Planning and time management are two of the most important pieces to the blogging puzzle. You can have all of the best ideas for content and be a spectacular image creator, while also knowing exactly how to work social media…but if you don’t divide your time up efficiently you will soon find yourself overwhelmed.

There are a lot of fabulous planners on the market, it comes down to what exactly you will be using yours for, to help you decide which you need!

If you want it all on your phone todoist is a great app. It lets you set  tasks for yourself by day (you can even have recurring tasks daily/weekly/monthly). It alerts you when things are due and even lets you categorize so you could have “blog” tasks and “family tasks” and view them separately or together!

If you are a more hands-on person (like me) I would recommend the Erin Condren life planner.

This planner allows you to schedule by time of day, has space for weekly tasks and meal plans. I like that blog and mom tasks can all go together in one place, depending on the time of day they need to be done. Also, the weekly sidebar gives me space to write out the sponsored posts that are due and their dates so I can prioritize when I write each of them.

This year, I tried using several cheaper planners and none of them had all the functions I need so I fell back on my Erin Condren. Definitely a worthwhile business expense.

Whatever planner you decide on, there are a few planning tips that can help you make the most of your time.

1. Choose wisely – Make sure you are spending time on what matters and will bring in more income for your site. It’s easy to get caught up in things that are not doing much to improve your site or your business simply because they are fun! Make sure that the time you are spending on your blog is spent with a purpose!
2. Stay ahead – Watch your deadlines carefully and always try to be at least a few days ahead on each of them. This is the only way to truly run your blog like a business. Especially for those of us blogging from home and also having kids home with us, you truly never know what can happen in the space of 24 hours. I have had the internet go out on me the morning I had a sponsored post do, or a kid up through the night throwing up. If you haven’t given yourself extra time, that can mean turning in work late for a brand, which should never happen!
3. Schedule simple – Everything can go on schedule! This way nothing catches you by surprise. I put important things like business deadlines on my planner and simple things like playtime, trips to the bank and mopping the kitchen. Have you noticed how little things pile up? Even if all your big things are planned out, you can still fall behind if you end up with 10 little things to do one morning. Writing everything out can help keep stresses to a minimum because you always know what you have to do and can plan each day accordingly.
4. Be strategic – One of the biggest things I’ve learned is to do things in “chunks”. I will sit one evening and write multiple posts in a row. A different night I’ll do all the images, and in another sitting I’ll schedule facebook for the week. Keeping them in chunks helps ensure that I stay ahead, and it helps to focus on one thing at a time!

Do you have any time management or scheduling tips? Share your best ideas in our Facebook group and let’s discuss!