Day 23: Plan out your week

This isn’t exactly the ideal time for this post, but I just realized that we’re one week away from the end of our 30 day challenge! So let me say a quick ‘hurrah!’ to everyone that is keeping up. Maybe you aren’t doing every challenge every day, but if you’re still tuned in and intent on improving your blogging ‘chops’, then major kudos to you! As I was saying, this isn’t the best time to be doing this, mostly because Thanksgiving is coming up this week, but since we’re running out of time we’ll step up anyway.

Today’s Challenge has to do with basic planning. I have to admit, I do most of my blogging spur of the moment. I’m not so good at planning in advance, but I do think many great bloggers do. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say even if the great ones don’t plan each post in advance, they at least HAVE a plan for making sure that their have frequent postings on their blog and ensure that things don’t go stale.

It’s a constant challenge for every blogger, especially when you feel like nobody is reading. When you don’t have a big community responding often, it’s easy to think nobody is reading, and when you feel like nobody is reading, you may not feel like writing. But if your blog isn’t showing regular signs of life, with posts coming at least once or twice a week minimum, then when people do visit they often just come and go. Not only that, but until you get into a routine, it’s hard to make the time in the day needed to blog. It takes a commitment for it to become habit and creating a posting plan can be a big part of that.

When everybody first starts blogging, they overestimate their blog-stamina. EVERYONE thinks they’ll be the one to blog every single day, or at least every other day. Some people even keep it up for a week or more. But for most people. especially with those who have a job, family or life, blogging day in and day out is simply unrealistic. So let’s step back for just a omment and think things through.

How often will you realistically be able to blog? Don’t think about how often you’ll post in an ideal world, be realistic and try to think what’s the minimum number of posts that you’ll do in a given week. I say week because if you really intend to be a better blogger, you should be posting at least once a week. And perhaps that’s all you want to commit to! There’s nothing wrong with that. If you feel up to two times or three times a week, even better, but don’t fool yourself into setting an unrealistic goal.

Once you’ve figured out your magic number, plan out how you’re going to hit that number for the week. What days do you want to make sure you’ve got your posts up by? Don’t let them build up so you cram them all in at the end of the week. Pick dates and stick to it.

In fact, if you want to take it a next step, you can even get them started right now. Create drafts with potential titles and save them. That way you can come back to them throughout the week and already have some of the work done. Instead of just flagging items in your aggregator to write about, or keeping browser tabs/windows open, grab the link and create a new blog post for it, even if you don’t have time to finish it just yet. Then save it and plan out in your own head when you’ll be posting it. That way when you realize that it’s the day you promised yourself you’d get a post up, you’ll already have your inspirations right there in front of you, ready to be fleshed out.

So even though it’s Thanksgiving week, plan out your blog schedule for the week and some ideas for what you’ll be posting. Obviously with the holiday and all, it’s a great time to look around and share what you’re thankful for, whether it be online or offline.

Are any of you ‘planners’ already? If so, share a few tips for how you organize your blogging schedule. It’s something that I’ve never been very good about but really want to improve myself!

30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

10 Comments

mwright103
11/23/2008

Day 23: Plan out your week /Teach42/ – This isn’t exactly the ideal time for this post, but I just realized … http://tinyurl.com/5p3pyx

Sue Waters
11/24/2008

Weird though it sounds this task in the original 31 Days to Build a Better Blog was the most important challenge I did last year. We actually had to plan a week worth of posts.

It was incredible pressure because not only did I plan and write the 5 posts but I was also doing the daily tasks. However it did force me to focus on one topic and introduced a lot of new readers to my blog as I wrote about mobile learning (which you think I would write about).

Nowadays I’m just pleased if I have an idea for a post, especially with having two blogs.

Sue Waters´s most recent blog post.. Tips For Making Virtual Classroom Sessions More Interactive

Mathew
11/24/2008

Good challenge. I know that my output would be spotty if I had a set time to sit down and blog each week and so I tend to blog in advance. When I have the time and inspiration, it’s easy to write three blog posts in one sitting whereas when I’m uninspired and distracted it’s hard to write even one.

So using wordpress’s edit date feature I’m able to put out about two posts a week by postdating future posts. When I want to write something that’s time sensitive I can always rearrange the dates.

Mathew´s most recent blog post.. Making Classroom Rules: Fostering Community

Natalie
11/24/2008

This is exactly one of my biggest issues. Obviously, blogging spur of the moment doesn’t work because I can go more than a week without posting. I think I did my best planning when I was at a conference. I took about two hours one morning and planned out three or four posts. Sure enough, those got done! If I don’t get to this now, I should be able to this weekend. Thanks for another great challenge.

Natalie´s most recent blog post.. What DOES It Mean?

Lisa Thumann
11/24/2008

Wow, Steve, this Challenge, really has been a challenge. I’ve kept up as best as I can. I’ve worked on what has caught my attention, which really helps me answer today’s challenge.

I plan out the month actually. I plan a blog post for the beginning and the middle of the month. I include a link to that blog post in the bi-monthly e-mails that I send to my Center’s Listserv along with a teaser and a list of upcoming workshops. Usually, those posts are the ones that I wrote the title of and saved as a draft, maybe pasted in some links or inserted a picture that I wanted to use.

The rest of the posts are what I am feeling or thinking about. What conferences I’m attending, what teachers I am working with – what’s going on in ed tech.

So, except for watching the trends now that you pointed out that Tuesday your blog gets the most hits, I’d say that I plan for the month.

Lisa Thumann´s most recent blog post.. What did you do at work today?

Anti B
11/24/2008

http://tinyurl.com/5p3pyx – @teach42 tweeting this from your site on my phone.

Michelle Bourgeois
11/24/2008

I agree the hardest part is riding the ebbs and tides of inspiration to find a magic number of posts. I began in fits and starts last year and this year committed to posting monthly for the first few months of the school year and now I’m trying for bi-weekly. It’s hard, though.
Inspiration for posts comes at the oddest times – usually when I’m stuck in traffic on my way home or while I’m cooking dinner. I’ve learned to make little notes that I collect and put online as drafts when I get a chance. (Here’s a picture of the last week’s inspired moments – http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/3056612341_830ca9b298.jpg)
I sometimes write in the same way – put some words or an outline down and then return to it again and again until I’m happy. In fact, that’s the way this week’s post came together.
I do find, however, that the more I write, the more I have to write about. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Michelle Bourgeois´s most recent blog post.. Learning isn’t supposed to be fun.

Sarah / WaterNotes
11/24/2008

I’m with Mathew.. I write a slew of posts in one day (which isnt planned) and postdate them so they will release throughout the week. I dont often have trouble coming up with inspiration though. Since my blog focuses on environmental education, wildlife, and nature blogging, there’s almost always something going on that I draw inspiration from! I have just recently though – last few months – seriously started this planning. I’m happy to see it in the 30 day challenge though. Which reminds me, thank you for posting the challenges! Its really helped improve my blog!

Sarah / WaterNotes´s most recent blog post.. A Gentoo Takes Refuge

JenWagner
11/24/2008

For right now — I am going to skip this one.

I like spontaneous blogging…..and though I do admire those who prewrite, rewrite, and rethink before hitting submit —

for me, spontaneous bursts of blogging is working.

Perhaps a new year’s resolution in 2009? Grins, perhaps!!

Jen

Joel Zehring
12/1/2008

I’m almost never satisfied with my spur of the moment posts. They come out wordy and elitist and kind of lame.

Recently, I’ve been drafting posts in Google Notebook because I can open it with a bookmarklet and then close it really fast. This lets me collect ideas and drafts and incubate them for later revising. When I go back to a post a few days or weeks later, I can see better the points that need editing (aka deleting).

Joel Zehring´s most recent blog post.. My students play video games

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment