I don’t think it’s any sort of secret that I’ve been trying to be a better blogger recently. I’ve been through some slumps and some lulls and my self-imposed pregnancy gag order, but now I’M BACK AND BLOGGIER THAN EVER! Well maybe just medium bloggy. Back in the day when I posted in my livejournal I averaged a thousand posts a year. A THOUSAND. That’s three-four posts every single day. And I’m just one woman! With no life! It’s fine, I’m okay with it.
One of the hardest things for me is looking at a whole month and thinking to myself “OH MY GLOB WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BLOG ABOUT ALL MONTH LONG????
My iCal paralyzes me like a deer in the headlights and I end up putting posts off and saving a lot of half-written drafts that go nowhere. It’s inefficient and lame and I finally found a way to snap myself out of it. BEHOLD THE WONDER OF MY BLOG POST PLANNING MOLESKINE!
This is also a sneak peek at (most of) the rest of June for all you lucky ducks.
I just use my regular lined moleskine for this, I know you can get proper planner ones but 1) it’s already June sooooo…., and 2) if I don’t keep this up it’ll be a waste of a book. I also use this same notebook for shopping lists, glitter banner lists, blog sponsor lists, housework lists, basically just lists in general. Anyway, if I include the very bottom row below the last ruled line there are 31 spaces on each page, so it’s perfect for monthly planning anyway.
The first thing I do is go through the whole month and put in all my regular weekly posts. I currently have four: Manicure Mondays, SYMstagram on Fridays, Popsicle Party on Saturdays, and officially starting this week although technically as of last week, I’ll be posting about my pregnancy on Thursdays. When I decide what colour of nail polish or what kind of popsicles or what aspect of my pregnancy I want to post about I add that in as well, and it gives me time to figure out what I need to photograph and start drafting posts in advance (for example, I’m typing this on Monday. HELLO FUTURE EARTHLINGS!).
Once I have the regular posts planned I can go through and add in any other posts I want to do on any empty days, like my post about Sym’s upcoming run, my upcoming post about July sponsors and THIS VERY POST YOU ARE READING NOW. I actually had the idea for this post after I took the picture so while it’s not listed there please rest assured it’s in my book irl. I also added a small list on the righthand page about posts I KNOW I’m going to do but I’m not sure of the date yet, just so I don’t forget about them. When I know when those posts are going up I’ll add them to the main list, and once I post is posted or scheduled I check it off.
All in all I have 28 posts done/saved/planned for June, and that’s not even including random posts of nothing but pictures of my dog being cute. TWENTY-EIGHT. And I’m just one woman! Now I just need to type them all up. And remember to take pics! For some reason that is still the hardest thing for me! Like on Saturday Sym and I went shopping for nail polish and then baby clothes (LIKE A TINY DENIM JACKET ^____^) and I bought her a cute charm bracelet and then we went for froyo as a belated celebration for her awesome report card, and do you think I took a single pic? NO. NO I DID NOT. I even had my camera with me! So if anyone has any tips or advice to help me overcome that particular block they are very very welcome!
Brilliant. I am going to do this too. Also this makes me want to buy a Lists Book, which is so redundant considering I have about 6 million notebooks :S
Sym asked me the other week to buy her a diary and I was like “R U KIDDING YOU HAVE FIFTY NOTEBOOKS just use one of those I promise I won’t read it.”
I have the opposite problem – I’m all about the picture taking and calendar planning, it’s just the actual, uh, blog writing that I have a problem with. There are SO many drafts in my queue now of posts that are just pictures because I’m too lazy to actually, you know, write. Blogging: UR DOIN IT WRONG.
Well I mean it’s a scientific FACT that a picture is worth a thousand words so.
so as i start making my blog real i was thinking about this. i have a bfa in photography and let me tell you, i never take a damn picture when i’m out doing things. i either have to PLAN that i am going to shoot specific things or i just don’t even touch my camera. worst photo major ever. also i can’t just take casual pix cause i judge myself as a photo major and get to thinking they have to be GOOD and PERFECT. but i do take a lot of pictures on my iphone cause i don’t take it seriously. then i downloaded snapspeed to fine tune those pix and they look good enough for the internet to me so i think that’s what i’ll be doing for my blagh. cool story bro.
Taking pics is harrrrrrrrd ugh and I feel like a dummy pulling out my camera all the time.
I hope you don’t mind me “borrowing” this, Tanie.
BORROW AWAY! I actually felt like kind of a turd making the post, like NO ONE WANTS TO SEE YOUR DUMB NOTEBOOK OF LISTS YOU LOSER so I appreciate your borrow.
I used to not take pictures because I felt like people were judging me or something. Thinking, “Ugh, she probably has a BLOG” and then I would shrivel down because the only reason I was out in the first place was so that I could blog about it. JUST KIDDING (sort of). Anyways, I told myself to get over it and since then I just take pictures all the time. So I’m not sure if this helps or not. Also sometimes I think taking pictures with your phone is easier because it seems less intrusive and then you can upload them to the blog later.
hahaha @ “Ugh, she probably has a BLOG” The other month I was at brunch with my friend and we were seated at a long table with another group and we were both talkin g about our blogs and I was like WAIT IS THIS EMBARRASSING
I do use my phone sometimes but it takes kinda crappy pics :/