At this very moment while we’re reading this blog post and thinking of what we’ll say in our comment, little ones may be pulling at our shirt tails, begging asking for food or attention. The phone is ringing. Texts are coming in. Our email is full of unanswered messages. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and our blog are open in different tabs of our browser as we try to manage them all. Add to that, dinner time is near and we haven’t planned a thing.

Where, or where is the number for our favorite pizza joint?

Today’s Lesson

I don’t know about you, but I have a lot on my plate.

I’m not complaining though, as most of what is on my plate is by choice.

In an effort to become more efficient, I try to prioritize what needs to be done each day. As great as that sounds, my plans often fail.

Distractions happen and what I had planned to do, either gets moved to my “to do” list for the next day, or doesn’t get done. (I guess it wasn’t that important after all.)

For my blogs I use plugins to streamline some of the processes, cut back on the time I spend on Facebook and unsubscribed to most automatic email notifications.

Those little tweaks help, but I feel I could do more.

I know many of you bloggers are super efficient. I admire that trait.

But, how do you do it?

Today’s Assignment

How do you do it all – blog amidst life’s distractions?

Do you have a set schedule and/or do you use other tools which aid in your efficiency?

Care to share?

Photo credit: MMChicago

For some, it’s just a few minutes, but for others, blogging can feel like a full-time job.

Today’s Lesson

How we blog can determine how much time we spend blogging.

If our computer is old and antiquated, it can slow us down. If we’re not comfortable working on a laptop, netbook, Smartphone or “pad”, that can slow us down, too.

With blogging, time is of the essence.

For me, I prefer using my personal computer.

My typing speed is fairly fast, however if my PC slows down or locks up, my blogging time begins to increase, making me wonder how much time I’d save if I had a faster computer.

Although I’ve tried blogging on a laptop and used a cell phone to check comments and post to Facebook, my preference is my home computer.

What about you?

Today’s Assignment

How do you blog?

On a PC? Laptop? Smartphone? Or other?

What technique(s) do you use to save time blogging?

Care to share?

Photo credit: MC4 Army

What an exciting treat we have today. Not only is Bamboo Forest of the fabulous blog, Pun Intended making a return appearance as substitute teacher (guest writer), but he has brought along his latest invention; a free online timer we can all use to monitor not only our online activities, but any chore or activity we’d like to time.

Without further ado, I’ll take a seat next to you and enjoy today’s lesson.

The floor is yours, Bamboo.

Hi Class,

It’s great to be here again.

I’m well aware time is of the essence, so let’s get started.

* * * * *

I used to be concerned when publishing something I was thrilled with while having so few subscribers and so little outreach.

I would tell myself I’m being wasteful publishing my best stuff for just a few people.

Even worse, whatever great article (at least to me) I do publish under these circumstances is going to get buried beneath the hundreds of posts it’ll take to grow a large audience.

But then it hit me. I have it all wrong.

It doesn’t matter!

Today’s Lesson

Publishing your “best stuff” now, while you’re small, builds your creative muscles so that later on you’re capable of far greater things.

It’s like weight lifting.

When you start out, you’re only capable of lifting so much. With consistent practice, however, you’re able to lift even more. But here’s the thing: You have to lift more now to be able to lift more later.

See what I’m talking about?

Look at any accomplished blogger. Brian Clark, Leo Babauta, Chris Brogan, you name it… I bet they never saved any of their best stuff for later. They published it as soon as they could. And by doing so they’ve grown into the wickedly skillful bloggers they are today.

Holding back your best stuff for later won’t get you there.

Another advantage of publishing your best material now is it puts pressure on you to continue publishing only the best you can.

For example, let’s say you just posted an amazing article that knocks everyone’s socks off. Doing so has set a standard for your blog. You’re telling your readers what to expect and there’s no turning back now. You’ve put yourself in a position where not only your readers expect more from you, but you expect more from yourself, too.

That’s the kind of pressure you probably want.

If developing into the most skillful blogger possible is high on your agenda, think twice about saving your best for later.

Today’s Assignment

Have you ever felt regretful publishing your best material while having a small audience?

Is there ever a time to save a great piece for later?

Raise your hand and share your thoughts.

Today’s Lesson

As many of you have noticed, I decorated my blog for the holidays.

Since I use a theme which has the “custom header feature”, adding the photo was simple. For the RSS widgets I searched for “holiday icons” and then recoded my widgets.

Listed below are a few new (to me) plugins I am testing.

1. First is Sexy Bookmarks by Josh Jones and Norman Yung which is visible at the bottom of each post.

   The Sexy Bookmarks plugin is easily customizable, looks good, doesn’t take up too much space and is positioned so readers will be reminded to Tweet, Digg, or use StumbleUpon, etc. to share a post.

2. The “Follow Me” plugin by WP Burn.com can be seen on the right of the page.

   This plugin is to remind our readers they can follow us on Twitter. The customization includes using different colors as well as different Twitter birds images.

3. The Wibiya toolbar can be seen at the bottom of the page.

   What I like about this toolbar is if you don’t want to clutter up your sidebars with an RSS feed, recent posts, etc., you can include them in the toolbar.This isn’t a plugin, but more of an add-on which requires an invitation. Just go to the Wibiya site and follow the instructions. In a matter of days you should receive an email from them and at that time you can set up an account and customize your toolbar.

4. Thanks to the suggestions from both Internet Strategist @ GrowMap and Betsy at Passing Thru I added Zemanta and Apture.

   In a nutshell, these two applications which work for all blogging platforms* make blogging easier and faster by suggesting photos, links, related articles, etc. for our posts. (Disclaimer: I’ve only tested them on WordPress.)

   Zemanta adds a interface to your dashboard from which you can drag and drop photos and/or links into your post as you’re writing it.

   

   Image via CrunchBase

   Apture adds icons which when clicked on, does the same.

   Zemanta also adds a “reblog” feature at the bottom of the post which makes cutting and pasting quotes much easier, plus and an option to add links to other posts which may be beneficial to our readers.

Thus far, the only downside I see to using some of the above applications is they do slow down the page load time.

Today’s Assignment

What are your favorite plugins or applications?

Care to share?

.

Footnote: When using Zemanta on a self hosted blog, the Zemanta plugin must be used. For WordPress, the plugin can be downloaded here.

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I don’t know about you, but I have not met a blogger who has a lot of free time. In fact, as I travel through blogosphere, I’m beginning to believe bloggers are over achievers – trying to do it all, and do it good.

Needless to say, the issue of time is often written about in blog posts and/or comments as bloggers struggle to find more.

Today’s Lesson

Although we’ve discussed how to make more of our time in the past, I feel this is a topic worth discussing further.

So, what can we do to give us more time to blog? To visit other sites? To set up additional blogs? To work behind the scenes? Or to join and participate in social networks like Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon?

Here are five options I’ve come up with:

1. Cut back on posting

   One thing we often read is we need to make the Google bots happy and publish fresh content daily.

   Although daily posts will show those pesky Google bots our blog is alive and well, what we’re not taking into consideration is our readers. Will they have time to visit us daily and read our latest post? Chances are, they won’t. Soon our best work is buried in our archives and few have had a chance to read it.

2. Limit the time spent on social media/networking sites

   Networking on sites like Twitter or Facebook is a great way to connect with other bloggers and possibly drive up our traffic numbers, however, if we’re not careful, a planned 15 minute visit can easily turn into an hour. If this is an issue for you, try setting a timer.

3. Make blog visiting/commenting time two-fold

   As discussed in the comments of the He Said, She Said, They Said post, many bloggers don’t go back to check for a response to their comment until they visit the blog the next time. By using this technique it will allow us more time for other blogging activities, or life.

4. Use the post-date feature

   I don’t know if other blog platforms have this feature, but WordPress does. When we’re feeling creative, we can write more than one post and schedule them to publish at a later date. Not only will this relieve the stress of “what to post next”, but in the event life calls and we don’t have time to construct a post, we’ll have one (or more) ready to go.

   

5. Utilize outsourcing

   Many of us do try to do it all, but for each of us there is probably a part of blogging that keeps us beating our head against the wall. Instead of wasting precious time struggling with the parts of blogging that frustrate us, we can hire an expert. This will not only save us time, but we’ll know it is done right.

Okay class, now it’s your turn.

Today’s Assignment

Which part of blogging uses up most of your time?

What are your favorite time saving tips for blogging?

Raise you hand and share your thoughts.

.

Photo Credits: Clock by wan fauzan
Stress relief poster by: ©aius