7 effective blogging skills

I have repeatedly raised the topic of effective blogging, in particular, published translations of the articles “How to find time for blogging” by Rohit Baragwa and “Effective blogging: tips from the stars of the blogosphere” . This increased attention to this topic is not accidental - I, like most bloggers, lead an active professional and personal life and cannot always allocate enough time for blogging. Therefore, it becomes extremely important to increase the efficiency of the use of temporary resources.

Today I want to share my own time management experience. So, here are the rules that I use.

1. Get rid of distractions. Surely everyone knows the following situation: you sat down, concentrated, began to write a post, and suddenly someone knocked on your ICQ. Exchanging a couple of meaningless phrases, you returned to the blog, however, it takes several minutes to reconfigure yourself to work. After a few minutes of writing, you suddenly wanted to look at blog statistics. Minus another 5 minutes. And so on. As a result, an hour later you find that you have written only a couple of paragraphs.
   Before starting to write, I turn off ICQ and notifications about new letters, and also under no circumstances do I get distracted by checking statistics, reading RSS and News2. As a result, the productivity of work is greatly increased.
2. Decide on priorities. Decide for yourself what you are creating this blog for. My choice is self-realization and creation of a resource that will be interesting and useful. Since for me the task of “hanging out” or “spending time” is not a priority, I try not to get involved in contests and games on blogs, because it delays and can turn into an end in itself. I am ready to agree that participation in such contests can be useful for increasing the popularity of a blog, but it’s much more important for me that my blog be interesting and useful for readers.
3. Start your ritual. If each time before starting blogging you perform any ritual (meaning not prayers and no tea ceremony), for example, listen to music of a certain style, then in the future, performing this ritual will in itself cause you to have the appropriate state .
   My ritual is headphones with soft, instrumental music and a cup of fragrant green tea. Another friend of mine tuned to the creative mood, playing with a fingerboard. I am sure everyone will be able to find a ritual for themselves.
4. Invite the post for a walk. Having decided on the topic, take a short, unhurried walk in the fresh air, at which consider the next post. I always take a tape recorder on such walks in order to be able to quickly record all the good ideas that came to my mind.
5. Consider the structure of the post. Create a “skeleton” of the post - a list of basic theses and then develop your thought in each direction. For this purpose, ideal programs for the compilation of so-called mind maps, in particular, Cayra is ideally suited for my needs. I plan to devote a separate post to the issue of using mind maps for blogging.
6. Allocate a certain time limit. This will help you focus on blogging. For such purposes, I downloaded a small timer program for myself, and when I look at how quickly the time leaks out, I have no desire to spend 10 minutes on viewing fresh feeds.
7. Do not write "for show". Try not to write empty posts just to update your blog. This way you waste not only your time, but also the time of your readers. And they can not forgive.