doing, the better you work and the more results you get at the end.
That’s why being focused is very important. It helps you get concentrated and be more productive.
Follow these tips, avoid distractions and you’ll have plenty of time to develop your blogging business even if you have a busy professional life.
I hope this will help you to better balance your busy life and your blogging business…
To your success
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Jose Blogger