Humans as a species don’t want to be bad at things, so it makes sense that plenty of people wonder how to be good at blogging. If we do something, we don’t want to be bad at it! I won’t lie and say that I’m good at all aspects of blogging – that would be a flat-out lie – but I am good at one part of blogging: blogging with limited time. 

I have 7 chronic illnesses, plenty of regular medical appointments for said illnesses, a job where I work 36 hours a week, and family and friends I want to spend time with. This leaves me with a truly limited time to work on my passion project, this blog, so I’ve gotten really good at doing quality work (and lots of it) in a relatively short period of time. Let’s talk about how you can do the same. 

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great! 

How To Be Good at Blogging: Blogging with Limited Time

I have 10 strategies total for you, and while all of them may not apply to you, I know that over half probably will. These 10 strategies are: 

This is a loooong post, so if you see one strategy in particular that you’re interested in, I suggest skipping down to it!

Work in spurts 

This is hands down my biggest tip. You do not need to have a 9-to-5 blogging schedule in order to get serious work done! Work in spurts when you have the time. This can also make you less stressed about your blog, which makes it more fun. Which, for many, is the whole point: to enjoy what you’re doing.

Wondering what this looks like in action? 

Let’s say that it’s a weekend and, since you have a day job, that’s your main blogging time. But you’re also a human being, so you also need to cook, clean, do your taxes, and do something fun. 

You might have 2 free hours on your Saturday where you could do some blogging. So, knowing that that isn’t enough time to write a full post or take and edit your Instagram posts for the week, you decide to tackle your social media. In that 2 hours, you write your Twitter and Facebook posts for the upcoming week and you schedule what you can with whatever time is left over. 

Considering what else you need to do, that might not seem like much. But it’s something. And yes, you probably can’t write and schedule a week’s worth of content for 2 networks in 2 hours (speaking from experience here). But you’re done writing it, and you’ve scheduled some, which is better than none. 

How To Blog Consistently

Make and use an editorial calendar 

Editorial calendars are not only a game-changer but they’re also absolutely necessary.

An editorial calendar is a calendar where you keep track of your blog post dates, categories, and topics ahead of time. Basically, you decide what you will write about on what days in a calendar format.

How this looks depends on the person. For some, the categories or topics in the calendar are more general, while for others, they are very specific. For example, my editorial calendar itself is very general 75% of the time; I write “health,” “lifestyle,” or “blogging,” which are my categories. And they’re all different colors because that helps me differentiate among them, and sponsored posts are a fourth color. That helps me spread out sponsored posts, especially since there are certain times of the year when they’re more common, like the holidays. If I have a specific post I want to write at a certain date, then I’ll write that specific type, such as “blog traffic report” or “recent reads.”

The whole point for an editorial calendar is to help you stay organized, so you should find a system that works for you.

I’m not going to go into more detail in this post, as I’ve already written a lot about editorial calendars. Read more about them here.

What I Would Do If I Started a Blog Today

Decide on post topics way ahead of time 

This is definitely a part of an editorial calendar, but I wanted to talk about it specifically because it’s so helpful. 

As I mentioned, when I make my editorial calendar, I generally stick with broad categories, but what I didn’t mention is that I keep a separate running list of blog post ideas and a separate doc where I keep track of SEO keywords to use. That way, when it’s time to select the specific topic of the blog post, I have these lists and just need to make decisions instead of deciding and researching. (And, yes, every month or two I spend a bunch of time compiling SEO keywords so they’re available for this step. But that’s a topic for another day.)

Either a month or two at a time, I’ll sit down and decide what topics my blog posts will cover. The other day, I did this for all of March. I identified what those posts will specifically be about and I selected the keyword(s) I’m going to focus on to their posts. 

Let’s pause. I feel like I did this section more backward than others in this post. So why do I do this, and why does this help if you have limited time to work on your blog? 

I do this so that I don’t have to make the decision right before I start working on the post. Deciding on a topic can take a while unless you feel very specifically inspired! And goodness can researching keywords take a while. You’re not just coming up with words or phrases you’re going to use in your post: you’re trying to decide on the ones that will help you the most, which means researching how frequently they’re searched for and how competitive they are compared others. If a phrase has really low competition but that’s because people aren’t searching for it much, then it might not be worth using. You’re not just collecting the words or phrases you might use: you’re also analyzing them. 

So if you decide a while (1-2 months ahead of time) what you’re going to write about, you can do that step when you have free time. Additionally, though, this means that you can start writing this post earlier when you have free time and/or when you’re particularly inspired. You can spread out the writing time without relying on having a full day or two to focus on the post. 

How To Use SEO To Stand Out + Free SEO Checklist

Reuse old material 

You don’t have to write 1500-3000 brand new words in every single post! And if you’ve been blogging for over a year, you absolutely should NOT be doing that because you should have built up enough content to be able to reuse at least 1 paragraph from a past post in a new one. 

Look. You’re blogging, not reinventing the wheel. You can copy from yourself. I don’t recommend doing that if you’ve published fewer than 10 or 20 blog posts, but if you’ve built up a nice library, it would be a shame to rewrite a paragraph just for the hell of it.

However, there are some guidelines. 

You don’t want to copy-paste-without-editing on a regular basis or for a significant number of words. I rarely copy and paste a whole paragraph without changing something. At the very least, I update something that’s out of date, even if it’s changing “last year” to “a few years ago”. 

Why don’t you want to copy-paste-without-editing? One reason is that search engines will notice that and they may not read it as a brand new post. Another reason is your readers might pick up on it and they may not be happy because you’re not providing new value. Which is a fair complaint! 

The best example I have of reusing in a beneficial way is explaining a third-party app or website. In the next section, I’m going to talk about social media, including the schedulers I use. One of them is Buffer. Buffer hasn’t changed significantly since I last wrote about it, so why would I write a brand new paragraph about what it is or why I like it when I can copy something I wrote a few months ago?

On the other hand, this entire post is a new version of a post I wrote 3.5 years ago. In that case, I used the bare bones of that old post as an outline for this one. Blogging is an industry that can change dramatically from year-to-year, and as humans our lives have changed a lot since 2018, so while my strategies for blogging with limited time are slightly similar, they’re also very different. 

Some of the sections in this post have been added since the 2018 version, both in terms of added to this post and added to my strategy. And even the things that haven’t changed in my life or strategy since then have changed in terms of their wording in this post. I mean, my posts in general in 2022 are nearly twice as long as my posts from 2017 and 2018! The 2018 version was just a jumping-off point.

Oh, and make sure you sign up for my weekly newsletter so you can get a free checklist for updating old blog posts! If you’re already signed up, you can get that checklist in the resource library with the password I gave you when you signed up (and that’s in a lot of my emails to you 😉 ).

My Proven Method for Blogging with Limited Time

Schedule social media in advance 

This has saved me so much stress over time! I schedule my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest content in advance so I don’t have to think about it and because I don’t have time to be on social media all day long. I have things to do! 

My social media can be broken into 3 categories: being an extension of the KTAG brand, promoting blog posts on social media, and growing my social media. Posts for all of these categories can be written and scheduled ahead of time.

I want to grow my social media so I can help more people, reach more people with my content, and get more people to read my blog. But I also think that this is a fairly common goal for people, regardless of if they’re content creators, so I don’t feel the need to go into more depth regarding that category.

Similarly, promoting blog posts on social media is pretty self-explanatory, and I recently posted how I promote my blog posts, so I won’t go into that now.

The other category of my social media posts is to be an “extension of the KTAG brand,” by which I mean posts that help chronic illness patients and their loved ones, that promote new material, and that promote other KTAG networks. 

All of my social media networks post extensions of KTAG in some ways, but that’s especially true on Twitter and Facebook. 

On those sites, I daily post some combination of asking questions, posting inspirational quotes, and sharing other bloggers’ posts. These help me interact with my audience, which provides value to my audience, tells the algorithms that people are interested in my content, and ensures that my other posts reach more people in the future. 

It’s essential to provide value to my audience that isn’t just links to other content because then my Twitter and Facebook pages have more than just blog post promotion. If you went to someone’s Twitter page and saw they only posted promotion of their own content, you would only follow them if that’s what you wanted to see. If you saw they posted other things and were engaging with their followers, you would have another reason to follow them. 

All of this content can be written ahead of time, which I do in my social media editorial calendars. I write that content throughout the week for both networks, and over the weekend I schedule my Twitter and Facebook content with Buffer.

On Pinterest, I post a combination of blog post promotion and new content to provide value. The “new content” is actually reusing old content and making it into idea pins, video pins, or something similar.

When it comes to promoting blog posts on Pinterest, I do it 1 of 2 ways. Either it’s promoting new posts or it’s promoting old posts. For new posts, once I’ve scheduled a post to be published, I schedule pins on Pinterest. I upload my Pinterest-optimized images and schedule them for as many boards as are applicable, and I use the interval tool to schedule them to be published over time and not all at once. I don’t have them be any more frequently than 2 days apart, and I use their optimization tool to, well, optimize the time they are published.

There are a few things I do to promote older posts on Pinterest. 

When I pick an old post to promote on Twitter and Facebook, I make a new image for Pinterest with Tailwind Create, and I add it to my Tailwind queue. Tailwind Create is Tailwind’s smart tool for making new images. You add a link to a blog post, add the title or wait for it to populate from that link, choose some photos (including from stock images they have), and it makes a bunch of images. You choose the ones you like and download or schedule them! 

Another thing that I do is regularly publish brand new pins directly on Pinterest. I publish 2-3 brand new pins every single day. Over the course of 2 mornings a week, I make 14-17 new pins on Canva and then I schedule them to be published over the course of a week. I can do all of that in an hour combined, and then I’m set for a week!

You can read more about this strategy in my post about how I promote my blog posts.

I use Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest posts, which has been a lifesaver. It saves me so much time – I don’t have time to be on Pinterest 10 times a day, sharing posts to grow my following and such – and it is so worth the money.

I also use Tailwind to schedule my Instagram posts. We all know that Instagram is The Social Media Network, especially for content creators. Well, Tailwind is the only network that enables you to schedule your Instagram posts ahead of time and then post them for you. So I can be presenting something in a work meeting, not looking at my phone, and Tailwind will post for me.  

Like with my Twitter and Facebook, I create, edit, write captions for, and schedule my Instagram posts for the week over the weekend. So I’m writing this at 12:30 on Sunday and an hour ago I scheduled my next 3 Instagram posts. 

I don’t schedule my Instagram Reels over the weekend, as scheduling them to post ahead of time isn’t an option yet. I started making Reels because I heard they were good for getting eyes on your other Instagram content and, personally, I find Reels way easier than in-feed posts. And they’re more fun! 

I can actually record and edit a Reel in 10 minutes before my work day starts. Then during lunch or at the end of the day I’ll write the caption. I use the “Reminder” app on my phone to remind me to post Reels.

A Reel that I spent 20 minutes on tops got over 4,000 plays. So you can see why I’m a fan.

Essential Social Media Tips for Bloggers

Write fewer blog posts that are higher quality 

Less is more, and all that! 

I think people who have been readers since the beginning or started reading in 2017 or 2018 will notice a big difference between posts then and posts now. For one thing, they are way longer. For another, there are fewer of them. 

When I first started blogging, I put out a post every single weekday. Then I went down to four posts a week, with Wednesday off. Then I went down to 3, then 2, and now 1. There are times when I post twice in a week, but that’s when 1 is a gift guide or a sponsored post, so generally 1 of the posts was written a while before it’s published and I want to have another, more normal post up. 

Since I changed the number of posts I write, my blog traffic, social media followings, and newsletter following have all increased, and the amount of money I’ve made from my blog has increased, too. There are a couple of reasons why, but one of them is definitely that the quality of my blog posts increased as the number of them decreased. 

That’s partially because I’m devoting more time to individual posts. I mean, I’m spending the same amount of time on writing 1 post as I did for 2. But there are some other things I do for my blog posts that have increased their quality. 

One, I go into more depth on my topics. 

Two, as a result of going into more depth, my posts are longer. The post from 2018 that this post is based on was 1800 words. This post is going to be close to 4000 words. 

Three, I try to provide more solutions and resources, aka value, for my readers. I’m not just explaining a problem. I’m also explaining why it’s a problem, how to fix the problem, and resources beyond my blog for fixing the problem. I don’t claim to be the foremost expert on anything except for my own life and experiences, so why shouldn’t I share where people can learn more? 

What I Would Do If I Started a Blog Today

Take longer to write your posts 

To be clear, taking longer to write your blog posts does not mean that it takes more time combined to write a blog post. It’s more about how you can write a post over the course of several weeks without working on it every single day.

I’ve touched on this a few times now, but wanted to talk more about it specifically. I’ve already said you should work in spurts, decide on your blog post topics way ahead of time, reuse your old material, and write fewer blog posts that are better quality. These tips all contain some element of how you should take longer to write your posts. 

If you work in spurts, you can spread out your blog post writing over days or even weeks. 

If you decide on your blog post topics way ahead of time, you can definitely spread out your writing over weeks. 

If you reuse your old material, you can get a leg up on writing your posts. 

If you write fewer blog posts that are better quality, you have more time for writing a single post than you did for writing multiple. 

While all of these show how you can take longer to write your blog posts, they don’t show as much about why you should. 

It’s pretty simple: this enables you to spread out the work when you have other stuff happening in your life. 

How To Write a Blog Post in 10 Easy Steps + Free Blog Post Template

Regularly dedicate a chunk of time 

If your schedule permits it, devote an afternoon or so every week to get a ton done. Find your ideal productive behavior/situation and hunker down! This is a great time to focus on the aspects of blogging that maybe aren’t your favorite and/or you need to make yourself do. For me, this looks like putting on my working playlist – which is an 8+ hour playlist downloaded to my computer – putting on headphones, and hunkering down in my living room. 

I also do a version of this to write my blog posts in a short period of time. I write my blog post drafts in Google docs, so I’ll turn on the setting that enables me to work on them when I’m offline, and then I’ll turn off the Internet on my computer and write. I do this in sprints, generally for 20-30 minutes at a time. For me, that’s enough time to write a bunch, but not so much time that I’m tempted to turn my Internet back on. 

I can write a lot in that time period with few distractions! If there’s anything that I need Internet access for (looking up data, a source for a fact, adding a link to a relevant post I wrote), I add a comment. Then, once that writing sprint is up, I turn the Interent back on and look it up.

25 Awesome Blog Post Ideas for Beginners

Wake up earlier or stay up later 

One way to be able to regularly dedicate a chunk of time is to wake up earlier or stay up later.

Which one you do depends on whether you’re a morning or a night person. For me, I’m a morning person and also don’t feel well at the end of the day, so I make sure to set aside time earlier in the morning. But also, I need to wake up 1-1.5 hours earlier before I get ready for work because I deal with morning stiffness due to my RA. Getting up early means that the stiffness has worn off by the time I start work.

Personally, there are a couple of blog tasks that I do every morning. 

One, I make new pins. Either they are made in Tailwind Create or in Canva. (See section on publishing social media in advance.) 

Two, I engage in Facebook groups. I’m in several Facebook groups for bloggers, and some of them have social media engagement or follow posts published every morning. I engage in those during this time.

Three, I work on my social media editorial calendar for the upcoming week. In general, this is so my social media is ready to be scheduled over the weekend.

I do all of this in 30 minutes to an hour! 

Additionally, if I have a new post, I promote that post the morning it’s published.

The Blog Tools I Use and Love

Find a rhythm that works for you 

Like I said at the beginning, I don’t expect for each strategy in this post to work for you. But I do think that at least some, if not most, of these will. Try them to find what works for you and if it doesn’t feel right or it doesn’t seem helpful, then don’t worry. Find the rhythm that does work for you, your life, and your productivity style. After all, I’m not you!

How is this post helping you to be a better blogger? Share in the comments! 

Like this post? Share it! Then check out: 

Your Guide to Making and Using a Media Kit as a Blogger, 12 Tips for New Health Bloggers, How I Manage Social Media Platforms for My Blog, Ways To Promote Blog Posts: 2022 Edition

This post is an updated version of a post from 2018. You can read that post here.