ON BLOGGING ~ So THAT'S Where The Time Goes...

Image courtesy graymalkn via Flickr

So, if you happened by here 2 weeks ago, you would have found my Time Tracker Worksheet with a suggested assignment to find out what parts of your blogging you spend the most time on compared to what your priority list shows.  Did you give it a go?  It can be scary what it reveals - but the information is the most helpful tool you can have to maximize time with the things you want to do and make blogging fun instead of a stressful task.

Here were my priorities that I wrote down before I kept track of how much time I was spending on each of them:

1. Content Creation - coming up with ideas, writing, editing, posting
2. Networking - conversations via social media (Twitter, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), e-mail, online chats, forums, conferences
3. Comment Review - reading & responding to comments/questions on our blog
4. Visiting - reading, reviewing, discovering and commenting on other blogs
5. Research - learning how to do blog related things, try new things, get info. for content creation, track down images & links for posts, get answers to bloggers' questions
6. Plotting - organize content schedule monthly, plan online events to participate in
7. Layout - implement tech issues on blog, work on design elements

Now, based on the above list, it is most important for me to write my posts, then interact with bloggers outside of blogs, then reciprocate comments left, and then go blog hopping through my Reader.  Learning, organizing and design take the back burners.  Lets see how much time I actually spent doing these things.  I wrote down all the time I spent on any of the above tasks for one day.  It should be noted that I did not keep track of all the time I wasted online with my Fantasy Baseball Team, e-mails with friends and family and surfing the web for pure amusement.  I did not want to be thoroughly depressed.  This is just a blogging related experiment.

TIME TRACKER #1:

1. Visiting (1 hour 15 minutes)
2. Network (1 hour 10 minutes)
3. Research (1 hour 5 minutes)
4. Content Creation (30 minutes)
5. Comment Review (22 minutes)
6. Plotting (0 minutes)
7. Layout (0 minutes)

That is 4 hours and 22 minutes of blog related activity folks.  That's more than usual since this was a Friday and I got wrapped up in interesting Research activity and my posts on Fridays are photos which take very little time.  BUT...this shows me that I am not following my priorities!  I have been a slave to my Reader.  That is supposed to be the thing I spend much less time on than Networking or Comment Review.  Because I spent so much time going through my Reader, I left myself very little time for other things that are of higher importance to me.  I could have used some of that time to write a few advance posts for a rainy day.  Or working on some behind the scenes projects I've been meaning to get to.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy visiting other bloggers.  But that hour and 15 minutes above wasn't enjoyable.  I was trying to knock that number of unread items down.  I was sifting through a lot of stuff I didn't care all that much about.  I wanted to just walk away, but I knew it needed to be done.  It was a chore.

Armed with these facts and feelings, I came up with a plan.  It isn't all that brilliant of a plan.  It wasn't all that difficult to set up.  I spent some time that weekend implementing my plan.  And then I tested it out the next week.  Here are the results from the following Friday:

TIME TRACKER #2:

1. Visiting (33 minutes)
2. Networking (21 minutes)
3. Comment Review (12 minutes)
4. Content Creation (8 minutes)
5. Research (0 minutes)
6. Plotting (0 minutes)
7. Layout (0 minutes)

That's only an hour and 14 minutes for blogging time.  I had real world things to do.  And I'm still spending more time visiting than I am writing and networking and reciprocating.  But look at the difference!  My time on other blogs was 45 minutes less than the week before.  And it was time well spent.  I read, commented and had nothing hanging over my head.  The stress and frustration of spending time with my Reader is GONE people!!!  Had my real world life allowed me to use that extra 45 minutes on blogging, I would have spent much more time writing, reviewing and interacting.

Would you like to know my plan?  What it was that I implemented that is working so well for me?  It is all about getting control of your Reader.  Even without using the Time Tracker Worksheet, I am sure you know that you need to maximize your Reader in order to move on with other blogging activities.  Such as writing your own content for others to read.  I am revealing my little plan via a guest post Monday on Florinda's The 3 R's Blog.  Go there Monday to see if it might just work for you (don't worry - I'll remind you again Monday).  I'll be back with more blogging time saver tips in another 2 weeks here.  Together we just might beat those blogging blues and have lots of fun in this great blogosphere!