How to Balance Blogging While Working a Full-Time Job

I’d be lying to you if I said this is easy. There are many long days where I work a full 8-5 day at my job and 5-9 on my blogging business when I get home with my eyes glued to the computer all day long. It’s a lot, but totally worth it if you’re as passionate about blogging as I am and want to help your business flourish! Today I’ll be sharing how I balance blogging with a full-time job and my tips for those of you doing the same.

I’ve either been a full-student or working full-time since the day I started my blog, so I had to figure out how to make time for it pretty quickly. The key to success with this is all about making a schedule for yourself and utilizing your free time wisely. With that being said, below are some of my biggest tips that have worked for me.

Use scheduling apps.
This is really helpful to maintain your social media uploads when you’re busy working and don’t have the opportunity to log in and post. I schedule my blog posts (WordPress make this so easy!), notification emails (I use Mailchimp) and Facebook posts (you can do this directly through Facebook if you’re registered as a Page), and I do Instagram and Twitter updates during my breaks. Find a system that works for you and run with it!

Utilize your mornings, nights and lunch breaks wisely. 
Schedule phone meetings and draft posts during your free mornings, nights and lunch breaks. Since brands typically like to have conference calls during the work day, I always schedule my lunch break around those to make myself available. It’s important to always be honest about what your availability is, and the brands will totally understand if you have a job that sucks up your time during the week. As for drafting posts, some of my best writing happens during a small chunk of free time during my day, so I highly recommend doing that!

Prioritize responsiveness.
Though it can be tough, I highly suggest always responding to messages and comments within 24 hours of when you received them so brands and followers know you’re reliable and attainable. And if there’s a time-frame when you won’t be able to respond to messages for a week or more, be sure to turn on your email auto-responder and post about your absence on social media so your followers aren’t in the dark.

Take photos on the weekends.
If it’s fall or winter, there likely won’t be enough daylight to take photos when you get home after 5 p.m. If this is the case, make sure you brainstorm the upcoming photos you need for blog posts and social media the weekend before so you can take them in advance. This will ensure your content stream is steady and you don’t fall off the map or be forced to take low quality photos during the work week.

Keep a running list of ideas on your desk.
I tend to come up with my best ideas at the most random times, so don’t let being at work stop your creative ideas from flowing in. Keep a list on your desk for any great ideas that come to mind so you can quickly jot them down and continue on with your work distraction-free. Refer back to this lift after work to expand on it, forming content for future use.

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I hope my fellow working gals (this balancing act is no easy task — we deserve more credit! 😉 ) find this post to be helpful! How do you balance the two? This was requested by a reader (thanks Brooklyn!), so if there’s a specific topic you’d like me to talk about here on my blog, please feel free to leave me a comment below or shoot me a message. Happy blogging, everyone! You’ve got this!